Day 2 of our Norfolk Tour - Thornham Marsh for Twite

6th March 2015

Our last port of call was Thornham Marsh where recently there has been a flock of Twite. It is well over 10 years since I have seen Twite and therefore a double challenge to both see and photograph them. It didn't bode too well when we pulled up in the car park and it was immediately apparent that there were no other birders in sight, so perhaps the birds had moved on.

I selected a vantage point on the sea wall as, due to the thick grass and vegetation on the salt-marsh, the best way of locating them was when they were in flight. So basically, what we wanted now was some form of disturbance, either a bird of prey or somebody walking close to where they were feeding. Luckily, we didn't have to wait long before a dog left the sea wall and ran around on the salt-marsh flushing a flock of some 30 small finches, either Linnets or Twite.

I watched them drop on the the side of the sea wall and tried to approach very slowly, but they were fairly flighty and it took a few attempts to get a good enough view of them feeding on the ground to even confirm that they were indeed the Twite. Patience finally paid off and I was eventually able to get some shots of this nowadays very scarce winter visitor to our southern coasts.