A gloriously sunny day but will it last?…

Well, the old saying ‘Red skies at night, shepherds’ delight’ seems to have been true as the sun is out this morning. Unfortunately now the days are so short we only have a relatively small window of opportunity but are determined to make the most of it.

Driving along the North coast of Norfolk is always a joy, with all the brick and flint cottages, but in the sunshine the houses look stunning.

At Brancaster Staithe there is hustle and bustle as boats are being hauled away by tractors to their winter quarters:

The idea today is to get our cockles (enough for tomorrow too!) and then drive back along the coast to Titchwell Marsh RSPB.

Plenty of people there today and, as usual, we set off from the car park in hopeful anticipation of some unusual species.

The first hide held no particular surprises and all the birds were some way in the distance, making it difficult to get good photos.  There was the odd Avocet, some Shovelers and a lot of Green Winged Teal.

As usual, at this time of the year at Titchwell, there was a blanket of Golden Plovers which every now and then rose to the skies en masse, eventually settling down onto another spit of land. This time they were joined by a few Brent geese as well.

Once settled, they seem to spend much of the time standing and staring.  Here they are sharing their spit with a Wigeon and some Lapwings.

Lovely to see there are still some geraniums out.

It was great to see our old favourite, the Dunlin mixing it with the Golden Plovers.

Golden Plover

A shy Lapwing

Green winged Teal and Dunlin

Back at Brancaster Staithe to enjoy our cockles and we spotted a Curlew in front of the orange buoy…

…and a fisherman washing his shellfish in his special contraption:

So, another enjoyable day in Norfolk has ended. We love this part of the world.