Sunday, 13 October 2013

Target bird for the year seen plus two more lifers.

We meet up with Brian at 5 am,it's not a nice morning with the rain pouring down. We head to Norfolk & go to Sheringham to do some sea watching from the shelter on the beach front.
The weather forecast was for a windy rainy morning,but as it turns out the rain has stopped & the wind that we were hoping for a north easterly had changed to a fairly calm morning.
We spend a couple of good hours in the shelter,there were other people there so we have a bit of a talk to them that is always nice,as for seeing any birds it turns out to be not to good, all we see are 5 Bonxies, some Red-throated Divers,plenty of Gannets, plus all the usual stuff.
So it's a real bonus when Jimmy pops his head round the corner with the news of a Long-eared Owl has been seen at Cley.
This is my target bird for the year as of the three of us I am the only one not to have ticked one.
I must say we have not looked to hard to see one, but this is the day, so after persuading Brian to leave the sea watch, we head to Cley & go to Swarovski hide, the Owl is still here sitting on the shingle behind the hide. We get great views in the scope, so target seen at last
I take a photo from distance, so with my small camera it's not to good,the light is poor which never helps but a record shot never the less.     Old woman's lane is the next port of call to look for the reported Pallas's warbler.the lane is full of cars on arrival with lots of birders looking for it. But it's not to be again for us, we have dipped a few times looking for this bird.
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As we get in the car another Pallas's is reported at Wareham Greens, so off to Stiffkey. We park in the car park and walk down the coastal path. Not sure if we are in the right place we meet a lady who tells us we have gone past the location. We follow her as she has just met the finder of the bird and has the location. We walk past a gate and head up the grass track to a a ploughed field, here we see many birders already present, and in the bushes in front of us is the Pallas's to give me another lifer.






Glad to get any sort of photo another record shot.



We were about to head for home when we hear from a couple of birders that a Dusky Warbler is reported in West Runton, It would be another lifer, this time for all three of us if we can see it. We follow a car to the reported site where it's still being reported as present.
We talk to people already here and are told it's not been seen for a while, but had been heard often.
We hear it for ourselves and get a couple of flight views and a brief view when it drops to the lower branches of a large bramble bush to us another lifer. 

Not a bad day for me, three year ticks all of which are lifers.




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