NORFOLK and SUFFOLK in WINTER

SAT 10 FEBRUARY – SAT 17 FEBRUARY 2024

PRICES: from £1595pp

Single supplement: £245

Deposit: £300pp

Max 7 clients per leader. Leader Toby Green

An exciting holiday to some of the UK’s premier winter birding destinations. East Anglia offers a wide variety and unrivalled birding potential at this time of year with a high species list and superb wildlife encounters are likely. We’ll spread our time between established reserves and also visit many superb lesser-known sites, well away from the beaten track.

Norfolk and Suffolk are home to some of the best wetlands in the UK. Bittern will be a top target, and we also hope to see Common Crane in the fields and as they come to roost in the Broads. Wildfowl will feature highly, with Whooper and Bewick’s Swan and vast numbers of wintering geese. By day we’ll search through Pinkfooted and Dark-bellied Brent Geese for scarcer species including Taiga and Tundra Bean, both races of White-fronted, Barnacle and Black Brant, while mass dusk flights will be a true spectacle. Offshore a variety of sea-duck, divers, grebes and auks make for excellent sea-watching, while in rougher conditions storm driven species might include Little Auk, skuas (such as Great and Pomarine) or perhaps Grey Phalarope.

Internationally important wader numbers feed on the tidal estuaries, with Knot and Dunlin dominating though Avocet, Golden and Grey Plover, Spotted Redshank and Purple Sandpiper are likely. Beaches and saltmarsh hold Twite, Snow Bunting, Water Pipit and Shorelark, while Bearded Tit and Cetti’s Warbler can be found at several sites. Any wintering rarities will be on our radar too and in recent years these have included Great Grey Shrike, Parrot Crossbill, Hume’s and Pallas Warbler and Arctic Redpoll. Farmland, heaths and ‘the Brecks’ offer a fantastic change of scenery with a range of declining species available and there’s also the chance of Brambling, Woodlark, Hawfinch and Crossbill. This is a trip with something for everyone as we check local gulls for rarer species, and raptors will feature strongly. Hen and Marsh Harrier, Rough-legged Buzzard, Peregrine, Merlin and Goshawk are all possible along with five Owl species if really lucky. A fantastic winter holiday! Total species c.100. Number of centres: 2.