Wax(w)ing lyrical
“In the golden light'ning of the sunken sun” was how we were waiting, at Cley beach, for a bird sp (?albatross, giant petrel?) to fly past- having northered from Suffolk at the speed of a falcon. Of course, it didn’t. Whatever the observers saw- and, it seems, they were almost completely nonplussed- it was just too far.
Before venturing out properly, a quick sashay to the shelter (in search of Waxwing info) gave me 3 Little Auks quite close and a most unsatisfactory (too far when I got on to it) pale morph Pom with full spoons.
In Wells Woods, from midday, I quickly got lucky. Walking along the main path the other side of the water from the caravan park, I chanced on two visiting birders, who had found 6 Waxwings (2 in LH photo), high in a tree. Slightly oddly, they were flycatching. (No, silly, the birds!) Soon, they flew off towards the Dell.
In the Dell, I flushed a Woodcock and, this time, saw 2 large female Bullfinches, calling ‘normally’. Later, RGM said he thought these birds, which he’d been seeing on and off for some time, were their size after gorging on the bumper berry crop.
Annoyingly, more Redpoll sp flew over (see yesterday), again without perching.
Two pix indicate some of the fabulous woodland scenes available today, in superb late autumn weather. That blue sky !
Whilst enjoying an ice cream on Wells Quay later, c25 Waxwings flew west over the harbour, accompanied by a couple of Starlings.
Cley village donated 6 more Waxwings (1 in RH photo).
