Category: Holiday

Decadent croissants courtesy of Helen and Nik, then a jaunt to Big Blue Sky for some light shopping.  Went to Cley NWT for lunch but is was packed so Neil had the bright idea of popping down the coast to the Dun Cow at Salthouse. Excellent veggieburgers all round (Nik managed a double one!), and Adnams for some.  Back to Cley NWT where sadly Helen & Nik had to leave us.  We went for a wild windy walk around the reserve and our bravery was rewarded with sandwich terms, bar tailed godwits & common sandpipers.

After a fry up for breakfast, as if we had not eaten enough the night before, we took one of the cars to Wells, and parked in the car park out at the end of the sea wall, next to Pinewood holiday park. The weather was windy but when the sun broke though the clouds it was pleasant enough. In Nik and Helens honour we started a new bird list, of course Helen and I already had got our bird eyes in from the day before!. We planned to stop at Holkham for coffee but the general consensus was that we had eaten enough already so we continued on to BOS. We stopped off at the two hides, (Washington and Jordan), nothing out of the ordinary to report, but a bloke reckoned he could hear a Marsh Warbler in a bush but we could not see it.

After a sandwich back at the hut we headed out again to Titchwell RSPB. When we arrived Nik decided to buy Helen a pair of binoculars, that is something that does not happen everyday. We walked out to the sea, and back. All the usual suspects were present, but not in big quantities. I can’t help thinking that it has something to do with the changes that are going on there see http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/t/titchwellmarsh/coastalchange/index.asp for details. They are going to let the sea flood over the sea defences and they have built a new sea wall further back, right where one of the hides was. They are going to replace the hide and the position looks really good it is on the top of the new sea wall and so is in a raised position with views over both pools.

We finished off the day with a list of 51 birds. Nik cooked his tasty microwave risotto with the asparagus they had bought with them.

Helen and I have a weeks holiday and we are going to stay at Burnham Overy Staithe, in North Norfolk. The cottage we are renting is http://www.flagstaff-holidays.co.uk/ the cottage was once the house where the Master of the Cutty Sark once lived, and within the cottage there are quite a few references to that fact. The accommodation was clean, and up to the usual standard of holiday rentals. They promised Wifi but I could not get a signal.

We arrived early because the lady who runs the place told us we could because the property was empty the week before, that meant we could get out for a walk before Nik and Helen joined us for a couple of nights. We had a suspicion they may be arriving later. We walked out to the East from the cottage along the sea wall to the very tip of Holkham beach one of my favourite beaches. The weather was sunny/bright but the wind was cold. We quickly added quite a few sea/wader birds to our holiday list as you would expect. By the time we go back we were up to 52.

Helen and Nik arrive at 6:30 and we headed down the pub called  The Hero for a few pints of Wherry beer, and some great food. They had veggie choices which is quite rare, amongst the options were Baked Butternut, Butternut squash strudel, both looked really good.