Up close and personal: Black Brant, Glossy Ibis and lots of Mediterranean Gulls.

Brian and I left Blofield Heath (in my car for a change!) and drove through the frosty lanes to Ludham. No owls, but lots of Bewicks (30+) on the meadows, as well as a group of Whoopers that flew over without stopping.

A walk along the prom at Mundesley failed to reveal the Glaucous Gull, so we carried on to Cley, stopping on the way to check out an enormous flock of Brents: no sign of anything out of the ordinary, so we adjourned for coffee and scones. With nothing new worth travelling west for, we retraced our route back to Salthouse, just in time to see a Hawk fighter putting up all the geese. As it turned out, this worked to our advantage, since a quick backtrack to Walsey Hills gave us excellent views of the Black Brant. (As you can see below, it had the classic complete collar, a lovely white 'flash' and a duskier breast.)

Following another fruitless check out of the beach at Mundesley, we decided to revisit the Glossy Ibis at Bure Park: the Sun was shining, so we hoped for some better colour in the plumage. This lovely bird put on a fabulous show for us, wandering quite close at times and finally looking its best for photos!

Final stop was Yarmouth Beach, where a handful of biscuit crumbs brought in a couple of dozen Med Gulls in a variety of attractive plumages. Several of these wore silver rings: if anyone's interested, just mail me and I'll send pictures!