Holme Dunes 6/4/2017

On the dunes were these webs holding a congregation of caterpillars

 



I was wondering about swapping Titchwell Marsh for Holme as my choice second reserve in North Norfolk, but on this evidence probably not. Like Cley yesterday the birding today was fairly underwhelming. it wasn't like there was nothing about its just there was nothing good about. The malaise caused by the weather had infected today as well. Even at the bird observatory nothing had been ringed.
In the huge dune complex, that made up most of the reserve there were hundreds of MIPPITS and LINNETS with the odd STONECHAT perched on a gorse bush.

On the beach a small flock of BARWITS, KNOT and SANDERLING had congregated on an area of sand, common waders indeed, just not so on the estuaries of Suffolk.
The large grazing marsh which made up most of the land behind the dunes, was fairly quiet. A flock of around 20 PINK FOOTED GEESE hung around south of the observatory. On the hide pools not much was around. A couple of pairs of AVOCET were present, while a few gulls were nesting. MARSH HARRIERS made themselves known with around 5 birds quartering the marshes, with the occasional  clash of talons as they came into contact with each other.
So some birds were about,  but with Spring now upon us I was expecting maybe to catch up with a migrant, which there was a dearth of today.