Glossy Ibis at Salthouse and decent birds along the coast

Now that Linda has totally retired, she has become a full member of the Summer Wine Crew: I'll leave it to others to decide what her 'nom de guerre' might be! We headed north, arriving at Salthouse by 8.00am: following a few false starts, Linda and Brian located the Glossy Ibis poking its head above some distant rushes. After a spot of hide and seek, the bird obligingly took off and flew around for a minute or so before dropping out of sight again.

We moved westwards to Cley, where Bishop's Hide provided views of good numbers of waders, including Green Sandpiper, Dunlin, Ruff, Black-tailed Godwits etc, which were scattered by a marauding Hobby. After coffee and scones at the reserve centre we carried on to Titchwell (memo to self: don't drive from Cley to Titchwell on the coast road in the Summer!)

As we were leaving the car park, Sue Bryan kindly told us that the Turtle Doves had been showing earlier. We scanned the indicated trees, but, despite hearing a bird purring loudly nearby, didn't manage to see one! To be honest, the pools weren't really worth the tedious drive from Cley, but we enjoyed our packed lunches while watching twelve Spoonbills and a Little Gull asleep on the freshwater pool.

Last stop was Choseley, where high winds made finding a Corn Bunting difficult - impossible, in fact! - so we called it a day and threaded our way through the hordes of ten mile-an-hour holiday makers in their Audis and beamers. Final good bird was a Red Kite at Stiffkey (Memories of watching one here with Bill Oddie about 25 years ago when they (and he!)were much more noteworthy!)