A visit to Holkham in January to search for Norfolk's first record of Black Scoter proved very frustrating. First, the water levels in the bay prevented me from walking out to the dunes for thirty minutes, and once among the dunes, the scoter rafts were just too far away for any reasonable chance of picking the Black Scoter out among them.
Brian had a free day ahead of him today and was keen to try again. So, shortly before 6am., we set off for Norfolk, arriving at Lady Anne's Drive around 8 a.m. Having fed £6.50 into the parking meter for 4 hours of parking, we headed for the beach, knowing we had roughly 3 hours to find the scooter, as it takes the best part of an hour to walk out and back.
The water levels in the bay were high enough to prevent me from walking straight out to the dunes, so we walked around the western edge and decided to scan from the beach. There were three main rafts of scoter to check through. Unlike our previous visit in January, the scoter was within scope range. The flocks contained mainly Common Scoters, but several Velvet Scoters were also noted. Scaup, Tufted Duck, Merganser, Teal, and a flock of c50 Eiders were also seen.
The weather wasn't helping us pick out the Black Scoter, A couple of Common Scoter looked good briefly but were soon dismissed after further scans. A brief break in the clouds allowed the sun to come bursting through and the Black Scoter was found soon afterwards. The bill stood out as the sun bounced back off it and the Black Scoter looked bulkier overall and thicker necked alongside the Common Scoters. Brian managed to get the other three guys standing with us onto it before we headed further west along the beach in search of the Shorelarks.
I'd missed them on a previous visit and was keen to find them today. After walking a further mile and a half along the beach we found them feeding close to a water channel. I enjoyed watching them through the scope as Brian managed a few shots with the camera.
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| Walk out to the beach |
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| Start of the 2-mile walk back to the car |
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| Shorelarks |
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| 6 of the 13 Shorelarks present |
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| Sanderling |
To break the journey up on the way home we stopped at Cockley Cley and enjoyed watching several Buzzards displaying, but had left it too late for any sightings of Goshawk. At Lynford we watched Brambling, Yellowhammer, Nuthatch, and Treecreeper before making a final stop at Santon Downham where we added a singing Woodlark to the year list.
