17th October 2019 Exclusive day Tour

Today was an exclusive day tour and I collected Dennis, Dale and Margaret from Weybourne. We headed straight over to Walsey Hills where after a bit of searching I managed to locate one of the Jack Snipe, that had been present for several days.

We then headed down the main path and were fortunate to find the Yellow-browed Warbler sitting in the sun, preening and then feeding actively and showing very well. There was also at least 5 Chiff-chaffs & another phylloscopus, 4 regular looking Chiff-chaffs, one paler bird plus what eventually turned out to be a very late Willow Warbler, albeit an unusually pale, pallid toned bird.

We then moved on to look at the sea off Cley, there was 20+  Red-throated Divers offshore including one 1st winter close in. There were plentiful small parties of Razorbill on the sea and a few Guillemot. Passing by offshore there were 1-2 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, plus several groups Pink-footed Geese, There were small numbers of Gannets offshore, and a few Common Scoter passed by, and large groups of Wigeon. Plus a flock of c150 Ringed Plover flew West.

We next headed to Stiffkey fen. As we walked along the fen, there was several groups of Redwing, plus Song Thrush, a Blackcap played hide and seek, plus we heard Cetti’w warbler and Bullfinch.

From the seawall then Fen held a good selection of wildfowl, mainly Wigeon and Teal. There was also 2 Ruff and 3 Greenshank. We then looked out over the saltmarsh, there was masses of duck, Brents plus c60 Pintail, Red-breasted Merganser and nearby several Rock Pipits.

We then headed off to North Point Wells, and there was a good party of c80 Black-tailed Godwit, 50 Lapwing, 2 Little Egret, 1 Great White Egret, 2 Common Snipe, 2 Ruff, 100 Teal, 60 Wigeon & a Marsh harrier. Nearby on a roadside stope we had nice views of a Red Kite.

The promised rain started to arrive late afternoon and we stopped off for another look at the sea at Cley, it was fairly quiet save lots of Razorbills, but we did add a nice adult Mediterranean Gull.