England: East Anglia Trip Report September 17-28, 2025
Trip Report - East Anglia trip: September 17-28, 2025
September 17
After a couple of days exploring London; seeing the highlights, enjoying pub lunches and watching demonstrations we left our house in Hayes (West London) and started north. Thankfully the traffic along the dreaded M25 wasn’t too bad as we circled around North London and headed towards Cambridge. After our first (of many) pub lunch in Buckden, we made our first birding stop at Grafham Water, England’s third largest reservoir. The water was carpeted with Eurasian Coots, Tufted Duck and Pochard, along with Graylag Geese and a large number of gulls. A nice surprise was a lone Pink-footed Goose, which heralded larger numbers, which we were to see later in the week as we drove north. Dinner and the night were spent at the Old King’s Head in the village of Kirton just south of Boston. This was a modern revamped pub with great staff and very comfortable surroundings. Marilyn and I took an exploratory drive to Frampton RSPB Reserve, which was very disappointing as the water levels were low to non-existent with virtually no water birds at all. The long-staying Whooper Swan was the highlight.
September 18
After a great breakfast we decided to visit a different reserve this morning and walked the circuit at Freiston Shore RSPB Reserve. Despite the wind (which was to be a feature of the whole trip), we had a very pleasant walk. There were many more birds than at nearby Frampton, including good numbers of Bank and Barn Swallows moving south, as well as small flocks of Eurasian Siskin and Meadow Pipits flying overhead. Rather than head into Boston we decided to visit the beautiful limestone town of Stamford. Here we had another great pub lunch at Tobie Norris, a 13th Century building in town. Apparently Mr. Tobias Norris founded a bell foundry in the 17th Century and it was only after that that the building became a pub and restaurant. We spent the remainder of the afternoon exploring the town and running errands before driving to our next destination – the small Victorian seaside resort of Hunstanton in Norfolk. Our home for the next 3 nights was the very comfortable 3 story Victorian building and we would soon be getting very used to climbing stairs!
September 19
After breakfast at our house, we drove a few short miles to Titchwell RSPB Reserve and our first birding spot in Norfolk. It’s always a pleasure to visit here and walk the trail down to the sea. A few ducks had started to arrive, but plenty of shorebirds were present on the pools, including several Curlew Sandpiper and a single Little Stint that was mixed in with a small flock of Dunlin. The tide was well out exposing mud banks where Eurasian Oystercatcher and Black-tailed and Bar-tailed Godwits were feeding. Lunch was at the reserve’s café before we continued east through Norfolk’s small flint-studded villages to Cley-next-the-sea, where we spent the afternoon at the Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve. We walked to the various reserve hides, where a good selection of shorebirds and waterfowl were feeding; watching Northern Shoveler and Mute Swan bathing and a big flock of Pink-footed Geese loafing on the bank. They were probably tired after their long flight from Iceland or Greenland. We gently wound our way back to Hunstanton for the night.
Pied Avocet: symbol of the RSPB