An unusually hot and sunny day. Holkham Hall is one of Britain's most majestic Stately Homes, situated in a 3,000 acre deer park on the beautiful north Norfolk coast. This classic 18th century Palladian style mansion is part of a great agricultural estate and is a living treasure house of artistic and architectural history. Early in the 18th century, the son of a Lord Chief Justice, Thomas Coke, planted a large park of oak, ilex and beech, and he built a beautiful Palladian house near an artificial lake. His nephew, Thomas William Coke (later created Earl of Leicester) was a most admirable character and the greatest innovator in Norfolk farming. The Cokes still live here.?

The reserve encompasses a wide variety of habitats ranging through intertidal mud and sandflats, shingle ridges, sand dunes, saltmarsh, grazing marsh, pine and mixed woodland. The wildlife interest is outstanding and many groups are represented by rare or scarce species. Winter wildfowl populations are spectacular with Pink-footed goose, Brent goose and Wigeon occurring in internationally important numbers. Nationally important breeding birds include Bittern, Marsh harrier, Avocet, Bearded tit and Garganey. The range of habitats supports a diverse flora with many interesting plants, including the Red Data Book (RDB) species Jersey cudwood Gnaphalium luteo album. The dunes support a strong population of the Natterjack toad.

Holkham Hall is three miles west of Wells-next-the-Sea on the main A149, within easy reach of Norwich on the A1067, King's Lynn on the A148 and London and Cambridge from the M11 and A10.

For more details visit Holkham's splendid website at http://www.holkham.co.uk/

Species Seen:?

Avocet Bar-tailed Godwit Blackbird Black headed Gull Blue Tit Brambling Brent Goose Chaffinch Chiffchaff Coal Tit Collared Dove Common Gull Coot Cormorant Curlew Dunnock Egyptian Goose Goldcrest Goldeneye Goldfinch Great Black backed Gull Great Spotted Woodpecker Great Tit Greenfinch Green Woodpecker Grey Heron Grey Partridge Greylag Goose Herring Gull Horned Lark Jackdaw Kestrel Lapwing Lesser Black-backed Gull Lesser-spotted Woodpecker Little Grebe Long Tailed Tit Magpie Mallard Meadow Pipit Mistle Thrush Moorhen Mute Swan Nuthatch Oystercatcher Pheasant Pied Wagtail Pink-footed Goose Pochard Red-breasted Merganser Red-legged Partridge Redwing Ringed Plover Robin Rook Sanderling Shelduck Shoveler Siskin Skylark Song Thrush Sparrowhawk Starling Stock Dove Stonechat Tawny Owl Treecreeper Tufted Duck Wigeon Willow Tit Woodpigeon Wren

View from one of the hides On the forest trail to the dunes The dunes at Holkham Members of our group looking for that elusive Horned lark