Stormy Norfolk

Myself & Jon Philpot had planned to head for Norfolk to get Jon some good views of both Hawfinch & Snow Bunting.

The weather was set to be rather crazy but still we decided to go. So yesterday (Thursday 05/12) we started first thing at Lynford Arboretum in blustery conditions. We spent most of the morning wandering about. We had the briefest of views of a couple of calling Hawfinches overhead, a few Crossbills, Redpoll sp & Siskins knocking about, but really it was all too quiet. All the birds were well and truely keeping their heads down out of the strong SW wind.

We then travelled to the coast, to Titchwell. Again the weather was extremely windy with some seriously powerful gusts. Despite the conditions, we managed to see a Jack Snipe flying around on the approach to the freshmarsh.

We headed straight for the beach and fought the seriously strong westerly gale to get over to the ruined pillbox where I managed to find a bit of respite from the conditions. Scanning the sea was tricky but ended up to be fairly worthwhile, finding a Great Northern Diver, a Red Necked Grebe, at least 4 Long Tailed Duck, a female Red Breasted Merganser and several Goldeneye.

Struggling to stay on our feet and now rain lashing into our faces, we decided to hotfoot over Parrinder Hide. Here we spent a bit of time drying off while having a good look through all the stuff on the freshmarsh. Best bird here was a handsome adult Mediterranean Gull amongst the increasing number of gulls.

There were 6 Avocet on show, with excellent numbers of Pintail, Teal and Dunlin. The wader numbers also began to build with Black and Bar Tailed Godwit, Knot, Turnstone, Grey & Ringed Plover, Curlew, Redshank and Oystercatcher all noted.

  












The sun was back out, however the wind was simply getting stronger so we headed back to the visitor centre and the insanely good jacket potato and chilli. After dominating that we headed back to Northants.
Sadly, that night a huge tidal serge hit the east coast as a result of the wind, coupled with the high tide. This had an enormous impact on Norfolk, with hundreds evacuated and the flooding of lots of important habitats. Areas particularly badly affected included Cley Marshes and Snettisham, with hides destroyed and banks simply washed away.