Monday 24th January - Welney and Holme Dunes

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 Jenny and Tim arranged their annual trip to Norfolk with their friend Sue and this year I decided to join them for the first two days of their five day stay.  I met Jenny and Tim at my mum's house where they had stayed for the weekend and we drove up together in separate cars to meet Sue at Welney. Just before we arrived at Welney we spotted a number of swans in a field and we turned into a side road to get a closer view.  These turned out to be whooper swans and I managed to get photos from a distance and also a closer photo as a few more flew over our heads. 


                                                                    Whooper swans

We moved on to Welney car park where Sue had already arrived and was viewing some tree sparrows in the bramble bushes there.  Despite the poor light I took a few photos which came out surprisingly well when I looked at them later.

                                                                    Tree sparrow

We did not go into the reserve and instead carried on driving north stopping somewhere briefly without seeing any birds of note before arriving at Holme Dunes.  Here we saw bar tailed godwit, black tailed godwit, grey plover, curlew, redshank, teal, brent goose and skylark near the car park. 

                                                                    Bar tailed godwit
                                                                    Curlew
                                                                    Grey plover

Also seen at Holme Dunes were a large flock of golden plover very well camouflaged and almost impossible to spot with the naked eye in the fields together with lapwing which were much easier to spot due to their bright black and white heads. We also saw marsh harrier flying over the fields and a distant red breasted merganser out on the sea.
As it started to get dark we all went back to Thornham where Jenny, Tim and Sue were staying and then went out for a meal in a local pub. We had been advised by one pub which was closed that we would be lucky to find any pub to eat in nearby as many of them were not getting enough customers to make it worthwhile opening in the evening. After the meal I drove back to Kings Lynn where I was staying the night at a Premier Inn.

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