Larking About

 Another Sunday and another trip out of the county in the company of my brother David. Not for the first time our travels took us to Norfolk where after a slowish start (for one of us anyway!) we went on to enjoy a decent day's birding. 

Curlew and Kestrel

Our first stop was at West Runton where a Short-toed Lark was the main attraction. A strong wind made things difficult as it kept the local Skylarks hunkered down close to the ground as they fed in the furrows of a ploughed field. We searched diligently among them for some time before I found the Short-toed keeping company with a Skylark. Without obvious reference points it was very hard to give directions to the bird without taking my eye off the scope and the easiest thing to do was to let my brother look through mine. He saw both birds but only briefly as they went their separate ways very soon after and he unfortunately followed the commoner species. Unhappy with his inconclusive views he rightly decided not to count it on the strength of this brief sighting. Sadly for my dipping sibling our efforts to relocate it came to naught though other birders did enjoy some success. A quick look at the sea produced a few sightings of Gannets and auks but we did not stay for much longer as we had a few other places along the coast that we wished to visit.

Redshank and Black-tailed Godwit.

The next of those places was at Holkham Gap where another lark was the quarry, this time Shore. A small group have been reported here in the area roped off to restrict public access and we wandered towards here once we had parked the car at a busy Lady Anne's drive. David found at least two after a brief search but the birds were distant and did not hang around for long before flying off over the nearby dunes. With the shorter winter days now an issue we did not linger for too long here before making the trip to Titchwell.

Dunlin, Teals and Golden Plover.

Our efforts to see the reported Red-breasted Flycatcher along the Meadow Trail were unsuccessful though I was fairly happy to get a little compensation in the form of Migrant Hawkers and a Common Darter. Moving on to the marsh and it began to look as if the day might fizzle out a bit, there was a small selection of waders including Avocets but it was fairly standard sort of fare. The sun was beginning to set when we popped into Island Hide for a last squint before leaving. It turned out to be an inspirational choice as Titchwell delivered a quick fire treble of goodies. First up was a Jack Snipe which was obscured for a lot of the time though we did get the occasional good view of it as it bobbed up in down in the manner typical of this species. A brace of Water Pipits were next up  and gave decent views before moving on. Last of our trilogy of stars was an obliging Water Rail which gave very good views before taking a short flight into cover. An excellent way to end what had turned out to be quite an entertaining session. Distance and poor light hampered my photographic efforts today and I couldn't get any shots of the larks. Fans of fuzzy record shots can rest easy though as I did get a couple of both the pipits and the rail.

Water Pipit and Water Rail.