Promise from the east

With a nice easterly wind coming from deep in western Asia and a nice bit of low pressure forecast, the conditions looked great for a decent fall of scarcities and migrants on the weekend of 03/10 & 04/10 on the east coast.

So myself, Dan W & Gareth B quickly arranged to meet up for a day in Norfolk on Sunday 04/10, with the hope of finding some good birds, together with Johnny P based in Norfolk.

We met up early on, by the Wells Co-op. No more than a minute or two after our arrival and we were onto a couple of calling Yellow-Browed Warblers across the road, in the nearby cemetery! Got some half decent views of them flicking around in the canopy, while there were also a good number of Blackbirds knocking about. Encouraging signs!

The rest of the day was spent wandering Wells Woods and 'the dell' before pushing on through the pines to the far west end and to Burnham Overy Dunes and Gun Hill.

What was probably bird of the day but frustratingly gave us the slip, was a probable Radde's Warbler that flushed out of a reedy understorey, west of the dell. It flicked up and called loudly, before diving into a small nearby bush. We all called it as Radde's immediately, before slowly approaching the tiny bush. But nothing came out - it must have been the case that it scuttled away along the deck. Even more intriguingly, one was reported in that exact same area, later on in the day. But although we were very confident it was one, we couldn't claim it on one call and a brief flight view. So one of those frustratingly resigned to the probable pile! 

We saw some great birds but unfortunately weren't quite rewarded with our efforts, as we'd hoped. Still we did enjoy a total of 7+ Yellow-Browed Warbler (plus the two cemetery birds), 1 Siberian Chiff (below), 1 Pied Fly (not seen by me), 4-5 Redstart (including a very tame bird at dusk), 6 flyover Crossbills, 5+ Cattle Egret, 5 Brambling, 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 probable Spotted Fly, 6 Wheatear, Spotted Redshank, several flyover Redpoll and good numbers of House Martins, with a few Swallows mixed in too.

It was a long, tiring day, but good fun - although trudging through the rain all the way back from Gun Hill to the Wells Beach car park was heavy going! Still, a visit to the Fish & Chip shop in Wells and that was all forgotten!