I began the day with a wonderful breakfast at the Premier Inn in Kings Lynn before driving up to Thornham to meet Jenny, Tim and Sue before we all set off in Sue's car to Holkham. Just before the entrance to Holkham we noticed a few birders in a layby looking through scopes into a field. We pulled into the layby and realised that they were looking at a large number of white fronted geese and with closer inspection there were also a couple of pink footed geese in amongst them.
White fronted geese
Pink footed goose
Inside Holkham reserve there were some wigeon and snipe very close to where we were parked and I had just set up my camera to take some pictures when something spooked them and they all took off. However, a few minutes later we saw some grey partridges close to the edge of another field and this time we were able to take some pictures.
Grey partridge
As we walked towards the beach we found some snow buntings and sanderlings moving about in the undergrowth as well as some skylarks which flew up from the ground only to become invisible as they landed again amongst the plants.
Snow bunting
Sanderling
Next we walked up to a group of birders who were all looking out to sea and we managed to see some distant specks which were rather difficult to identify but there was a great northern diver and some red breasted mergansers Suddenly everyone started walking away towards another group of people who had apparently found some shore larks further along the beach.
Shore lark
Apart from a light coloured raptor which we eventually decided was probably a buzzard there was nothing much of note until Tim spotted some barnacle geese while scanning the field from the car park.
We then drove off towards Titchwell and stopped off on the way at the side of the road where there were some small birds flying back and forth between some bushes and the ground. Amongst them we saw linnets, chaffinches blue tits and bramblings and I was able to capture some pictures of a posing brambling from the open car window.
At Titchwell we saw avocet and shoveler in the pools before making our way to a screen from which people were gathering to watch the marsh harriers coming in to roost and taking several minutes gliding round in large circles before finally dropping down into the reeds. As we approached the screen we saw a small bird fly into some long grass at the side of the path and intermittently gave a single call note which we did not recognise. After watching for a while and getting brief views as it appeared and disappeared from within the grass we had just come to the conclusion that it was probably a Cetti's warbler when it suddenly produced the familiar song of the Cetti's warbler to confirm our identification.
As it was Jenny's birthday we went for a celebratory meal before I left to drive home to Essex and the others went back to the B & B and got some sleep ready for another three days in Norfolk.
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