Little Ringed Plover and Short-eared Owl: racking up the year ticks!

It's a funny time of year: there are still winter birds lingering in the hope of decent weather to assist their migrations, while each easterly blow brings in a new crop of spring arrivals.

Knowing how impossible the traffic will be, I decided more in hope than expectation to have a solo run around the coast. I started at Winterton, where a four mile walk eventually produced a Short-eared Owl but little else. I followed the coast road through Waxham to Walcott (where Common Terns flew onto the year list) and on to Trimingham, where a Whinchat posed near the radar base.

Next stop was Cley Coastguards: a good passage of both Swifts and Sandwich Terns was underway, and a walk eastwards along the reserve boundary resulted in terrific views of a pair of Little Ringed Plovers. That was about it, really: a cup of tea with Alan and Carl ( who runs 'Wildlife tours and Education') and a futile attempt to find the reported Greenshank on Pat's Pool and it was time to return home and start supper!