Holme Beach and Holkham NNR 16th May 2022

When we were getting ready for our day’s birding, I went out to the car and the first thing I saw was a Marsh Harrier over the field immediately opposite our cottage flying about twelve feet off the ground. What a start to the day. It eventually flew off and the airspace was left to the flock of Swifts that seem to be ever-present around the cottage. We had no plan for the day so I thought it would be interesting to take a walk along the roped off sections of the beach at Holme-next-the-Sea. I fancied that I remembered that there was a Little Tern colony there and hoped to get a year tick from them.

We parked up near the golf course and took the path that leads through it to the dunes. Apart from a few people walking in the immediate area the whole length of the beach, either way, seemed to be entirely free of people and dogs. It was another brilliantly sunny day so we decided to look for the breeding area. It did not take us long to find the start of the roped off are and we walked a proper distance apart from it and followed it as far as we could. We dis not see any Little Terns; in fact, we did not see any small birds at all and it seemed like there was no life inside the roped off area to find.

This was all changed when a couple of the fighter jets that frequently pass overhead broke the sound barrier causing two huge bangs, one after the other. This flushed everything for a good distance around and then we started to see a small group of Turnstones, a pair of Ringed Plovers and a year-tick Wheatear walking around suddenly woek up from their dreams. The fields around the dunes were full of the singing and calling of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits.

We returned to the car and decided to spend a few hours at Holkham NNR. We parked at the big car park at Lady Anne’s Drive. We took the woodland walk and ran into a couple of birders that told us that there were Spoonbills and Cattle Egrets at the far end of the track about a mile and a quarter away. We decided to go for it and were a little disappointed at first to get only slight glimpses of a pair of Spoonbills but as time passed we started to see more and more of them until I estimate I had seen at least five different birds. Additionally we two Cattle Egret emerged from behind some cows giving us another year tick for our efforts. We retuned a bit weary but we had also seen numerous Marsh Harriers and a Red Kite and the trees had Chiffhcaff and Willow Warblers.

Bird Sightings : Holme Beach 16th May 2022

Bird Sightings : Holkham NNR 16th May 2022