1st & 2nd October 2 days Raptors & Owls

Monday 1st October 2012

This was a One to One tour with a slant towards watching raptors & owls.

The weather & tour started rather well, the weather better than the forecast resulted in a few more thermalling birds. Two & half hours from late morning producing Red Kite, 6+ Buzzard, 2 Sparrowhawk & 3 Kestrel. 

There were also plenty of Pink-feet & a nice flock of c900 Golden Plover in the area. The hedgerow also provided lovely views of Yellowhammer & lots of flyover Skylark.

The afternoon was spent in the Burnham Norton area where we saw 7+ Marsh harrier, 2 Buzzard, 4 Kestrel & 1 brief Hen Harrier (the latter unfortunately only seen by myself as it slipped from view, rather quickly).

We also had further views of several thousand Pink-footed Geese, plus a variety of shorebirds in the creeks.

Tuesday 2nd October 2012

We started early at Snettisham & had lovely views of the Knot c5000, Bar-tailed Godwit & other shorebirds. We had at least 4+ Marsh harrier, 3+ Buzzard, Kestrel but could not locate Peregrine or Merlin. However,  a lot of scanning did eventually provide good views of a hunting Hen Harrier, this time providing views for both of us!

Just before we left a Curlew Sandpiper showed well on the mud in front of us.

In the afternoon we scanned across the marsh at Holme for 3 hours, with almost constant views of up to 5 Marsh Harrier & 3+ Kestrel, also 2+ Buzzard. Other birds of note were flyover 1 Lapland Bunting, 3 Tree Sparrow, Snipe & a trickle of House Martin flying south, with 1-2 Swallow.