Grus grus

After a couple of frosty nights I thought it might be worth a visit to Strumpshaw Fen in the hope of seeing a Bittern out in the open on the ice. I spent an hour at the fen hide and a little while by one of the sluices towards the tower hide but it was very quiet. In fact numbers of wildfowl were very, very low, possibly they had found some open stretches of water elsewhere. The best at Strumpshaw was five Marsh Harriers.

One of five Marsh Harriers at Strumpshaw Fen RSPB - 14th December 2014

From there I went to Buckenham Marshes but no sign of any Pink-foots or Bean Geese just feral Canada Geese. I continued eastwards and walked briefly along the sea-wall at Breydon Water to see if I could pick up Twite but the wind was bitterly cold so I did an about-turn. Being in the vicinity of Great Yarmouth I decided to check the denes north of the Britannia Pier for Snow Bunting or even Shorelark, I photographed two Shorelarks here last February and while none had been reported this winter, it would be worth a look. However, the best I had was an adult winter Med Gull and two Skylarks.
I was heading out of Great Yarmouth past the cemetery when I thought, why not give it a quick check. There were wintering Firecrest here last year, a Black Red wouldn't be totally out of the question and not forgetting that on Christmas Day 1977 a male Siberian Thrush was found! Anyway, I had nothing like any of those birds of course! But there was plenty of activity in the cemetery, Robins, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Long-tailed Tits and a single Goldcrest.
On the way home I stopped at the steel barn between Acle and Billocksby to look for Common Cranes, I counted twelve birds feeding amongst a stubble field not far from the very large stack of round straw bales. Too distant for anything other than the most cropped and grainy of record shots.

Two of twelve Cranes near Acle, Norfolk - 14th December 2014