North Norfolk is a place like no other for the birdwatcher, an incredible landscape which stretches over miles of countryside, attracting birds, rare and common, in great quantity. So it was not a hard decision to take some time off and to move over the border for a week's holiday in mid May. And it did provide some good bird watching as I visited all the big reserves on the coast and saw some cracking birds.
Over the course of the holiday I stayed in a rented cottage in Brancaster, on the western side of the coast, just a bit along from Titchwell. Its a nice place, I guess, sort of like every village on the coast, but that's not what is of interest to you or me, we only care about the wildlife. So, the countryside around Brancaster was very interesting, a bit off the birdwatching beaten track, but nice and wild.
This is a part of the North Norfolk Coast I know nothing about, except as a place to drive through on the way to and from some nature reserve, usually Titchwell. The surrounding countryside is quite interesting, but its not really comparable to the big reserves found in other places on the Coast. The area is managed by the National Trust, and really, they are doing a good job, as the area was in good condition. I did a lot of walking around this site and explored quite a wide area over several days, usually around visits to other reserves.
Towards the back of a large stretch of saltmarsh, reedbeds had developed and in one area, aside from all the commoner WARBLERS of the reeds, a GRASSHOPPER WARBLER was singing. Technically their song is called "reeling" as it sounds like a fishing rod reeling, a song of one note continuously emitted for brief periods. This is a reedbed bird that has become hard to find, strangely at a time when every other reedbed bird is increasing, its disappearing from places where it used to be common, so was a good bird to catch up on.
In an early morning walk, in a clearance in the reeds, I encountered a BARN OWL, briefly. There are mythical birds, ones that everyone has heard of, those that no matter how experienced a bird watcher you are always chuffed to see. And BARNIES are one of those birds. I saw it briefly on my first exploration at six in the morning, and venturing out for a second day at this time, just to see it again, I saw it perched on a fence post, but again, oh so briefly before flying off, the white phantom of the marshes.
On the 15/5 I walked all round the whole site, exploring the varied landscape of the area. Towards the sea, the habitat turns to a prestigious golf course behind the dunes. Having explored this area and walking further, I came across some nice wet grassland, grazed to different swards, and holding large dykes and pools and was good for DUCKS, like GADWALL, POCHARD and SHOVELLER. A SPOONBILL flew over and a CUCKOO was heard calling across the grassland, all good birds of the marshlands.
In an area like North Norfolk even the more low key areas are rich in birdlife. Its often good, for a birdwatcher, to look at those areas on a map, which look like they might harbour birds, but aren't nature reserves, and just go explore them. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, as you don't know what you will see. Sometimes its just good to get away from the established reserves to find something of your own for a change.
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