Cantley Marshes, Horsey, Waxham and Stubbs Mill - Fri 4 Feb

On the road by 7.00am and having picked up the rest of the posse a five hour drive to the other side of Norwich and a date with destiny as I determined to finally connect with a species of bird that I had missed on countless occasions. We parked at the bottom of Burnt House Lane in the small Norfolk village of Cantley and walked out to scan the marshes and the gathered goose flock. After an hour of scanning a mass of grey geese with nothing obviously different from the Pink-footed Geese (with the exception of a single Eurasian White-fronted Goose) I had given up all hope of ever seeing this elusive species until a slight change of angle as I moved away from John, Dave, Andy and Steve finally produced the result I was after...a Taiga Bean Goose! I can't begin to describe my relief at finally connecting with this species after years of blood, sweat and tears. With our target for this site ticked off, we headed off for Horsey, a thirty minute drive away.
Parking at Horsey Windmill we were surprised by the lack of birds, just a few Greylag Geese, though John and I did manage to see a ring-tail Hen Harrier briefly. So wasting no more time here we continued north and stopped at Waxham and walked out to the beach. A Barn Owl was hunting in the dunes, amazingly managing to hunt in very strong winds. From the beach we saw a Slavonian Grebe on the sea but little else.
Our next stop was Stubbs Mill, just south of the village of Hickling, and the harrier roost. We arrived well before dusk and our luck seemed to be in straightaway as we had a Mealy Redpoll feeding in trees next to the car. We then walked out to the viewpoint and were pleasantly surprised when we bumped in to a couple of old friends from Reading. Over the next hour we were treated to a cracking spectacle as around thirty Marsh Harriers came in to roost. A single Hen Harrier was also present and we were lucky enough to see half a dozen Common Cranes in flight. An unexpected find was a Hooded Crow spotted by Steve as it flew across to our left. I also managed to pick up a Bittern as it flew across the reeds and managed to get a few others on it before it landed out of view. As the light started to fade we walked back to the car park and as we were chatting a couple of Woodcock flew over our heads, a great end to a great day of birding. Leaving Hickling we then had a ninety minute drive to Wells-next-the-Sea and our accommodation for the weekend.