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Saturday 1 May 2010

Beautiful Sunny Day!

Started off at 8am at Boston Sensory Garden, opposite the bowling club on Hunstanton Cliffs. 2 Adult Gannets going east along the sea at 8.15am. Several goldfinches in the gardens along with chiffchaffs singing in a sycamore tree. Several woodpigeons and pied wagtails feeding on the bowling green. Fulmars soaring magestically against complete blue skies over the cliff top and 2 starlings feeding on the grass - their irridescent colours twinkled in the sunlight and looked good in my lens! By the lighthouse: house sparrows, a Common Whitethroat sitting on a cliff top bush, posed perfectly for my camera. Heavy passage of swallows along the cliff tops, all going west.

Jamesons corner/public footpath which joins up with Thornham Bank (shortly after the Farm Shop between Holme and Thornham) - Not too much here really but blackcap, lesser whitethroat, chiffchaff, jay, carrion crows, several orange tips and speckled woods. At the end of the path looking across the field below Thornham Bank were 9 Avocets, 2 Canada Geese and several lapwings.

12pm - walked somewhere new and very ashamed that I have never done this walk before - it was beautiful and will be a regular walk of mine now. Take the road to Thornham Boathouse and just before it on the right is a public footpath that goes off through the reedbed. Follow the path, passing a small pond on right, lots of shrike-like bushes here, gorse, hawthorn etc etc, go over a small footbridge (ditch running underneath) and turn left, following the copse of trees around to eventually meet up with 'Green Lane' - turn right and walk along tarmac road, passing a caravan park on left and when you reach the left hand corner (Church Street joins Green Lane), walk straight ahead (copse now on right) following footpath again and then take next branch off left to walk over footbridge and back to car. Barn owl seen carrying prey, Sedge warblers, linnets by the pond, Chiffchaffs, black caps, long tailed tits. Around the end of the copse of pines, sycamores, hawthorn etc is a boat house with large pond - there was a heron fishing in the middle of it! Behind this big copse (east of it) is a beautiful white house/manor. When I got back to the car, which I parked half way up a slope opposite to the public footpath I sat in my deckchair in the glorious sunshine to eat my sandwiches.

Thornham Shop which has been closed for a food number of weeks is now open as 'the village Deli, cafe and store' see: 'villagedelithornham.com' - I had a look in there and basically every item is ridiculously expensive, but it all looks inviting for the tourists, with picnic tables outside etc. On the playing field adjacent to it I searched for a hoopoe (there's got to be one eventually!) but only found 2 Mistle Thrushes with beaks full of worms.

The car ambled to Choosely - well Chalk Pit Road to be precise!!! and joined a small crowd to watch two distant Dotterels at 3.15pm. A good number of wheatears here also - I counted at least 9.

I was drawn to the tree and wires on the Brancaster/Docking road to re-live my Bee-eater dip. I looked at the empty tree and then imagined what the Bee-eater would have looked like perched on the wire over the road..... Anyway in the stony field surround the sugar beet pad were at least 5 beautiful Wheatears, along with red legged partridges.

I didn't know where I was going next - all I know is, I didn't want to go home yet - turned right when I reached Brancaster - massive mistake - cycle race going on and all cyclists, family, friends etc all parked at the Jolly Sailers and the traffic there was like being in the middle of a city in rush hour!

I eventually escaped and ended up at Stiffkey Fen - not a great deal here but I noted a massive number of Swallows, House Martins and Swifts filled the skies and were skimming over the fen.

Actually arrived back in King's Lynn in daylight - very unusual for me!

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