Norfolk part 2

Cley marshes are quite extensive and exposed, and exposure was something I was quite keen to keep to camera settings given the equally keen wind which was determined not to keep the 2 or 3C temperatures to itself.  I'm not a great hide lover, I've always thought it cheating in some way, but I was quite looking forward to some shelter for a while. This Grey Heron on the way to the first hide looked equally chilled by the biting breeze. I say breeze because I had forgotten quite what wind was like over this landscape... until later on in the week... which caused me to reappraise previous conditions.

 

I couldn't help but feel a little bit envious of the shelter afforded by the reedbeds before getting in to the relatively tropical conditions of the hide where the undoubted stars of the show were Avocet. I scanned several times through all the Black-headed Gulls looking for a first Norfolk Mediterranean Gull for me and failed. 

 

Mind you, I even missed the rather blurry Common Gull in the shot above of Avocet in flight which is pretty poor form really, but so did the other two birders in the hide so maybe I'm being hard on myself. No, I'm not, they are obvious in retrospect. 

I know there are technical problems with the shot below of Avocets (as there are with most of my photos), but I like it, they remind me of something out of Star Wars so I'm putting it in.

  The next one was really taken to show the variation of winter, eclipse and full summer plumage of Black-headed Gulls. Usually Mediterranean Gulls achieve the summer plumage before BH Gulls, so of course I concentrated on anything approaching a black head. Again I completely missed the 2 Common Gull in the foreground, one lay down and one to the left of it.

 Even more annoying, I didn't register this Med Gull flying passed at all until scanning through the photos at home. Dear me. Note the total lack of black on the primary feathers (ignoring my earlier note, this one is still in complete winter plumage). In my defence, I'm sure it didn't land and I was probably too busy with the camera rather than binoculars. No one else noticed it either. We are all bad.

 Maybe even worse, this blurry fly past looks scarily like a Little Gull. I don't think it is, but I wouldn't be shocked if a Gull expert said it was. 

  

The following few pictures belong completely to Avocets. There was a time when I thought I would never see one, and even now there are hundreds in Poole Harbour over the winter, I still feel privileged to glance upon their dainty forms.

 
 

Last but not least, my favourite one..

I almost forgot. Shortly after we arrived I saw a Snow Goose coming in to land out of sight on the adjacent scrape. I hadn't seen it leave, so I had high hopes of spotting it when we moved to the other hides which overlooked it. So, back into the biting wind...
On opening up the other hide shutters, it was apparent why they weren't really frequented. The wind blew in full face and seemed even worse than standing outside. We didn't stay that long, the Snow Goose was long gone or tucked up in shelter somewhere, but I did get some closer shots of the more common inhabitants.

 

Avocets finding tiny molluscs

Teal having a bath

A very proud looking drake Widgeon...

and his Mrs

On the walk back, the fed up looking Heron had moved slightly, which was a relief as I thought it might have been frozen, but it looked no more happy. I briefly wanted to give it a hug, but was instantly reminded of the one occasion I have been within inches of a Heron's beak and banished the thought from my mind.

Rather more surprising was this Black Swan which I assume hadn't flown here from Australia, nomadic though they may be...

 

Other species seen were Lapwing, Herring Gull, Redwing, Marsh Harrier (3), Kestrel, Great crested Grebe, Collared dove, huge flights of Brent Geese, Redshank, Common Sandpiper, Lapwing, Shoveller, Shellduck and what became a daily sighting of Egyptian Geese..

On a mission, we headed out to Horsey mere in the hope of Cranes, but they had other ideas and hid their considerable frames with spectacular success.  We did however see 4 or 5 Marsh Harriers, Great crested Grebe, Wigeon, Teal and Tufted Duck. On the way back we found our daily Barn Owl and stopped to watch it for a few minutes despite the gloom and light drizzle.

Despite the lack of light, I decided to take a few of photos one of which I think summed up everything about the place, the weather and the time of day. Its not a great picture of a Barn Owl but it is a good picture of the moment and the colours, you will have to trust me on this. Anyone who has spent anytime in Norfolk in the winter will know what I mean. (I have, I spent a season working for a farming company during the record low temperatures of '81-82 which reached -26C!)

This particular owl was one of two during the week which decided to fly alongside the car for at least half a mile causing me concern regarding potential road traffic accidents, but also affording fantastic close views which will live with me for an awfully pleasing long time. It also gave me the chance to find out that they seem to be able to fly fairly comfortably at 35 mph although that is fairly academic compared to the magic of the moment.