30th March 2012 - Pensthorpe

I'm afraid that there will be two posts per day for some of the days we were in Norfolk, sorry!  It's easier to list the birds that way.  Our afternoon visit was to Pensthorpe, a nature reserve heavily involved in conservation and the venue for Springwatch from 2008 to 2010.  We didn’t take the scope in as we didn’t expect to see many wild birds, but a Little Ringed Plover on the Wader Scrape made us rather wish we had!  Our first encounter as we headed in was with the resident Lady Amhurst Pheasant, a gorgeous creature. 

There were some very inquisitive Barnacle Geese that we made friends with but unfortunately couldn’t be counted as they were feral. 

My new best friend.

I, as ever, liked anything with long legs such as Herons, Cranes and Ibis and so enjoyed the enclosures with these birds in.

Ruff displaying in the enclosure.

At the end of the day we visited the Albatross, a pub/restaurant boat in the harbour at Wells-next-the-Sea and enjoyed some lovely pancakes whilst engaging in a spot of light reading and research for the next day.

Pancake time!

1) Mute Swan
2) Chiffchaff
3) Gadwall
4) Teal
5) Black-tailed Godwit
6) Redshank
7) Coot
8) Moorhen
9) Blue Tit
10) Canada Goose
11) Greylag Goose
12) Black-headed Gull
13) Shoveler
14) Cormorant
15) Kestrel
16) Pheasant
17) Chaffinch
18) Blackbird
19) Mallard
20) Great Tit
21) Long-tailed Tit
22) Jackdaw
23) House Sparrow
24) Little Ringed Plover
25) Coal Tit

My year list for 2012 comes to 125.