Phalaropus Trios

My spiritual home, the north Norfolk coast. I'm currently holed up in the village of Cley-next-the-sea birding away the remainder of this year's annual leave entitlement (which expires 1st November!).

Sunday 3rd October

First stop had to be a walk of the East Bank down to Arnold's Marsh. Plenty of Bearded Tits pinging about and flitting over the reeds. (they are dead easy there at the moment). Unfortunately no sign of the earlier reported Spoonbills and there didn't seem to be anything particularly unusual about. 15 Little Egrets were noted, along with Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, the odd Knot etc. Out at sea 2 juv Gannets, 2 Sandwich Tern, Razorbill and a distant diver sp.

Next down the road to Gramborough Hill to look for the Barred Warbler, a bird I've dipped before. It continued to elude me as I waited hopelessly for an hour in strong southerly winds. Two Wheatears, lots of Meadow Pipits and Egyption Geese were all that was about.

It was now raining, not heavily, but persistently during a visit to Burnham Overy Staithe. The reported Grey Phalarope was nowhere to be seen, however things were suddenly on the up with a flyover Spoonbill heading NNE and a ringtail Hen Harrier quartering the fields. Also here; Peregrine, Kestrel, Wheatear, lots of Dunlin and Redshank with the odd Grey Plover and Black-tailed Godwit, also 5 Little Egret.

Final stop for the day was back at Cley Marshes, where a Red-necked Phalarope could be seen swimming and spinning around the gulls at the back of Simmond's Scrape. Also around 15 Avocet here.


Monday 4th October

Southerly winds, rain and fog at Cley this morning, so I headed inland to Welney WWT where a first-winter Wilson's Phalarope had already been present for a couple of days. A bird I first met on the famous day of 23rd September 2007 at Upton Warren. Older, supposedly more wiser and definitely more jaded and cynical these days, it was nonetheless great to get reacquainted with this superb little bird. I never tire of watching Phalaropes and the Wilson's has so much character.

Seriously stretching the term 'record shot' here....if you squint you can just see a light shadow near the centre of the photo, near the end of the peninsula. That's the Wilson's Phalarope. Honest.

This very enjoyable visit to Welney also included sightings of 2 Little Stint, several Snipe and Ruff, a Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit and 3 hunting Short-eared Owls, 2 Barn Owls and a Marsh Harrier. Surprisingly Swallows were still nesting inside the Lyle Hide with the unfledged young being fed.

Finally a visit to Hunstanton Cliffs to catch up with a Wryneck, another bird I've not seen for a while. The Wryneck was very active and confiding, a super bird.





Tuesday 5th October

Scaling the dizzy heights of Gramborough Hill once again, this time the goods were produced with a sighting of the Barred Warbler (lifer!). The large warbler showed well on the brambles, but not for very long. Also here a Whinchat, 3 Wheatear and many Meadow Pipits.

A seawatch from Cley Beach produced a distant Arctic Skua, Guillemot, Red Throated Diver, 4 Sandwich Tern, a small raft of Common Scoter, Eider, Gannet and a Great Crested Grebe.

Two Spoonbills were on Cley's North Scrape for most of the morning and other birds I saw around the reserve that morning included a ringtail Hen Harrier, Peregrine, 2 Marsh Harrier and the expected range of waders and ducks.

Later on, I heard the Grey Phalarope was back at Burnham Overy, so decided to complete the hat-trick of Phalaropes. The third Phalarope in as many days, the Grey Phalarope showed well in a small pool in the cattle fields just south of the dunes.

As the day drew to a close, skeins of Pink-footed Geese could be seen coming in, a Short-eared Owl quartered the fields at close range, with at least 3 Barn Owls and a Marsh Harrier were also out hunting. Three Wheatears were on the barbed wire fence and a number of Swallows gathered overhead.

Migration is clearly happening, although a bit more slowly than I'd like. The constant southerly winds mean that migrants are a bit thin on the ground, but with winds set to swing round to easterlies by the end of the week, my hopes are high for this weekend....