Good weekend out, but quite sore on the feet. Started Saturday am at Stiffkey and decided to walk to Burnham Overy Dunes. Very quiet at Wareham Greens, with no sign of visible migration going on. Things started getting a bit better when I got to Wells, with good numbers of redwing (300+) and a fly over
Med gull. Spent about an hour chasing things round Wells wood, and heard a
yellow-browed, but didn't get much else until I located a sizable long-tailed tit flock, which also held a a female /1st year type
red-breasted flycatcher. Excellent bird! First I've seen for a couple of years. Phoned it on to Buster at RBA, but didn't get much else after that, bar a brief view of another
yellow-browed. Caught the bus back, but unfortunately missed the last one that went to Stiffkey, so had to walk from Wells tio Stiffkey in the dark which was fun.
Beers at Tim's place after that and then out earlyish Sunday morning. Walked the Marrams towards Eccles (is that what it's called Tim?) from Sea Palling. - fast becoming a favourate spot of mine Lots of vis mig (as Connor would say
. About 7 or 8
bramblings, at least 7
tree sparrows a
ring ouzel and a
black redstart. Tim picked out another
yellow-browed on call and we finished off the morning by relocating the
red-backed shrike Tim found earlier in the week. Also 3
Little Egrets and a
Grey Wagtail, which are actually quite rare for Sea Palling. After breakfast (almost at lunchtime), we went to look for the Fug duck. No sign, but Tim picked out another
yellow-browed on call. From there we walked from Horsey to the Waxham pipe dump, which was totally devoid of birds, but we did get a fly by
Black-throated Diver on the sea and I toyed with the idea of turning a very dark backed Lesser black-backed gull into a Baltic Gull, (which is clearly unIDable). On the way back to the car, we had nice views of a pair + juv
cranes flying over, which proved to be the last good birds of the day, although we did spend time trying to find some Purple Sands which had been seen on the reefs near Eccles.
