Chalk Hill Blues and a Titchwell wader-fest!

Brian and I headed north west in search of the UK's rarest breeding raptor: seems we may have been a day too late: the whole family group was apparently radio-tagged yesterday and may have pushed off! We did enjoy watching a pair of nerveless maintenance engineers working on a wind turbine: I hope they were being paid plenty!

We continued up to the north coast, finally deciding on a visit to Titchwell. As is so often the case, there were absolutely hundreds of waders of ten or more species: Knot, Grey Plover, Avocet , Bar & Black-tailed Godwit, Ruff, Redshank, Spotted Redshank (albeit a mile from the nearest path!), Dunlin and - best of all - two Curlew Sandpipers. Nineteen Spoonbills lurked at the far side of the Freshwater Pool, while plenty of Little Egrets flew around the reserve.

After an excellent lunch, we drove inland to Warham Camp, picking up Buzzard and Red Kite on the way (poor photos below!) This is a fabulous place to spend a sunny hour, not the least because of the drifts of petal-like Chalk Hill Blue butterflies: we counted over fifty! Lots of Ringlets, Small Copper, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper and just a single Wall Brown.

On the way home we popped into Holt Country Park: Silver-washed and White Admirals were everywhere as we walked through the 'ornamental garden' and the rides beyond: no decent photos, though, despite a couple nearly alighting on our trousers! Then the rain started: home for tea!