Cley NWT and Blakeney Point 11th May 2016
Cley NWT and Blakeney Point 11th May 2016
Wednesday the 11th started with a bit of rain but soon cleared up into another woderful, sunny, day. It was split into two parts. The first was a boat trip to Blakeney Point to see the Ternery but because of the tides we could not do that until 10.45am. As a result we had to fill in a bit of time in the morning and what better place to spend an hour that at the Cley Marshes reserve.
We got there before the visitor centre opened (it opens at 11am) so we went straight down to Bishop’s hide. A chap in there said that there had been a Curlew Sandpiper earlier but it wasn’t there when we got there. Instead it was a smattering of ducks and Geese and Black-taled Godwit and a nice group of Ruff and Reeves. There were some Redshank and in the reeds nd bushes Reed and Sedge Warbler.
We stayed about half an hour before going back to the visitor centre to use the loos and survey the site from the elevated position of the cafe.
Having done the it was time to get to the quay at Morston which is where most of the boats go from not Blakeney. The trip was 90 minutes including 30 minutes on the Point. The boat trip was really a seal watching trip and is not really focused on birds at all. This was a shame because there were only two seals (not the hundreds they claimed were usually on the beach at the Point) but plenty of birds. These were mainly Sandwich, Common, Little and Arctic Terns but the last of these seemed in mighty short supply. It did not help that the boat was constantly on the move and looking at birds through bins was quite hard. This is a consequence of it being a Seal watching trip and not a bird watching one.
Anyway, the other paying customers might have been disappointed at the lack of Seal action but we weren’t bothered by that. As the boat passed by the beach we could see big numbers of all the usual gulls and many Oystercatcher. When the boat eventually landed us, it was clear that this was nowhere near the Ternery so we only saw a few flying overhead from this point on.
A nice plus and a “year tick” was a very showy Turnstone that we saw just as we landed. By the time we got on land it had vanished unfortunately. Half an hour just flies by and we could hardly believe our watches. We did get to see lots of Oystercatcher, many on nests, and a surprising number of Brent Geese (light-bellied) for the habitat. We also got Ringed Plover, Skylark and Linnet. It was a little odd to discover that we had not seen a Curlew until now – all the others had been Whimbrel !
Year Tick : Turnstone
Bird Sightings : 11th May NWT Cley Marshes
| Species | Count |
|---|---|
| Greylag Goose | 8 |
| Common Shelduck | 10 |
| Gadwall | 2 |
| Mallard | 4 |
| Northern Shoveler | 2 |
| Common Coot | 1 |
| Pied Avocet | 20 |
| Northern Lapwing | 1 |
| Common Redshank | 12 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 6 |
| Ruff | 8 |
| Black-headed Gull | 20 |
| Common Wood Pigeon | 10 |
| Common Kestrel | 1 |
| Eurasian Jackdaw | 10 |
| Common House Martin | 12 |
| Sedge Warbler | 3 |
| Eurasian Reed Warbler | 2 |
Bird Sightings : 11th May NWT Blakeney Point
| Species | Count |
|---|---|
| Brent Goose | 30 |
| Great Cormorant | 2 |
| Little Egret | 1 |
| Eurasian Oystercatcher | 30 |
| Common Ringed Plover | 1 |
| Common Sandpiper | 1 |
| Eurasian Curlew | 1 |
| Ruddy Turnstone | 1 |
| Black-headed Gull | 40 |
| Herring Gull | 6 |
| Lesser Black-backed Gull | 20 |
| Great Black-backed Gull | 4 |
| Little Tern | 30 |
| Common Tern | 30 |
| Sandwich Tern | 40 |
| Common Kestrel | 1 |
| Sky Lark | 6 |
| Common House Martin | 10 |
| Pied Wagtail | 6 |
| Common Linnet | 2 |
