Holkham beach, dunes, woods and marsh

A warm and sunny day for most of it anyway! So a walk along the beach and back through the woods at Holkham. Beware it costs £13.50 to park for more than 4 hours! But it was a lovely walk, as always, with a really nice lunch stop, in the hide, watching Spoonbills feeding. Rocky had a great time on the beach.

Big skies. 

Paddling.

Puff balls.

Carline Thistles.

Bee Orchid rosette.

Lichen heath.

Peltigera sp.

A lovely light through the reeds and pines.

Spoons looking tufty in the breeze. 

It was so nice to see them just plodging round.

Russian White-fronted Geese.

Egyptian Geese.

Chinese Water Deer.

Morston Mud

After we'd been to Titchwell we headed to Morston Quay, as the weather was being to dull. Sadly, the tea shop shut at 2pm.... Anyway a nice poke around the harbour and some good Greenshank views before heading home, with a quick stop at Stiffkey, to see the Glossy Ibis. 

The harbour with Cley church in the background.

Mud.

Boat timbers ...

Greenshank.

Curlew.

More mud!

Dark-bellied Brent Geese next to the carpark.

And the Glossy Ibis...

Titchwell

Our first full day, so off to Titchwell RSPB. A walk, with Rocky, down to the beach, before moving onto the reserve proper, while he snoozed in the car. For once the tide was in, so sea-watching was slightly easier with binoculars than usual. It still wasn't easy, but it was nice to see Long-tailed ducks and a Great Crested-grebe....as well as a very, very, distant Gannet. Nothing spectacular on the reserve, but it was good to see Avocets - it always is!

Synchronised Pintail...

They were very close ....

Shoveler shovelling.

Plenty of distant  Avocets.

Gadwall and Avocets.

..and of course reeds...

Many reeds...

A skyful of birds

On our way down to Norfolk we stopped off at Frampton Marsh RSPB reserve. The first sunny, dry and warm day for quite a while! A welcome break dominated by thousands of Golden Plover and Lapwing wheeling round and catching the light as they turned. Other highlights included the Tundra Bean Geese  -thanks to the help of a friendly bird watcher with a scope and spotting the Merlin that was responsible for continually moving the birds round. 

Lapwing and Golden Plover.

Incoming Golden Plover.

Dark-bellied Brent Geese....and below.

Reeds in the sun.

Feeding Wigeon.

And the culprit that kept putting the birds up...on the post, a Merlin.

Beda Fell from Boredale Hause

Remarkably, it was easy to park mid-morning in Patterdale, despite it being half term! This was probably due to the closure of the Kirkstone Pass, as there was nothing wrong with the weather, which was cold and dry with no wind. A great walk - first up the well trodden track to Boredale Hause and then along the ridge to Beda Fell. The ridge is lovely with good views, albeit a bit murky later on. It was nice to see five Red Deer near the Hause and also to watch the trail hounds descending into Patterdale as we came back. 

From Patterdale looking towards the Kirkstone Pass.

Towards Fairfield.

Crunching snow...

Frozen ....

Towards Beda Fell.

Nice lichens - I searched for club mosses and White Worm Lichen to no avail..

Cold.

Icicles.

Red Deer on the snow....

and off they went.

Hound trailing.

Herdies in the valley bottom.