Day Trip to Norfolk

Record shot of the male Golden Pheasant at Wolferton.

  On Wednesday morning the 6th Jan at 5am i headed to Norfolk with a few target birds in mind , first stop was at Wolferton Triangle near Kings Lynn and my target bird here was the often elusive Golden Pheasant , i arrived at about 8am and after several drive rounds the triangle without success i decided to just wait and see on the North side as this seems to be the favoured side for sightings , my patience paid of when the Golden Pheasant walked out from the undergrowth onto the road briefly in full view before heading back in and out of sight.

Great start to the day with my first target bird in the note book , my next destination was Flitcham for the Pallid Harrier , however on route i saw several Grey Partridge and a very close  Barn Owl.

Barn Owl 

I arrived at Flitcham and joined the  assembled birders already there who very kindly informed me of a Merlin perched in a distant tree , awesome bird to see , the news was negative as regards the Pallid Harrier , it was seen at approx 8am but not since , i decided to give it a bit of time as there were other birds to look at including Yellowhammer , a fly over Brambling , Stock Dove and a Common Buzzard .

In the meantime i was scanning over another field when i noticed all of the Wood Pigeons got spooked and then all of a sudden the Pallid Harrier appeared over the hedge in full view, i quickly called out to everyone , the Pallid Harrier did a circuit around the field affording everyone great views before it once again flew off into the distance.

Juvenile Pallid Harrier.

So that's two sites visited and two target birds seen , my next destination was Choseley and my target bird here was Rough Legged Buzzard , i had a scan over the fields and hedges but without success , a few Yellowhammers , Linnets & Pied Wagtails were nice to see and news came through via the pager that a RLB had been seen near from where i was standing approx half an hour ago , another birder seemed to know where it was so i joined him in the search and sure enough we were all soon looking at a distant Rough Legged Buzzard perched on top of a tree , decent scope views were obtained especially as it was preening it's tail.

Record shot of Rough Legged Buzzard.

Digi scoped photo of Rough Legged Buzzard.

The RLB flew from one tree to another giving good flight views , i decided to head to Thornham and hopefully connect with some Twite and sure enough i saw a flock of 25+ birds near the car park.

Some of the Twite flock.

My final destination of the day was at Lynford Arboretum where i added several birds to my year list including Marsh & Coal Tits , Treecreeper & Goldcrest i missed out on Hawfinch (again) but did hear a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker , a really great days birding.