Blakeney

Woke up today to our first real frost of the winter.  We decided to drive about ¾ of an hour out towards the North Norfolk Coast for a nice walk towards the salt marshes at Blakeney.  After stopping off at Holt for a few bits & pieces for an al fresco lunch we were soon at Wiverton where the dogs roared about getting rid of some excess energy after the car journey.

The sun was very low in the sky but very bright.  It was very crisp but the only thing cold on me were my fingers even though I had gloves on.  We walked past some lovely gorse bushes in flower and were surprised to see some blackberries still on the bushes, left over from the very mild weather we have been experiencing. 

The footpath takes up towards a farm where they were loading sugar beet on to a lorry for transportation to the British Sugar processing factory at Cantley.

There is usually a flock of guinea fowl skittering about this farm and sure enough they appeared, wary of the dogs, but no worres, they were both safely on their leads.  As there were no leaves on the trees, we could see some old vacated birds nests from the summer.

Once we reached the salt marshes, Nigel spied through his scope many birds feeding in the salty pools – egrets, curlew, teal, shoveler ducks, wigeon, red shank and a lone marsh harrier.  Also we speid right over on the horizon towards the distant sea, what looked liked a passenger ship, which is very unusual on the coast here, as that close to the shore it is mainly sand banks.  We were not sure if it had run into some trouble or was just closely following the coast line round.

Blakeney used to be a small busy port before it silted up in the middle 1800’s and is now used mainly for leisure boating.  It is a very ‘twee’ village, mostly inhabited by second homers – put it another way, property is very expensive here.

The walk back took us out of the village along a quiet lane, where the sun dipped slowly away.  We reached the car, eager to get home to a nice fire, coffee and a mince pie.  According to our gps thingy, it was approx 4.7 miles and took us ages, as we stopped alot to look at the various bird life through the scope.

One thing – Does anyone know what these weird, nest like things are that we sometimes see in various trees, mainly in silver birch trees?