Leucistic Pochard and other goodies at Cley

It's that time of year again: if anything new turns up, it's likely to be something extra special: that didn't happen today! However, Brian, Norman and I had a morning at Cley and enjoyed the sunshine, the craik and the cheese scones! The birds weren't bad, either!

The walk out to the sea along the East Bank produced a few family groups of Bearded Tits (around 20 in total) including some amusing youngsters: Reed and Sedge Warblers were fairly showy, as were the several Little Egrets and Marsh Harriers. Most interesting find was an amazing leucistic Pochard that shared its pool with four or five more orthodox birds!

Several times we bumped into local artist Rachel Lockwood: her on-the-spot sketches were beautiful! She pointed out a group of three Hares chasing each other along the shingle ridge - by the time we reached the sea, they were quite distant but actually on the beach!

Sandwich, Common and Little Terns were passing by, as were a few distant Gannets, Fulmars and Kittiwakes...
After coffee we moved on to Kelling Quags: lots of Butterflies, including Green-veined White, Orange Tip and Gatekeeper, but no Yellow Wagtails - just a few Whitethroats.

 

 

Image by Norman Tottle