Howard Vaughan took his troops up to the windswept North Norfolk coast on what was at first a cool,breezy sunny Morning.On the way up i enquired about the traditional Mcdonalds pit stop en route but as we was heading for Cley as our first stop,the mcdonalds was sadly out of the question,instead we raided Tesco's at Brandon instead,stocking up on Sandwiches,cakes and the like.
We arrived at Cleys East Bank around 7.30am and walked down the long grassy path to the Beach,on the way we saw Spoonbills,Godwits,Bearded Tits,Sedge warblers,Cormorants in very high number,54 Pink Feets were a pleasant surprise and a sign that winter is only round the corner.We made it to the beach after half hour or so,stopping briefly to watch the beardeds pinging about and to take in the half a dozen or so Spoonbills on show,on the beach it was windy but the sun was starting to make an impact now and was quite warm when you got out of the wind,almost like a septembers day lol.
It started quiet but soon enough we had Gannets whizzing past in decent numbers and many Juveniles (see pics) were around including two individuals which got within around 30 feet or so of us.Not two many divers aroumnd,Howard spotted a Great Northern Diver on the horizon and the odd Red Throated Diver,along with the odd Auk.Plenty of Meadow Pipits were around the dunes and we walked to the Beach hide to look for the Pectoral Sandpiper which had been seen recently.On the way we had a lovely,obliging Wheatear,which i and others got good photos of,once in the hide we were confronted by the usual waders,along with the Pectoral in the distance,Little Stint,Yellow Wagtail,dunlin etc.Throughout the day,Raptors were quite thing on the ground,especially Marsh Harriers which we only saw one of all day,at Cley.
After ticking all the waders off we headed back to the Visitor Centre,to get refreshments,myself was after a sandwich but at 10.55am,i was informed that i would have to wait till 11.30am for anything to eat,charitable organisations,why do they make such ridiculous rules on food for birders,the majority of which get up at silly 0 clock and by mid morning are starving hungry,perhaps places like Cley arent really aimed at birdwatchers,well the centre anyway??? Harsh?? Maybe but still bloody stupid.
We the made our way to Kelling,had a nice walk but didn;t really see anything apart from a good amount of butterflies,sparrowhawk,Buzzard and a very brief Red Legged Partridge,nice place and good to know but quiet yesterday.
By now it was after 1pm so we made the 20 mile or so drive to Titchwell,once there we had our lunch and the others went for a walk while i stayed in the car for a kip as i was working all night,would rather be birding but sometimes i just have to kip,glad i did as by 2am this morning i was absolutely shattered.
The group returned to the car around 5pm,leaving me suitably refreshed for the drive home,but howard had one last surprise in store,the Barred Warbler at Holme via the apparant 22 speed humps that some idiot has put in on the approach to their car park,tossers!!!!
We got decent views of the bird and i got decentish views of it,it was a lovely juvenile and a lifer for myself.Also at Holme we saw 3 Barn Owl,including one on a post which i got a half decent shot of,we then made the journey to Swaffham where Howard had PROMISED us Fish and chips at Old Mother Hubbards,famous chippy,we got there,it looked open,Howard went in,came out again,informed us there was a refit today and we wouldn't be getting their famous grub,me and 4 others defied H's claims that the chippy across the road was naff,sadly he was probably right as the others,apart from me and jonesy either returned with nowt or looked suitably unimpressed lol.We headed home,arriving back in Upminster around 9pm,a top day out and i think i have got my birding Mojo back again,won't be too long till i get my sorry arse back up to the Norfolk coast,i can feel it calling me now!
Great report, backed up by some nice photos.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marc
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