The dominant feature of the saltmarshes last week was the flocks of Dark-bellied Brent Geese while the skies were filled with skeins of Pink-footed Geese ... each uttering their characteristic wild calls ...
At the start and end of each day the Norfolk skylines included lines of Pinkfeet ...
... and sometimes giving nice views as they passed overhead ...
... here the top three birds are adults showing barred flanks while the lower two are juveniles with their plainer flanks ...
The Brents showed best near the pool on the Eye Field at Cley as they fed on the short turf ...
... an adult on the left with its neck collar and plain mantle while the juvenile on the right shows white tips to the mantle feathers giving white lines on the back ...
... three smart juveniles on their first Norfolk visit from their Arctic Russian birthplace ...
... and two adults
Holkham Freshmarsh had a Great White Egret but rather distantly but some Little Egrets showed nicely over the saltmarshes ...
Pat's Pool at Cley held plenty of birds and this male Teal showed more of the speculum than usual as it fed nearby ...
Sometimes a common species can show particularly well and allow the finer plumage details to be observed closely, and so it was with this second winter Herring Gull on Blakeney Point ...
... while a Red-throated Diver lingered offshore ...
... and two Red Kites made a rather unexpected appearance over the point ...
... and a flock of Golden Plovers moved through ...
... the predominance of adults among the Black-headed Gulls was interesting with just an occasional first-winter as here along with a Grey Plover and a couple of Turnstones ...
Another creek held a single Greenshank ...
... and then a Barn Owl flew by ...
... before drifting away over the reeds ...
... but tantalisingly a flock of gulls gathered rather far away to the east ...
... among the melee was a fine male third winter Caspian Gull ...
A fitting finale to a good Norfolk day !
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