Holmes Dunes NWT 12th May 2016

Holmes Dunes NWT 12th May 2016

We wanted to do something that involved as little driving as possible this day, because we were heading homewards the following day, so we decided upon Holmes Dunes NWT reserve. As it happens, we had already walked from our cottage in Thornham to one edge of the reserve and back and it would have been easy to walk all the way to the visitor centre from Thornham. We didn’t know that but in some respects it was as well that be did because it led us to a “life tick”.

We came at the reserve from the other end via the ticket box. This was unattended and the gates locked because it did not open until 10am. This didn’t  really matter as there is plenty of good birding to be had in the immediate area. We whiled away twenty minutes or so before someone came to open the gates. It was already a long drive down to this place and it seemed just as long past the gate before we got to the visitor centre. We had quite a sense of deja vu as we slowly remembered that we had been here before and just forgotten about it. If I had researched my own records better I would have known that we had records of what we had previously seen here.

Anyway, we eventually got to the visitor centre and were given a long talk on what we could see at the reserve and where we might see; this took place on the porch of the reserve. The first thing that drew my attention was they had recently seen Turtle Doves, a bird that had long been on my “bogey bird” list for ever. We thought it was definitely worth a look but in the middle of this briefing we were interrupted by someone excitedly urging us to look upwards.

There were two large birds in the air and one in particular looked interesting as it swayed in the wind occasionally producing a fluttering spiral before rising up again. The bird was silvery white with black wing tips. In fact it was remarkably similar to the one we had seen on Thornham Marsh the night before on our evening walk. But the twist was that this birder (50 years experience he was happy to remind everyone) and the site expert both thought, from it’s call and it’s appearance, that it was not a Hen Harrier as we had imagined but a Montagu’s Harrier. We said that we had seen what we took to be a Hen Harrier the night before but he said that it was not very likely given the time of year and that we had seen a Monty, probably the same bird as this one but not necessarily  because at this time of year a few are seen in the area.

Having settled down after this excitement, we were told that our best bet for looking for Turtle Doves was back at the “ticket box” so we drove back there. From there you go up the rise to the upper coastal path. This one overlooks the gardens of a number of posh houses where they have sometimes been see. We walked past the first set of houses and Anne noticed a Woodpigeon flying differently to the many others. It seemed to drop down into the tops of some trees and disappear. It was quite windy so the branches were swaying around a lot. What persuaded us to stick with looking for the bird was that we soon started to hear the famous purring noise that Turtle Doves as supposed to make. A little bit more effort and eventually the bird was found and we had another “life tick”. We watched this rather beautiful bird for a long time hoping that we could “pass on” the bird to another birder but nobody came along. Eventually it flew off and then, of course, we ran into more birders looking for Turtle Dove !

We also wanted to see what could be seen from the hides so we headed back towards the visitor centre and from there we walked down the track to the hides. As we did so we remembered that the last time we were here they were full of Black-headed Gulls and not much else. Well they were still full of Black-headed Gulls but this time there were some other birds and one in particular that we had heard several times on our holiday but had not yet seen.

At the hides there were also a nice number of Common Gulls and a smattering of Shelduck, Pochard and Coot. There were good numbers of Avocet also but it was from the second hide that we saw a Marsh Harrier flying over a bush and coming g back to it over and over again. After a 2hile another large bird came towards us and as it did so we though Harrier, Harrier, Owl, Owl, BITTERN. As we watched it approach it dropped it’s legs and landed in the reeds to our right. It stood in the reeds in classic Bittern pose, bill reaching to the sky before it sat down in the reeds and disappeared from site.

These two birds were the highlight of the day but it must be said that with Willow Warbler, Linnet, Whitethroat and Chiffchaff as well as many other birds the whole site was mighty impressive. It was a bit of a pity we had not found it before but, in fact, there are so many wonderful sites around north Norfolk that you can’t  cover them all never mind go to some several times. Not in a fortnight anyway. We’ll just have to come back again.

Life Tick : Turtle Dove

first Bittern of the holiday seen

Bird Sightings : 12th May NWT Homes Dunes

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