For several years in a row Holkham has been voted the best beach in the country, and its easy to see why. Like most of North Norfolk the beach is huge, sand stretching all the way to the horizon in very direction. Of course this makes the area a honey pot site, one that's attractive to people like bees to honey, but being fairly isolated, some way from the nearest town and being a long walk from the car park, its not excessively busy. Like most parts of the countryside, once you get away from the car park and the ice cream vans, the number of people diminishes.
Holkham is also the home to a gigantic nature reserve, the largest lowland National Nature Reserve in England. A vast place comprising thousands of acres of saltmarsh, grazing marsh, conifer woods, and, yes, beach, the area attracts a large variety of birds. The reserve is primarily a place that attracts rare birds in Autumn, and thousands of geese in winter, so when I visited in mid May things were much quieter.
Despite the busy car park, people were heading straight to the beach, leaving me free to explore the conifer woods, and get views of the grazing marshes away from the crowds, just a few other birdwatchers enjoying the birds. At this time of year the marshes have dried out to be cattle grazed pasture, with stands of reeds and the odd pool. Its a fairly lazy time with numbers of birds lower than at any other season. Two hide give views of the marshes and there are other viewpoints from the conifer woods, but in general the viewing isn't great when compared to the other reserves on the coast.
Holkham is famous as the first place SPOONBILLS colonised the country from, their first breeding grounds in the UK. Around ten were present today, in the pool by Washington hide, with many birds coming and going, busy rearing young birds. Another new colonist was present with two GREAT WHITE EGRET in a pool slightly further away, towering above the nearby birds. In most of the pools there were SWAN families with young, and also a pair of EGYPTIAN GEESE with goslings were seen. On the marshes at least three CUCKOO were about, one calling right next to me in the woods, a deafening 'cuckoo cuckoo', advertising itself without letting me see it. Several MARSH HARRIERS were flying back and forth busy with the breeding season, a common bird on the North Norfolk Coast, as it is in Suffolk, but is rare most other places.
Having viewed the marshes I walked through the conifer woods to the beach. The plan was to make it to Wells a long, long, trudge along the beach. When birding you end up carrying a lot of heavy equipment, bins, camera, telescope and lunch, so after a while your shoulders really ache and the miles begin to tell. At Holkham the beach is stunning, at low tide it opens into a huge area of saltmarsh, just behind the dunes, before turning into sand. Away from the beach goers and before Wells, the beach was windswept and lonely, miles of empty sand with the odd reveler in solitude somewhere in the distance. Single SANDERLING were running along the shoreline and flotillas of LITTLE TERN flew offshore. At times it felt like I had the whole beach to myself and it was glorious.
Inevitably I had to come back home to civilisation and as I came closer to Wells the beach gradually became busier, until it became so crowded with the beach huts, the deck chairs, the parasols, all the detritus of beach resorts. Hundreds of holiday makers all crammed into a small area of beach and there's me walking around with a telescope and binoculars, looking out of place. Coming to North Norfolk to view the wildlife, and to find somewhere quiet, I often forget the other side, the tourist side, where the non wildlife experience is. This is what normal people look for.
A very quiet day down at Holkham, but enjoyable non the less. Its good to explore all these lands, even if I don't see much. A place like Holkham has so many jewels, yet they are much harder to find than the other reserves. Its a place that doesn't open itself up like other places like Titchwell where things aren't handed to you on a plate, so calls for a more rugged birdwatcher, one that doesn't mind putting in the effort to find those good, good, birds. As always people have different ways of viewing birds, so its nice to experience all these different places, and its god to know there are such good places for birds still remaining in this country.
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