Monday 19th September (Waders, Wash and Wow)


Mr. Kite looked out of his bedroom window into the fir trees on The Sandringham Estate. Thankfully no royals appeared to spoil Mr. Kites day. After breakfast Mr. Kite took The Superscope to Snettisham.

The first thing Mr. Kite noticed about this Monday morning at Snettisham was that it was full of birds and no people. So The Superscope was set up and Mr. Kite looked around identifying knots, avocets, etc. Now on this pleasant quiet day Mr. Kite sat down on the foreshore distinguishing black-tailed godwits from bar-tailed godwits; length of legs, straight or slightly up turned bill. shape, tail colour. Soon Mr. Kite was good at identifying each quickly. Then it was the waders turn; could he find a spotted redshank amongst the common redshank; the answer was no. But then it was look carefully at the knots; different plumage shades, length of beaks, leg colour. With birds readily identified on the ground it was then time to study birds in flight. Firstly look for the white patches on the back or the wings; try to see how far the legs protrude from the tail. So Mr. Kite identifying skills improved as morning turned to afternoon.

With eyes tiring Mr. Kite went to a hide overlooking some inland water to identify the ducks and geese. Greenshanks and lapwings waded near the mallard, teal, wigeon, tufted duck, shoveler, barnacle geese and greylags. At the end of the afternoon Mr. Kite cycled back through Ingoldisthorpe, Shernbourne and  Anmer searching the fields for grey partridge; none were spotted but a hedgerow full of yellowhammers and reed buntings was impressive.

Following a busy day Mr. Kite settled down to enjoy a tipple of Martons Old Empire. Cheers from the bird-watchers Mecca of East Anglia.