Red-rumped Swallow at Holkham ( lifer )

Just getting in a few days birding before we start all over again in the new year. The boys & I head to Norfolk to search for a lifer for Jimmy & myself in the Red-rumped Swallow that has been about for a day or two, Brian had seen one last year but we just missed the bird by seconds & we also missed the one at Gunners park by just a few minutes.
The first port of call was Fisher's Fleet King's Lynn for another look for the Iceland Gull that we missed a couple of days ago because it had got to dark to look for it although we did give it a try.
This time it is easy picking out the Gull inside seconds of parking,we spend 30 minutes watching the masses of Gulls feeding from the fish waste pouring out of the fish factory & we all get some good photos of the Iceland Gull, the only shame is when we get home we find we already had the Gull on our tick list for the year & none of us remembered when.
On now to aim for the target bird of the day, just short of Lady Ann's drive a small group had been looking for a short time but had not seen any sign of it, the pager goes off it's the bird just a small drive up to the old farm buildings.
The birders already there soon put us onto it & Jimmy & I have another lifer & one that we thought was going to be a bogey bird to us.
We spend more time than we should watching the swallow flying around in front of us along with a much larger group now gathered one of them is John P so nice to see him.
A quick call into Brancaster Staithe to see if the Red-necked Grebe had come a bit closer for a photo but it was still out by the boats so it's off to Thornham for the very long walk out to the beach & then a longer walk on the shingle looking for the reported Shore lark. The walk was broken by seeing a flock of Twite flying from bush to bush as we walk.
 The boys go on ahead of me & find 3 birds, so I get myself up there to add a year tick, it's a bit of a grey day now & the birds are a bit far off so no photos.
We make a very quick visit to Titchwell & as it turns out it costs us another tick & myself a lifer as we shoot off to Abbey Road in Flitcham & miss the Pallied Harrier by seconds & to make matters worse it had been sitting no more than a few feet away from the fellow that posted it on the pager, a large group of Grey Partridge run about in the field in front of us to help keep us amused, but the Harrier never shows. After a couple of hours we give up & head for home a bit disappointed but still another great day birding.

Iceland Gull

Again

Once more

Some of the Twite