It’s all action on our still waters
Rarely do you find the North Sea rolled out on Norfolk’s shore as flat and welcoming as a red carpet.
Fearsome waves, sandstorms and Arctic gales so cold they can crack teeth are the more traditional welcoming party for out-of-season visitors.
On balmy autumn days, however, when anticyclones still the waters with hazy calmness, birds are there to be enjoyed in all their many glories.
The view from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds’ Titchwell reserve must be one of the most observed seascapes in the country. On any given day, scores of birdwatchers line up their telescopes to scan for seabirds passing along the northernmost stretch of the Norfolk coast.
Flocks of sanderling and knot buzz past continuously. Pirate-like skuas mug terns and gulls of their lunches. The right weather conditions in autumn can also conjure Manx, Balearic or sooty shearwaters, flying far off shore on stiff wings.
The serenest of conditions greeted my visit with some old school friends last week, luckily timed when the tide was high and a rich assortment of seabirds bobbed close to the beach.
Dumpy razorbills and guillemots broke the glassy surface with plunge dives.
Pure white gannets were dazzled by their own reflections in the mirrored sea.
A red-throated diver lived up to its name, slipping under the soft swell like a submarine, while a 50mph eider sped past, arguably the fastest bird in the world in level flight.
Up to a dozen great crested grebes had swapped freshwater for the calm sea to exploit the rich fishing. Then something smaller and stockier caught my eye – the distinctive terracotta markings and yellow-tinged bill of a red-necked grebe.
I have been lucky to watch these unassuming birds along the United States’ eastern seaboard, on Finnish forest lakes and in Hungarian fish ponds.
With the advancing winter ready to freeze the grebes’ European breeding grounds, Norfolk’s ice-free coastal shallows are a perfect refuge for these scarce and attractive visitors that always test birdwatchers’ identification skills.
On balmy autumn days, birds are there in all their many glories