Welcome to another round up of what has been sighted on the reserve.

Whilst we maybe one of the only places on the North Norfolk coast without a red-flanked bluetail or Palla’s warbler or Dusky warbler there are still plenty of birds to be seen. Last weekend I was participating in the Global Bird Weekend and recorded 75 species in only a couple of hours.

On Monday we completed our monthly Wetland Bird Count across the reserve which was a fairly quiet affair: avocet 18, lapwing 12, grey plover 128, curlew 4, bar-tailed godwit 251, black-tailed godwit 163, turnstone 11, knot 38, ruff 16, sanderling 8, dunlin 52, redshank 37, spotted redshank 1, greenshank 1, brent goose 216, shelduck 17, shoveler 22, gadwall 25, wigeon 211, mallard 40, teal 283, pochard 12, great white egret 1.

Curlew, Phill Gwilliams

On the sea this week we have seen the return of some of the wintering birds including a Slavonian grebe, a drake long-tailed duck, goosander and red-breasted merganser. Other birds on the sea include gannets, guillemots, common scoter, velvet scoter and kittiwakes. On Friday 6 Whooper swans were watched coming in off the sea and continuing their migration no doubt to Welney.

Within the reedbed the wintering marsh harrier roost has been building this week, with 30 birds counted on Monday increasing to about 50 towards the end of the week. There has also been a stunning male hen harrier quartering the saltmarshes and a ringtail hen harrier has also been seen. The little egret roost still holds over 50 birds and there is at least 1 great white egret roosting with them. We would certainly recommend spending the late afternoon / early evening on the reserve at Patsy’s screen to watch this. A couple of kingfishers have been spotted darting along the ditches.

Little egret, Phill Gwilliam

Around the car park and meadow trail the bushes are live with robins, blackbirds and redwings. In amongst them are the odd fieldfare, brambling, bullfinch and chiffchaff. A yellow-browed warbler has also been heard this week. A woodcock was in the car park last weekend, the first for this winter.

A highlight of Saturday was the visible migration of passerines overhead, first thing in the morning. A couple of thousand chaffinches passed low overheard in flocks of 20+ birds, amongst them were also small flocks of siskins, redpolls and bramblings. Crossbills have also been heard flying over along with the odd grey wagtail.