Norfolk Boomin Beautiful

I got picked up at 530 on Sunday morning with Ant Wayne Neil and we picked up Steve on the way. We had decided to make the trip to Norfolk mid week as the Mockingbird had done one so we thought a day in East Anglia was what we needed. We pulled up at Cavenham Heath to look for Stone Curlew we started walking down the track and Steve picked up a Stone Curlew in the distance so we carried on walking to get a better views of these scarce birds. We found a place to view and we werent disappointed we ended up seeing 3 of these lovely birds.

Whilst we were watching these birds Anthony shouted out he had seen an egret and after he got us all on to it we all agreed it was a Cattle Egret the rarest of the egret family a nice addition to the year list. Whilst been here it was also nice to see a male Stonechat which was sitting on top of the heather.

We decided to move onto Lakenheath so it was a short drive away so we pulled up in the car park and asked where was the best place to see the cranes which breed there so we all set off for the furthest viewpoint away . This was my first time at this reserve and it is a place i will be coming back to we got great views of Marsh Harrier at least 8 birds we heard boomin Bittern Willow Warbler saw Sand Martins and Swallows and 20 Fieldfare flew over head. We stood on the river bank as it looked like a good spot to stand to look for the cranes after a short time Wayne called a Bittern but upon viewing the bird it turned out to be a female Hen Harrier the white rump very evident we all watched this bird fly to our right until lost behind trees we also saw 2 great white egrets here but no cranes. We decided to walk back to the car and we heard numerous cettis warbler and we saw a sedge warbler the first of the year for all of us.

We decided to go to Happisburgh for some Lapland Buntings which was an hour away we arrived there and Neil knew exactly where to go as he had seen them previously we stood on the cliff top and scanned the field it wasnt long before we found the birds feeding in the field but the heat haze was causing us problems so we turned our attention to the sea to see if anything was passing off shore there was good number of gannets moving north along the coast which is nice to see.

We decided to have a drive and look for the White tailed sea eagle which had been seen near Holkham which unfortunatly we didnt see so we decided to head off home as time was getting on and half way home we had to turn the car round as Steve called out a Phesant in the field he was driving but it looked like a Ruddy Shelduck unfortunatley after a few snaps it was determined to be a hybrid so we carried on home. It was a great day with quite a few year ticks and we saw every season during the day Snow rain wind sun and hail but it didnt dampen our spirits.