A weekend of events is a new venture for the Nature group and proved to be very successful. The participants organised their own accommodation according to their requirements of cost, comfort etc! A small party started the weekend meeting at Hunstanton on Friday 15th in the morning for a session photographing the Fulmars on the Cliffs and various waders visiting the beach as the tide dropped.
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11 Members met on Friday afternoon at RSPB Snettisham. This location has several occasions during the year that are known as "The Whirling Wader Spectacle" whereby high tides (6.8 metres or higher) occur. The Waders are feeding on the mudflats and as the tide rushes in this pushes the birds back & back until there is no place to stand on the mudflats, and thousands of Waders take to the air. This results in quite a spectacle. Our visit was planned to coincide with a sunset but was not as dramatic as we've seen before as the strong winds had encouraged many of the waders to seek the shelter of the lakes on the reserve.However, we had several hours to explore the reserve beforehand and one of the highlights was seeing a large flock of Spoonbills in flight, with one adult spending a time close to feeding its youngster.
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The same group met on Saturday morning at RSPB Titchwell Marsh which has something for all nature lovers and is one of the "Diamonds" within the RSPB reserve portfolio. There are several hides with good vantage points, numerous shot opportunities on the path down to the beach, and birds feeding on the mussel beds that are revealed a few hours after high tide. Highlights of the day included seeing Tern's fishing and various Waders and Egrets feeding on the mussel beds on the fabulous beach.
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The party was smaller (6) on Sunday for the visit to Cley NWT reserve as some people needed to be home on the Sunday or were not able to face another hot day - we had been fortunate that the hot weather experienced earlier in the week had receded for our visits to Snettisham and Titchwell, but the forecast for Sunday for hot weather proved to be true. There are a handful of hides on the reserve that are well situated, and the reserve and beach offer different opportunities. Our highlights included: Bearded Reedlings, Spoonbills, Great and Little Egrets, and lots of Waders.
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Photographs Fulmar, Wader flock and Whitethroat by Ann Miles; Spoonbill, Egyptian geese and Redshank by John Chamberlin; Muntjac by Julia Andrew; Ruff by Maurice Wright; Tern fishing, Photographing on Titchwell beach and Spoonbills by Nick Bowman
