East Anglia Holidays

Salthouse, Norfolk.... 

On 21st Sept we headed off to Norfolk for the first leg of our two week holiday to the not so far east.

It is 12 years since we stayed on the North Norfolk coast so it was good to be back. The house for our week was in Salthouse, a nice little village handy for the coast and surrounding countryside.

To stop this post getting too big I'll do it by date...

Saturday 21st Sept. 

We arrived at our destination around 4.30pm after enduring some typically slow A1 roadworks on route.

As we entered the house for a look around, I opened the back patio doors to be greeted by a calling Yellow browed Warbler! Not a bad start. It seemed to be in next doors garden for 10 minutes but it remained hidden then all went quiet. It had clearly moved off.

Sunday 22nd

A mild, warmish misty day with a light Easterly breeze.

An early walk down to the Salthouse Marshes and on to the beach.

An imm Spoonbill dropped in, a Kingfisher flushed from a footbridge and flew off over the fields, 1 Black tailed Godwit flew E. Little Egrets were in all corners and ditches. On the shore an Arctic Skua flew East close in along the beach, 2 Wheatears hopped around the shingle. 3 Cetti's Warblers remained hidden while singing and a female Blackcap was in our garden. 

Above - Salthouse Marshes and Gramborough hill

Kelling Quag 3.45pm

A nice male Siberian Stonechat proved quite tricky to get to grips with in a mobile flock of 10 Stonechats and a Whinchat. It eventually gave some decent views on weeds and brambles by the track.

Monday 23rd.

A new plant for me was on the road edge, Common Calamint.

Common Calamint

After lunch, a trip along to Cley Spy at Glandford proved costly where I needed to sell an kidney and part exchange the car for a new pair of binoculars! Swarovski NL Pure 10 x 42.  I hadnt even planned getting them but my old Leicas are 18 now, so I felt it was now or never. These new ones will out last me.

While testing the 8s and the 10s alongside my Leicas, a Hobby over a plantation made me reach for the most suitable under the circumstances. The 10x. Hence my choice of purchase. Nice timing from the Hobby! A Red Kite overhead was also useful.  

On the way back in to Salthouse, the same or, more likely, another Yellow browed Warbler was seen and calling in a garden up Church Lane. 

An hour before dusk we headed along to the East Bank at Cley for a stroll. Love it here, you can feel the birding history!

On Arnold's Marsh we had 1 Spoonbill, 1 Avocet, 30+ Black tailed Godwits, 5 Ruff, 1 Pintail. 1 Bearded Tit, 4 Marsh Harriers, 3 Water Rails squealing unseen, 3 or 4 Cetti's Warblers likewise. 4 Egyptian Geese flew East, then the star act. The North Foreland Plantation holds an egret roost so we counted them in - 

24 Little Egret, 18 Cattle Egret and 4 Great White Egrets all arrived. They werent here like this when we last visited! I also met up with Mark Golley who showed us a Silver spotted Veneer he had caught last night.

A lifer - Silver spotted Veneer Euchromius ocellea part of a large influx into the UK. Photo - Mark Golley

East Bank, Cley 

Tuesday 24th.

Out and about around Morston, Blakeney and Holt.

At Morston, 7 Spoonbills roosted on the saltmarsh, 10+ Little Egrets, 70+ Golden Plover.

Spoonbills, Morston

Wednesday 25th.

An early walk down to Gramborough Hill.

4 Great White Egrets, 1 Blackcap, 2-3 Cetti's Warblers, Water Rail, Marsh Harrier, Chiffchaff, 14+ House Martins, 400 Pinkfeet. 

The day was spent visiting Cromer, Holt, Cley etc. At Wiveton  a Muntjac was running around the village green like a terrier!

Another evening on the East Bank was much the same as before.

Jane and Peggy on Cley Beach at the end of the East Bank

Thursday 26th.

A walk down the Beach Road had a light E movement of Swallows with 50+ seen.

This afternoon I arranged to visit Mark Golley at his home in Cley. The main purpose of this was to see his collection of Richard A Richards artworks. This might need a short post of its own...

Cley Church

We visited Richard Richardson's grave in the churchyard at Cley,

A 1959 original Spotted Sandpiper by the great man himself...

Friday 27th our last day. A N gale battered the shingle at Cley so I went for a seawatch. It was amazing to see that the coastguards had washed away some years ago and the beach shelter was half buried in the shingle. The car park is in a different place now.

An hour and a half with a few others in the shelter had 4 Bonxie, 1 juv Pomarine Skua, 7+ Arctic Skua, 8+ Manx Shearwaters, 15+ Little Gulls, 100+ Common Scoter, 1 Pintail and 2 Red throated Divers.

To be continued.....

Cley Beach before the storm