Window to Wildlife

Smew We added an extra day to our Norfolk trip as there were reports of some interesting and less common birds on the Norfolk Broads, an area we have not visited before. At Rollesby Broad it took just a few minutes to find a group of Redhead Smew, and after pausing for photos, we rewarded ourselves with a cup of tea in the adjacent cafe!   From here we continued on to Filby Broad. This was less accessible than Rollesby, requiring a walk from the village across the fields and a footpath to reach a viewpoint where the reeds had been cut back, giving a view across the water. There were plenty of  Great-crested Grebes and Tufted Ducks here on the open water, but after scanning for some time we spotted one of our target birds, a Ring- necked Duck which swam into view from an area at the edge of the open lake where low hanging trees drooped over the water. Eventually, a Red-crested Pochard appeared amongst the tangled branches too, but the hoped for Ferruginous Duck eluded us, and w...

 Today we headed eastwards on the coast road to Cley NWT. Our main target was Long-billed Dowitcher, an American vagrant which has been around the area for several months. We arrived before the visitor centre was open, but were pointed in the direction of a likely hide by a member of staff. We scanned the pool from here noting crisp Pintails on the water and groups of Black-tailed Godwits and Avocet interspersed with a few Ruff, - our first of the year - all roosting on some exposed ridges, heads tucked neatly under their wings, but there was no obvious sign of our target bird. So we next headed off to the east bank, a raised walkway overlooking ‘the serpentine’ wetland area, unfortunately very exposed to the extremely strong winds. We observed plenty of Lapwings and Golden Plover enjoying the wet marshy landscape, but were unable to pick out the Dowitcher as we hunched against the elements and headed for the beach.  It did not take us long to find a roving flock of around 40 ...