Weekend Update!

On Friday I took some paintings over to a framers in Holt and then went to Gramborough Hill at Salthouse, where I saw absolutely nothing, but the evening light was beautiful! Relocated to Walsey Hills to try for the Jack Snipe and was unlucky there, only a couple of Robins flitting around next to the reeds.

Yesterday I went to Moulham & Horn at Heacham to stock up on much needed bird food and then parked up by the lighthouse at Hunstanton and walked east along the cliff top, searching all the scrub and then followed the path to Old Hunstanton and to the golf course. Apart from the usual gulls, Fulmars and Oystercatchers on the beach, the only other single bird I saw was ONE House Sparrow!!! Returned to my car via Old Hunstanton village, past the Ancient Mariner pub, then north along the pine belt and back along the cliff top. Two Little Egrets flew south east over the cliffs, which I hadn't expected. So far, this is one of the most dire Autumns I can recall in Norfolk! We are not hitting the headlines yet! We finally have a glimmer of hope from Tuesday 18th though, as the winds FINALLY switch east, fingers crossed this forecast remains!

Today I returned to collect some important paintings that were framed in Holt and met up with Vivien and Ray here too. They had come to look for a particular item in Holt, which they didn't find. On recommendation from someone, we had lunch at "The Snug Cafe/Bistro" and sat outside in the sunshine – I had a fabulous vegetarian lunch "Roasted Vegetable, Lentil & Halloumi Bake" and then had a Lemon & Poppy Seed Cake with Mascarpone Cheese – OMG!!! Divine! I rarely go out socially, so hopefully this won't affect my weight loss too much on Wednesday – I will simply have to be super careful until then!

We then headed to CleySpy, where Ray collected his new binoculars he purchased last week and I had a lovely catch up with Tim, who I had not seen for ages. Drove to Kelling and had a fabulous walk to Kelling Water Meadows – Vivien and Ray had never been here and really enjoyed it I think. On the pool there were Teal, Wigeon, Shoveler, Gadwall and some Black-headed Gulls and on the marsh were several Curlews, a Sparrowhawk chasing a Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon, three Pheasants and four Common Buzzards spiralling above us. The highlight were both male and female Stonechats. We walked over the shingle bank and sat down for a while scanning the sea. A Great Black-backed gull was sitting on the sea and a Red-throated Diver was close inshore, but nothing here else of particular note. Ambled back to our cars with no additional birds to our short list!

At the car park at Walsey Hills, we eventually had fairly good views of two Jack Snipe at Snipe's Marsh with kind assistance from Eddie, who also found a Redwing for us all to see, a Chiffchaff and a lovely Grey Wagtail! Not bad at all for one little spot! After a quick coffee, we all headed home to Ely and King's Lynn – a lovely sunny day spent with my sister Vivien and Ray, but not as many birds as we had hoped for. I really hope the predicted easterly winds hit Norfolk on Tuesday, maybe we will have our own Blackburnian Warbler?!!!