This was not especially a birding weekend, but we took the opportunity to have a bit of a run around on Saturday to Holme and Titchwell.
Holme was relatively quiet. We failed to see the Short-eared Owls by the entrance and even the beach and sea seemed, on this day, to be slightly devoid of birds. There is at the moment an unusually large flock of Pink-foots in the area which may be present due to changes brought about by the storm surge making previous wintering areas less favourable. So apart from three Marsh Harriers, a single Red-throated Diver and a few Red-breasted Mergansers, we spent nearly two hours chatting to Sophie at the NOA.
Sea Buckthorne Holme
Little Egret - Holme
Titchwell had it's usual collection of winter waders and what seemed to be a higher than normal number of Pintail on the fresh marsh. Again the sea was relatively quiet, apart from a few Goldeneye and a fairly large flock of Common Scoter, which when they took flight contained at least one Velvet Scoter, nothing else was picked up, although a Peregrine going through the beach waders provided a distraction as it put everything up.
Common Scoter Titchwell, with a Velvet Scoter in there somewhere!
Sunday was supposed to be a ringing morning at Natural Surroundings NR, but it was raining and did not stop until 10.30am. It was too late to consider doing anything, but whilst sat in the cafe we saw a couple of Brambling and the Marsh Tits toing and froing from the feeder. Afterwards we drifted towards Cley, but decided not to bother joining the 20 odd people looking at the Glossy Ibis as it did not seem worth the hassle after the daily roost flights of several thousand in Spain at the end of October, with no other birder in sight!