Dec 5th Wells & Titchwell

For any Norfolk bird watcher out there, you'd be completely surprised to know that I have never seen a rough-legged buzzard before. This is a winter visitor from Scandinavia and Norfolk happens to be a sort of hotspot. These buzzards are slightly bigger than your usual buzzard, has a slight paler appearance with some distinctive markings and has the ability of hovering like a kestrel. Despite all these features, many people still can't tell the difference. Common buzzards can come in paler forms too after all.

 So after hearing that a rough-legged buzzard had been seen pretty well and regularly at a site near Wells for the past few weeks, I have been dying to go see it. As I can't drive and with everyone I know being busy lately, it has been difficult for me to get to the bird. Day after day passes and every time I'm relieved to hear that the buzzard remained at the same place. Thankfully, today I was able to finally go look for it thanks to my friend David offering to take me there. He had already seen the bird before, so he knew exactly where to go.

We arrived at some ploughed fields with some pools in them just west of Wells. Not long after our arrival and started scanning the fields, two other birders turned up and joined us. I managed to catch a glimpse of the rough-legged buzzard soaring in the horizon before vanishing behind an embankment. We continued to wait around by a gate in the freezing cold, hoping that it would turn up again. There were plenty of other things to look at while we waited. These fields were teeming with birds. Lapwings, golden plover, wigeon, pink-footed geese, linnets, meadow pipits, a redshank, 5 whooper swans, marsh harriers, common buzzards, a red kite, kestrels. It was quite an impressive list for just a couple of fields.

Rough-legged Buzzard? Nope, just a Common Buzzard, sadly 

Eventually, our wait and perseverance in the chilly conditions paid off. My target bird appeared once again, soaring towards the main road, showing off a brief hover along the way. We walked a little down the road and found it sitting in a tree in a smaller field. We had the best, closest views that we could imagine. It may seem like a pale form of buzzard, but it was a truly wonderful looking bird. Here it was, my first ever rough-legged buzzard, at long last! At least I hope it is!


{Edit: Sadly, it turned out to be just a common buzzard. So, I still haven't yet photographed a rough-legged buzzard, but I did see it at least.}

After admiring it for several minutes, the bird moved on and so did we. Our next destination was Titchwell. I was hoping to see a woodcock by the car park, but if they were there, they were extremely difficult to spot. I really hope I can find one during daylight hours one day. In the mean time, we enjoyed our time at Titchwell adding grey plovers, knot, black and bar-tailed godwits, dunlin, shelducks, curlew, little egrets, brent geese, another red kite (our third from four that we end up seeing today), red-necked and great crested grebes and a possible puffin out at sea, and a peregrine falcon that whoosed over the top of my head as it chased waders like a military jet! What a fantastic, yet freezing day it has been!