TRANSFER FROM NORFOLK TO SOMERSET WITH STOPS AT OLD HUNSTANTON - ABBEY FARM, FLITCHAM
WEATHER: rain all day, varying from light showers to torrential downpours and some short rainless breaks. Light winds. Temp 7C.
Well our final day in Norfolk was a bit of a washout to say the least. Our plans of ending our visit on a high was thwarted by rain, rain and more rain. After breakfast and packing our luggage into the car, we set off at 8:30am towards Old Hunstanton. Our intention was to walk to the beach across the golf course and to look for the Glaucous Gull for the third time.
As we pulled up at the golf course the rain intensified, we sat for 15 minutes and things got worse, niether of us wanted to get out of the car for the long walk to the shingle bank. So, we abandoned our final search for the elusive Gull and headed off towards Kings Lynn.
a pair of Teal sitting out in the pouring rain at Flitcham
30 minutes later we were sitting in a hide at a private site looking for birds in and around a pool. Not a lot was about, I'm not surprised as it was really pouring down. We saw a few species including: Teal, Mallard, Egyptian Geese, a lovely pair of 'courting' Marsh Harriers and a few Pheasants.
Female Marsh Harrier at Abbey Farm, Flitcham
the male Marsh Harrier seen at Flitchham
the pair of Marsh Harriers, she looks interested, but he is busy making himself look good!
The rain eased off so we went for walk along the lane after we heard from some local birders that a Brambling had been seen with a flock of Chaffinches. The Birding Guru, Guy, made his last effort to keep his Guru status came good once again! He found not one, but two Brambling and both birds posed well for the digi-scoping phone camera.
one of the two female type Bramblings seen at Flitcham
if you expand the picture you see that this poor Brambling has cist on its ear covert.
He then went on to find our one and only Sparrowhawk of the trip which cirlce high above the valley. Other species seen during our walk included Red Kite, Common Buzzard, Red-legged Partridges and a couple of Brown Hares.
It was now 10:30am and we had a five to six hour journey to make, so we left the area and headed for home. We had some attrocious conditions on the roads especially the M25 and M5 motorways. We arrived home at 4:30pm and guess what? Yes, it was raining, what a lovely day to finsh off our mini-break in Norfolk.
the driving conditions on the M25 this afternoon
We finished the trip with 107 species seen with another couple heard but not seen. We saw a good number of uncommon or rare species but we both agreed that our bird of the trip was the HAWFINCH which was seen on day 1 at Lynford Arboretum.
