At 0600 on the 18 June I picked up my very good friend, Darren Cowles, for a visit to the beautiful Kelling Heath on the North Norfolk Coast. This was to be another hot day, the latest of a hot spell with further high temperatures expected in the days to come. Our journey took us through a number of Norfolk towns and villages including Dereham, North Elmham, Guist, Briningham, Thornage, and Holt. The beautiful village of Thornage sits in the River Glaven valley and a while to the long descent to the valley followed by the climb towards Holt offers fantastic views of the very rolling landscape and as I have said before in previous posts, Norfolk is certainly not flat as some outsiders claim.
We arrived at Kelling Heath at around 0700 when it was already warm. It has been several years since I last visited this location and it took a while to get my bearings, if only I had researched maps beforehand because it was my intention to show Darren Dartford Warblers, for this species we need open heathland, however, I led Darren on a grand mystery tour of woodland habitat before reaching perfect Dartford Warbler country, we had a good ol' larf though.
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| Kelling Heath 18 July 2025. Superb habitat for Stonechats, Linnets, and Woodlark, but no Dartford Warblers today. |
Anyway, we set off following our first coffee of the morning through patches of heathland, Gorse scrub, and mixed woodland, and the first birds heard were Chiffchaffs and Garden Warbler, and in an area of Birch and scrub a Turtle Dove was singing. As we walked along a path Darren saw some birds at distance on the path, these were Linnets, a common bird of heathland and Gorse. A Yellowhammer was heard singing in this area. The heathland here also held a number of Stonechats, these included adults and juvenile birds in typical open country habitat where they chose raised perches to watch from. We also located a pair of Stonechats in typical breeding habitat, the male was alarm calling and the female was carrying food for young.
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| Stonechat (female). One of a pair in breeding habitat |
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| Stonechat (Male). This bird was alarm calling, he was paired with the above female. |
As we walked through the heathland I was hoping to find Adders, we did not see any, but a young birder we met later did find one. Darren did locate a Common Lizard which was nice. Darren found some Common Blue butterflies, these stunning insects put on a great show. Overhead, a couple of Buzzards were the only raptors seen at Kelling.
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| A stunning Common Blue Butterfly which Darren located on the heath. |
With heat building Darren and myself headed back to the car for some refreshments, it was while we had this break that Darren had a wonderful display of Bees and other winged insects in a lovely Bramble patch. Following our break we headed out to nearby heathland habitat to have a final search for Dartford Warblers, once again, no luck, however, some great birds were seen to make up for this including Linnets (one male with very bright crimson breast), more Stonechats watching from elevated perches, and finally, a pair of Woodlarks seen with one bird carrying food for young. It was at this point that the young birder visiting from London approached me, I told him I was watching Woodlarks at which he became quite excited as he had never seen this species before, a very rewarding observation for both of us.
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| Woodlark on Kelling Heath (One of a pair seen) |
Following a great visit to Kelling Heath, we set of at about 1145 and headed back home to Watton, whilst driving through Holt we heard parties of Swifts screaming above the town and between buildings, the epitome of an English summer day.
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