Norfolk Day Five of Five Day Tour – 16th October

We started the day at Cley with an hour of seawatching, it was fairly quiet but there was still Red-throated Divers, Common Scoters, Wigeon, Teal & Gannets all moving offshore.

Things livened up when first we spotted a Peregrine way, way out to sea, incredibly 3-4 miles out it was seemingly chasing down prey. After several dives and swoops, it appeared to have caught the prey, it then started heading inshore and we were able to watch it arrive on the shoreline and head inland with what we suspected was an unfortunate migrant Blackbird!

It wasn’t too long before the next entertainment arrived, this time a far out Short-eared Owl circling in the skies, far out again over the sea. It was obviously comfortable and not tired as it took big circles and eventually gained significant height and was lost to view.

News came that the Dusky warbler was still present at Walsey Hills, so we next headed over there. We only managed to hear the Dusky Warbler which was very elusive, but we did see a whole load of Lesser Redpolls and courtest of the NOA were able to watch several being ringed along with Goldcrest’s too.

We then had lunch and decided to take a walk out along the East Bank. Arnold’s marsh held a good sprinkling of shorebirds and there was two tired Redwing feeding along the shingle, clearly tired and allowing close approach.

The highlight was nice views of a female Scaup. Also a short walk also gave us 6 Snow Buntings.

We rounded the tour off with another an hour looking again at the sea. This paid dividends with a flock of 16 Kittiwakes, 17 Little Gulls and a a sought after Red-breasted Merganser. A Northern Wheatear also appeared on the shingle, giving us 125 species for the tour.