Today reminded me what birding's all about! Absolutely top draw day today with that kind of Autumn feel that makes it feel like you can smell the rare birds coming in. 1 Lifer, two Norfolk ticks, 5 year ticks and my biggest self-found blocker unblocked!
Parked the car at Wells and walked towards Holkham birding all the way. A bit quite at first, but then stumbled across a large flock of long-tailed tits and goldcrests. Heard what I was sure was a Yellow-browed Warbler, but couldn't find it at first. Eventually I got on a small phyllosc, but although it had a wing war, the bar wasn't nearly strong enough and it turned out to be a Greenish Warbler! Slightly confused (by the call), I continued searching and stumbled across not one, but two Yellow-browed Warblers. On to Holkham were I twitched a Lesser Grey Shrike and then a Great Grey Shrike and found two more Yellow-browed Warblers before twitching the Subalpine Warbler, a lifer for me! Looking quite good for being the Balearic race too. After that I decided to follow-up on an early morning sighting of 2 Great White Egrets which had flown over the fresh marsh. En-route over the dunes, I stumbled across a large pipit, which flushed giving a House Sparrow like chirp. Richard's Pipit, the first I've found at last! It flew a medium distance, but after patient hunting I was able to find it and get some detailed field notes, before it flew off high and east. Had almost given up on the egrets and was on my way back, when they both flew out of a creek in the Salmarsh and headed west. Walked back to Burnham Overy Straithe, were I topped off the day with cracking views of a Barred Warbler, making a nice change from two false alarms, which turned out to be Garden Warblers earlier. Shortly after that I bumped into fellow Norfolk patcher Matt Green (hope you got the bus back OK - amused you said you recognised be by my Avater! I presume you meant you've seen photos of me on the punkbirder website or something) and caught the bus back to pick up my car.
p.s. Tim - up for coming out east on Sat or Sun. Fancy a few beers out your way Saturday night?