Holme, Titchwell & Blakeney Point!

Holme Reserves
Parked by the 5-bar gate and walked along the boardwalk to the NWT Forestry. Several birders in were in here already and I pointed out that we would all be in trouble! No one is supposed to be in here before 10am (to be precise 10am-5pm, as is the main Holme Dunes NWT Reserve). I have never quite understood why Cley NWT reserves are dawn 'til dusk for members and non-members (day permits) 10am-5pm and why Holme NWT is not the same? Afterall birding is often at its best in the early/first part of the morning and again at the end of the day. I realise this habitat is delicate and can understand why it requires less trampling feet in the spring, but can't see a problem with people enjoying the reserve early morning and evening for the rest of the year. Anyway, back to birds! At least 20 Brent Geese on the shoreline. Big movement of Greenfinches, I counted at least 100 moving east, 3 Magpies, 5 Little Egrets flew over, 100+ Knot flew east over the dunes and also 2 Gannets. Several Hedgesparrows, 20+ Goldfinches, Curlew x 8, A Redwing in the elders, a Sparrowhawk swooped by, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker bounded across me east at 9.10am. A Reed Bunting, Whitethroat, Meadow Pipits and several Robins were also seen.

At Holme Bird Observatory I paid up my annual subscription and received the fabulous 2012 Annual Report, just hot off the press (see my separate post about this). A Sparrowhawk flew over the obs. Quick chat with Sophie before I walked round the back of the pines to look for birds. Spoke to Andy Wilkinson on the phone, who was birding with Justin Lansdell in Great Yarmouth Cemetery and had found 3 Firecrests and Keith Dye had also found a Yellow-browed Warbler! No birds in the pines at all, but the sea produced a few good birds including: 15 Sandwich Terns, 4 Oystercatchers, 4 Gannets, 27 Ringed Plovers, 18 Sanderling, 1 Red-throated Diver, 25 Teal, several flocks of Bar-tailed Godwits went through. All birds were flying east. I walked back to the NOA carpark. Looked in the bushes for a barred warbler, but no luck! Drove along the Firs Road and parked up by the NWT pay hut to search for the Yellow-browed Warblers by 'Peddars End' Chalet (the wooden chalet which replaced the 'standing caravan') – didn't hear or see a thing!!! Continued to walk along the public footpath alongside the river to Redwell Marsh – this path was completely overgrown and I had a job to get through it. A photographer coming out of the hide said there was only a mallard to be seen, so I didn't bother going in. Walked back along the road and bumped into Jacquie and Dave Bridges (nice to see you both) who were looking for the YBW's – Dave had heard one, but not seen whilst I was there. Left here and went to visit my parents. Mother told me she had had a Humming Bird Hawkmoth in her garden yesterday.

Titchwell RSPB
Stopped here briefly just to walk round the Fen Trail. Two Yellow-browed Warblers had been seen around this trail this morning, but I didn't have any luck with these either! I did however find 3 Reed Warblers in the willows just before the Fen hide and managed to get a backside shot of one of them!

Cley & Blakeney Point
Arrived at Cley Coastguards at 3pm and had a power nap for half an hour. What to do now, should I walk to Blakeney Point? What a crazy idea at this time of the day! There were no goodies in Norfolk today yet and it probably wasn't worth walking out to the 'Point' at all. But I wanted to go – I had a Rufous Bush Chat in mind and I couldn't erase it. Packed up my bag and started walking at the ridicously late time of 4pm! The man in the pay hut told me that James MacCallum and Kevin Shepherd were both still on BP! This inspired me hugely!

I powered through the shingle and searched hard. The massive downside was the fact that I was walking into the sun, so not ideal for searching. Quite a few Meadow Pipits around, a single Redwing flew east low over the sueda bushes. There were people staying at Halfway House, so didn't spend time there. 2 Hares lolloped across the shingle. No other birds of note. At the large Tamarisk just before the 'Plantation' I found a single Willow Warbler – took me a while to ID it though, as initially I just saw a movement and then a tail etc! I sat at the west end of the 'Plantation' and at 6.10pm a Redwing dropped in briefly which I managed to get a few shots of! A Wheatear sat nearby. A Lesser Whitethroat was also seen. Bird of the day was a cracking male Brambling, which appeared in the sycamore just as I was leaving! I went back and watched it feeding and managed to get some shots of this too! Fabulous! Another bird dropped in a bush in the now semi-darkness – that's probably going to be mega bird of the day tomorrow when I am at work! I started my walk back at 7.15pm.

There was me, thinking I was the only crazy person out here at this time, when I spotted James MacCallum and Kevin Shepherd just up ahead of me, also walking back! By the time I reached them they were sat having a brief food stop before continuing the plod back. Kevin said 'giving up so early Penny?' Ha, ha!!! They hadn't seen that much today either. Told them about my Redwing and Brambling and then I left them and crossed over onto the beach to walk back. It was really cold now and the east wind was straight in my face. I walked close to the crashing waves and walked as fast as I could. James and Kevin were not too far behind me and caught up when we were almost back to Coastguards. Got back to the car at 8.20pm. Drove straight home arriving at just after 9pm.

Rain late on Monday and heavy on Tuesday with the east winds looks promising, well hopefully!

PICTURES TO BE ADDED