NORFOLK 21ST - 27TH SEPTEMBER 2008

Our NORFOLK AUTUMN MIGRATION tour from 21TH – 27TH September 2008 got off to a great start on DAY ONE with a Red-necked Phalarope and Pectoral Sandpiper being the highlights. Other notable species today included ten Little Stint, three Curlew Sandpipers, 100+ Ruff, 200+ Black-tailed Godwit, Common Greenshank, sixteen Spotted Redshank and three Pink-footed Geese. Pied Flycatcher and Bearded Tit rounded off a brilliant day. Sea watching dominated DAY TWO with an astonishing count of 96 Great Skua seen off Sheringham. Other counts included a Leach’s Storm Petrel, two Balearic Shearwaters, seven Arctic Skuas, one Sooty Shearwater, ten Manx Shearwaters, thirteen Red-throated Divers, thirteen Black-legged Kittiwake and one Little Gull – wow! A Marsh Harrier and Spotted Flycatcher as well as more Ruff, Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper were the main interest away from the sea. DAY THREE saw our group find a Radde’s Warbler at Wells Woods during a fall of common migrants that included Redwings, Goldcrests, Pied and Spotted Flycatchers and Brambling. Also present today during a fine selection of birds were a Great Grey Shrike, two Yellow-browed Warblers, five thousand Pink-footed Geese, as well as more seabirds including another Balearic Shearwater, Manx Shearwater and more Great and Arctic Skuas and Red-throated Divers. Amazingly on DAY FOUR, we found another Radde’s Warbler – this time a much more obliging bird at Burnham Overy, whilst superb views of a Lesser Grey Shrike were also much appreciated by this most fortunate of groups. Good numbers of common migrants including Spotted Flycatcher, Lesser Whitethroat, Common Redstart, Brambling and Song Thrushes were also noted as were Grey Plover, Marsh Harrier and Eurasian Siskin. DAY FIVE was another corker as we caught up with a cracking Blyth’s Reed Warbler at West Runton, as well as another two Yellow-browed Warblers and some welcome trip ticks in the form of Tawny Owl and Eurasian Jay, as well as more good numbers of Eurasian Siskin, Goldcrest, Song Thrush and smaller numbers of Pied Flycatcher, Lesser Whitethroat and Garden Warbler. The final morning on DAY SIX and another good bird in the form of a Red-backed Shrike for a trio of this genus of scarce migrants for the tour. We also saw another Yellow-browed Warbler, Bearded Tit and Spotted Redshank to finish the tour on a very respectable 131 species. Why not join us for some of the UK’s best autumn birding when we will run this tour from 20th – 26th September 2009