There had been a Spectacled
Warbler at Burnham Overy Staithe in Norfolk yesterday and I was hoping that it
would still be there today.
I had decided to go to Rutland
Water initially and wait for news on the warbler before setting off. I saw the Slawston Little Owl briefly on
route but very little else.
When I arrived at Egleton car
park I checked my phone to find that the warbler was still present. I called Ken who was keen to come along but he
couldn’t get to Egleton until about 08:15.
I then called Steve who was just leaving Leicester but was also
interested in coming and agreed to be in the car park for 08:15.
As it was not yet seven
o'clock I decided to go and have a look on lagoon four to pass the time. A Cuckoo was calling constantly as I walked
to the lagoon but I failed to see it. I
did see a Green Woodpecker and an Osprey as I walked along the service road to
dunlin hide and a Hobby flashed in front as I reached the final gate.
I immediately found four
Ringed Plovers on the near spit and could see a distant Avocet. Scanning with the scope I found two more
Ringed Plovers, two Dunlin and a Grey Plover that was in partial summer
plumage. There was also two Shelduck,
three Little Egret, two Oystercatcher and five Common Terns.
A quick visit to lagoon three
produced a single Shelduck, a Little Grebe and a Reed Warbler but very little
else of note.
I walked back to the car park
seeing very little but hearing Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap and the
Cuckoo was still calling relentlessly.
As I approached the car park
Bob was there and still having a space asked he wanted to come. Steve had already called him but he had
unfortunately a family commitment and would be unable to join us. Whilst I was chatting to Bob a Great Spotted
Woodpecker flew over and as Steve and Ken transferred their gear into my car a
Whitethroat was heard.
We left the Egleton and headed
off towards Stamford joining the A1 south, which would take us to the A47. I saw a Red Kite and a Buzzard as we
travelled along the A1 but on approaching the exit the traffic slowed, purely
due to the volume of traffic and we were edging slowly towards the
roundabout. A tweet then came through
indicating that the Spectacled Warbler had flown off over the salt marsh and
seawall and had been lost from view. We all
felt that it would be unlikely to re-found and decided to go back to Rutland
Water.
When we got back Steve went
off to lagoon four and Ken and I went to snipe hide on the wet meadow. There was a single Avocet on the flash and
two others were incubating closer to harrier hide. There were four Shelduck and a Redshank and
Green Sandpiper flew in and an Osprey observed with a fish flew off to the
north. I checked my phone only to find
that the Spectacle Warbler was now back at the original site. Ken made a call to Tony who informed him that
it had been very flighty yesterday and disappeared on occasions. He said that as long as we were patient we
would be very unlucky not to see it. We
decided that we should go and called Steve who met us back in the car park.
We set off again just after
ten o’clock and arrived on the beach car park at Burnham Overy Staithe just
after twelve. After a quick bite to eat
and a drink we set off along the sea wall to join the mass of birders visible
to the east of Gun Hill. There were two
Little Terns in the harbour but we didn’t see a lot else as we were keen to get
to the bird. As we were getting closer
quite a few birders were leaving and it had clearly been seen recently. When we eventually reached the crowed we
joined them on a raised area. They
clearly knew where the bird was but it was not showing, although within a few
minutes it flew towards a patch of scrub.
The crowd moved on mass towards where it had gone and it flew
again. This time it perched up but
someone walked straight in front of me and it flew again before I had really
seen it. Again it perched in view and
this time I was able to get a reasonable view through the bins. It was clearly quite mobile and seldom stayed
in any one place for very long and I am sure that some of the behaviour of one
or two birders didn’t help either. It
flew over the top of the ridge and was lost for short time before coming back
into an area of scrub, where we watched it moving in a bush and on the
ground. It then flew towards the
boardwalk being pursued by the crowd. We
decided to stay put and after a short wait it came back but was again pursued
by the crowd. We had seen it go into a
small bush but was out of site and we had stop some of the crowed actually
walking right up to the bush. It then
flew out and went to the same area where we had seen it quite well before and
again we were able to get good views in the scope. It eventually flew some distance to the west
and this time fewer chased after it and we saw it again perched on top of a
bush before it disappeared again. The
crowed then began to gather around the area again and we eventually decided to
move off and leave them to it. It was a
new bird for both Steve and I, although Ken had seen one some years ago at
Filey.
We walked back along the sea
wall more slowly than we had come out and consequently saw more birds. There were at least two Marsh Harriers
hunting between the sea wall and Holkham and we saw at least three Spoonbills,
with two on the small flash just east of the wall. Two Little Terns were fishing along one of
the dykes and a single Wigeon was on the flash.
A Cuckoo was also observed perched on a fence post not too far from the
path but it didn’t stay too long. A
surprising sighting was a Jay as it flew over a dyke and landing briefly in a
single bush before flying off.
When we got back to the car we
decided to go to Titchwell for a couple of hours. We walked along the west bank at Titchwell
and there were four male and two female Red-crested Pochard on Thornham Pool
and one of the females was escorting a brood of six.
Drake Red-crested Pochard on Thornham Pool
As we continued along the path
we found a female Pochard with a brood of six on the Reedbed Pool. A Cetti’s Warbler was heard on several
occasions and three Marsh Harriers, a male and two female-types were quartering
the eastern edge of the reedbed. I then
picked up a Bittern flying low over the reeds just before disappeared, only to
reappear briefly further on. Steve and
Ken managed to see it as it disappeared into the reeds.
There were over two hundred
Black-tailed Godwits on the fresh marsh and Ken picked out a single Bar-tailed
Godwit but other than numerous Avocets there appeared to be very little
else. Steve then found a Little Ringed
Plover and we eventually saw two and Steve also found a Greenshank feeding on
the far side of the marsh.
One of the 200+ Black-tailed Godwits
As we continued along the
track we saw very little on either Volunteer Marsh or the tidal marsh. On reaching the beach we found a few
Oystercatchers, Bar-tailed Godwits and Turnstone on the shoreline and there was
a couple of Little Terns feeding just off shore. Steve picked up a party of Common Scoters
heading west and I then found a Gannet flying east but other than a few
Sandwich Tern there was little else.
As we walked back we had nice
views of a male Bearded Tit and whilst looking and briefly seeing a Cetti’s
Warbler we saw at least two more. As we
started to walk back to the car park Steve heard a Mediterranean Gull call and
on walking back towards the fresh marsh we picked up two adult summer birds in
flight. They landed on the marsh for a
few minutes before again moving off to the east.
We finally had to leave and
after dropping Ken and Steve off at Rutland Water and returned home. It had been an excellent day’s birding with
my second lifer in Norfolk in less than a week.
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