Exploring Norfolk

Having had a week off work, we have had a chance to explore some of Norfolk's great wildlife sights. We launched our new canoe on the Yare on Monday, which was great fun. It gave us a tantalising glimpse of the fantastic wildlife one can see from river level - in about 20 minutes we saw a kingfisher, a marsh harrier, a great crested grebe, various incoming geese, kestrel and herons. It was a wrench to put it into winter store after a short trip, but when it comes out in spring, I'm sure we'll have some real adventures.

On Wednesday we went to the RSPB reserve at Titchwell Marsh. I may have been there as a child, but I had no recollection of its salt and freshwater marshes, beach and woodland which provide multiple habitats and therefore a great diversity of birds. At this time of year, there are masses of migrant geese, waders and duck coming in. Rob from the RSPB team took us round, pointing out more species than I would ever have recognised and we learnt and saw a lot in a couple of hours.  Here are some of the Teal (Anas crecca) that we saw. Highlights included seeing a reclusive Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus), a relatively rare Purple Sandpiper (Calidris maritima), and large flocks of Golden Plovers (Pluvialis apricaria) picked out in the autumnal dusk.

The highlight of the week for me, however, was Sunday's trip to the corvid roost at Buckenham Carr...but more of that another time...