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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fozzybear" data-source="post: 1860120" data-attributes="member: 69297">Thanks! And you are most welcome - it's nice to come back from a good trip and relive it by telling other people about it.The Spoonbills seems to have been a regular visitor at Cley but it's the first time I've caught up with one. I've actually seen photos of really close views at Cley and photos showing SIX Spoonbills at Salthouse last summer! They're getting seen quite a bit in the south-east now it seems, I keep seeing reports of them around Essex this year too.Here's the last instalment of my trip....Friday 18th JuneWe were still a bit tired on Friday, a combination of a busy week and the 2am start the day before so decided to not do too much on the last day. I didn't really want to spend yet another day at Cley although I'd have been perfectly happy there, so I suggested we go to Titchwell instead. We caught the first bus out and got to the reserve a little before 10am. Was pretty grey and breezy but we didn't intend to go that far anyway. After watching the birds at the feeders near the visitor centre we headed off north along the track. Looking west over the wall to the large pool we could see a great number of Coots with young, some young Great Crested Grebes and their parents, lots of Swifts, House Martins and a few Sand Martins. At the very far end as I looked for the Grebe parents I spotted a deer moving along the very edge of the water, just disappearing behind some reeds before I could think to take a photo. My brother was quicker to react and got a very very distant snap of its back half from the side and thought it was a Chinese Water Deer - the first time he'd seen one of those and the first time I'd seen a properly wild deer! Returning later on we scanned for it but didn't see it of course, although we did see some Little Grebes we'd missed earlier.Walking on we spotted a large flock of waders out on the scrape, possibly the Knot we'd seen mentioned in the sightings book at the visitor centre, so we went into the Island Hide where quite a gathering of people took up the space with bags and tripods. My table-top tripod was pretty useless with the design of the hide (the lower flap hinges so that it lays down at an angle above the shelf) and the birds were just far enough away that my Aldi spotting scope rendered them as rather fuzzy shapes but with the help of a brilliant RSPB volunteer we found the Knot, Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwits (finally I could see the difference between them!), Little Ringed Plovers and Ringed Plovers, a splendid male Ruff in breeding plumage, Dunlin, a Turnstone, Redshanks, Grey Plovers, Avocets, Shelducks, Shovelers with young, Greylag Geese with young right in front of the hide, a Mallard with young, Little Egrets and various gulls. I got a look through the volunteer's scope at the Ruff and was amazed at the quality of the image as well as the bird... not sure what type of scope it was but I suspect it was a Swarovski. It was a 'tiny' bit better than my £20 jobby. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> :-OWe left the hide to walk up to the beach, getting a fairly good view of the Ruff as we went. Past the new sea defences where the Parrinder hide had been (we'd been there last summer and you got cracking views of nesting Avocets from it so sad to see it have to go) and we started to feel spots of rain. By the time we reached the beach the wind was blowing hard and it was raining fairly heavily, most of the small number of visitors scurrying for the shelter of the hides. We went out onto the beach but afraid of treading on a stray Tern egg outside of the roped-off area and worried about the blowing sand starting to stick to our cameras we headed back. At the Parrinder line we paused at the wicker fence to watch the Knot and Godwits moving around and saw quite a few Linnets too. Heading south towards the visitors centre we watched a Marsh Harrier over the reeds and Swifts buzzing low around our heads and then turned away from the main path to walk the board-walk loop that leads to the Fen Hide (although we didn't go there - was insanely packed with little to see when we visited last time), the marshy section holding a great deal of Southern Marsh Orchids and Ragged Robin (many more than we saw last summer!) and hearing Blackcap and then both Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler singing together, which pleased me inordinately! We sat on a bench watching the second set of feeders near the visitor centre for a while, a Woodpigeon we named 'Tubby' having learned how to hold onto the large rungs of one feeder was madly trying to extract as much seed as possible from it while frantically flapping his wings. We also saw Collared Doves, Robins, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Blue Tits, Greenfinches, Chaffinches, House Sparrows and I think Dunnocks too if I remember correctly.We looked around the shop, nearly tempted by a large book The Birds Of Essex by Simon Wood which was half price, but as I'm trying not to spend money (and had just paid out lots for the holiday and plumbing bills) and would have had to carry a huge tome back on the bus and train I decided against it! We walked back to the bus stop and my brother pointed out two Hares in the field across the road, which then began boxing! Although my brother has seen hares quite a lot he'd not seen them box before and I certainly hadn't so that was really great! The bus came to carry us back to Blakeney and we spent the evening pre-emptively packing some of our gear ready for the morning (something I was glad of as I overslept the next morning!) and then at a quarter to ten we left for a last walk to Wiveton Downs. It was very windy that night so bad conditions for Nightjars and we heard not a peep from them, but we did see a Barn Owl on the way and at the Downs watched bats on the wing for a little while. It was quite spooky there in the dark with the wind sighing through the branches and rattling the leaves so I was glad when we left at a quarter past eleven.The next morning we packed the last of our things and after handing in the cottage keys and saying goodbye caught the first bus to Sheringham and the train home...</blockquote>

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