The world around me: Norfolk Trip

On the journey across the flat lands of Norfolk on Saturday, I was struck by the number and size of flocks of Fieldfare still about with not a Redwing to be seen. They fitted in well with the flat grey skies which threatened much but delivered little. The best part of the journey was the last 10 miles, turning up two hunting Barn Owls, their ghostly images lightening up the gloom. The best view was at Little Snoring aerodrome which was just a couple of miles from where we were staying, but although we often checked here through the week, we didn't see it again (well not there anyway). In the evening the skies cleared and the bright one thrid moon promised a lovely sunny Sunday morning.
On Sunday we were greeted by flat grey skies again, this time dropping the tiniest of snowflakes. Provisions had to be bought for the week from the excellent Walsingham farm shop, and whilst the shopping list grew, so did the snowflakes. Proper snow. We had to get food or eat logs. We opted for the journey out and decided to go via Stiffkey freshes having heard there had been a twitch there on Friday. We got there but there were no birders to ask what we were looking for and decided not to stop in the by now even worse snow which made driving "interesting" (especially when it wasn't exactly clear what was and wasn't tarmac). However we did see several Red legged Partridge and over 100 Greylag Geese from the car. We got back safely with a few dinners worth of food and despondantly stared out at the snow. After lunch it stopped snowing, so rather than drive, we decided to walk out and see what we could see over the snow laden fields, as long as it wasn't white, we would probably see it.

We didn't see too much really but it was just nice to be out, a male Kestrel, Blue, Great, Coal and Long tailed Tits, Goldcrests, Pheasants and Collared Doves and a huge number of Woodpigeons which you can just make out over the trees in the next photo.

We ended the day with a quick drive up to the aerodrome to try and photgragh the Barn Owl, which I failed at, although we saw it well about halfway there. One thing the snow did help with was to show up the healthy population of hares a little more easily. Brown hares lying flat on brown soil are not always obvious.

Monday

One of the birds I really wanted to see in Norfolk was Snow Bunting. I haven't seen them for about 15 years when I last used to do a winter birding weekend here, and it was pleasing to hear they were in the self same area of Salthouse beach carpark. They weren't exactly difficult to find despite their winter plumage blending in well with the shingle. We had to stop and wait for them to move before we could even get into the carpark. When all together there were around 100 in the flock although it kept fracturing with small parties diappearing off to other spots on the shingle bank. The light wasn't great for photography but I had to have a few shots of these confiding and most endearing little fellows.