This is the second blog detailing the day I had up in north west Norfolk. After a relatively disappointing time at Titchwell, my efforts tuned to Holme, another top class bird reserve close by. In between I would spend a short time at Thornham, where I would see a small flock of TWITE.
Thornham
Between Ticthwell and Holme lies Thornham, a little hamlet that dissolves into a little channel that heads out to sea. This channel is the reason why you can't walk from Titchwell to Holme along the beach. There's nothing much there, and at this time of year its stark and wind blown.
The only building in Thornham harbour. The TWITE originally roosted on the roof of the building.
TWITE feeding in a muddy ditch
The best way to describe this bird is as a mountain linnet. It breeds in the uplands of Britain and winters around saltmarsh in eastern England. Its not a showy bird, its another brown job, and its very easy to overlook as there are linnet flocks in the area, but the bird has a certain charm. As with most of our birds, its declining, the weedy upland fields the bird likes have been tidied up so there is less food for them. You would think there was enough space in this country to both satisfy the humble twite and our need to produce food, especially on such marginal land that the bird is found on.Holme
After a brief stop at Thornham it was a short drive, along a very pot holed road to Holme. Its a local wildlife trust reserve and consists of a huge complex of sand dunes, which converges into grazing marsh full of wildfowl. It is a place of big skies and big bird flocks.
There was a large flock of WIGEON on the grazing marsh
There are a couple of hides whch overlook some scrapes and the grazing marsh. It was absolutely full of birds with 3-400 BRENT GEESE and the same number of WIGEON all feeding in the grassy areas in tight flocks. Several hundred GOLDEN PLOVERS joined the more numerous LAPWING reeling through the air, again more spectacle. There were roosting CURLEWS and a pair of PINK FOOTED GEESE were about.Whilst I was in the second hide, a large bird rose up from just behind the scrape, before alighting in the middle of the field - it was a female PEREGRINE FLACON! It had caught something and was busy eating it in the field. It provided some great views which is rare. It was absolutely huge. There were also four or five MARSH HARRIERS quatering the grazing marsh areas behind, we really are living in a raptor golden age here in East Anglia.
Female PEREGRINE FALCON
After the hides I walked along the road to the reserve entrance and then back along the beach, in a kind of circle. From the road a WOODCOCK flew over me, not a rare bird but one that's always difficult to see, so I was pleased to have encountred it. I would only see a single STONECHAT, a male on a bramble bush, I was expecting to see more, this is their sort of wintering habitat.
Roosting CURLEW and WIGEON
The walk back to the car park along the beach was awe inspiring. I was the only person on the sand, a landscape that stretched into the horizon. There weren't many waders, mainly RINGED PLOVERS on the shoreline. Like Titchwell there was little on the sea, just a couple of RED BREASTED MERGANSERS as well as some GREAT CRESTED GREBES. I returned to the car, the only one in the car park feeling justly good about the day.It was a great time out, as you would expect from an area like North Norfolk, one of the top bird watching areas in the country. Its a landscape made up of many reserves morphing into each other to provide a huge area of country for the birds to call home. Its only though landscape areas like this that we can hope to preserve our wildlife. Once habitats become disjointed it becomes easier for populations to die out. I must thank the various wildlife charities for creating such a bird rich, and also people rich, countryside, having the foresight to protect what is so valuable, our soul.
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