As we near the end of this Indian summer September, I can’t believe so many weeks have past since my last update.  Hope you’ll forgive this effort for being a bit ‘what we did on our holidays’, but I’m afraid that’s what it is.  Following all those weeks of wonderful weather in June and July, we chose to go to Norfolk during what was the coolest, wettest August for many a year.

 

So as the rain poured down, we packed the car and a couple of hours later, as we drove down a country lane en route to our holiday cottage, a flock of little birds rose from a puddle in front of us, I could see by the white flashes on their tales as they took flight that they were mainly chaffinches, but one bird stood out from all the others, he was pure white so must have been an Albino. A good omen for a change in the weather we hoped – we were wrong.

By Tuesday of the first week, it was looking unlikely that we would get any good weather, but amazingly the rain held off and we decided to get out quick and see what we could see on the Bayfield Bird Walk.  This is a new trail which starts at Cley Spy, the well known (around those parts) binocular and telescope specialists.  Its quite an easy walk through farmland and woods.  We didn’t see a lot of birds – think it was the wrong time of day – but we did spot a sparrowhawk on the edge of the woods, being mobbed by the resident rooks, and further along two buzzards soaring on the thermals. 

When we go to Norfolk we stay in a lovely cottage surrounded by woodland and fields.  There are bird feeders in the garden, which we keep topped up and we see a huge variety of birds just outside the windows every day.  Great tits, blue tits, greenfinches and chaffinches are the most common, but there are also great spotted woodpeckers, tree creepers, spotted flycatchers, and swallows and house martins overhead.  Unfortunately, each year a bird tends to fly into the windows (it must be the reflection of the huge Norfolk skies that confuses them).  Last year the swallow we picked up didn’t survive, although this year’s blue tit was luckier, and flew off after 20 minutes or so.  A couple of years ago, a sparrowhawk misjudged his dive and crashed into the kitchen window.  He flew straight off, but the woodpecker which was on the bird feeder at the time, continued to hang their motionless for around ten minutes – completely out of character from his normal skittish behaviour.

Later in the week, fed up of staying in and braving the rain, we decided to walk in the woods behind Holkham Beach.  We’d not been that way for a few years and discovered that a hide had been built overlooking the marshes since our last visit.  From this vantage point we could look down on the lagoons full of mallard and grey lag geese.  We also saw some little grebes, herons, and curlews in the fields.  Then amazingly three marsh harriers arrived on the scene and we watched them cruising over the marshland for around half an hour until they disappeared in the direction of Wells.  We first saw marsh harriers at Titchwell a few years ago, but they were distant and not easy to spot.  Over the last few years, they seem to be becoming more common in the area and flying near more populated areas.

Walking along the path that runs along the top at Wells Quay, as the tide receded, we saw a flock of turnstones scurrying about amongst the rocks and seaweed.  There were one or two oystercatchers too; easy to spot with their striking black and white suits and long red bills.  There was a huge flock of them out on the sandbanks; we could hear them calling, but these birds obviously preferred to keep their distance from us humans.

We kept an eye on the weather forecast and chose what turned out to be the best day of the fortnight to visit the Norfolk Broads.  We hired an electric boat for the afternoon (quieter and minimal pollution) and took turns at the steering wheel, cruising around the reed beds and out onto the open water of Hickling Broad.  There were black-headed gulls with their tell tale spot behind the eye in their summer plumage, and the much bigger lesser black-backed gulls.  There were dozens of great crested grebes, diving for fish and popping up yards away from where they disappeared.  The mute swans, mallards and coots all swam towards the boats hoping to get fed, and as we sailed past the Broads summer houses at Potter Heigham, we came across a magnificent pair of black swans.  These are native to Australia and New Zealand, but were introduced into this country years ago onto park lakes and private estates.  A few of these birds have since absconded and are now living in the wild.  I saw one a few years ago on a river in Northumberland

Towards the end of the holiday, leaving the boys in the cottage exercising their thumbs on the playstation, Mr Mole and I escaped for the afternoon to Pensthorpe. This is a fantastic place, even if you’re not interested in birds. The landscape gardens are just beautiful and the colours in the millennium garden have to be seen to be believed.  At Pensthorpe they have an amazing collection of birds from all over the world, and I couldn’t begin to identify half of them, but away from the visitor centre you’ll find quiet walks and hides overlooking the lagoons.  We were pleased to see that the swifts were still around – they’d all left Nottingham by the time we set off for Norfolk.  On leaving the site the exit runs through the ‘wader pool’ where there are dozens of avocet, redshank, godwit, curlew, lapwing and others I couldn’t identify. There are also turtle doves, and bearded tits in this enclosure.  As probably the last two people left (it was past closing time!) we were having a few last minutes sitting on a bench, when a man appeared at the back of the enclosure and started to strim the grass.  Immediately, all the birds took off and flew towards our bench.  We sat like statues while these normally shy birds stalked and picked their way around our feet.  I could have reached out and put an avocet in my pocket!   A brilliant end to a damp holiday, and the rain continued as we drove home.