Black Winged Stilts in North Norfolk

Brian and I had our usual 7.00am meet-up on the Heath, before driving North to Cley. High water levels meant there were few waders in evidence on Pat's (or anywhere else!) but a Spoonbill and some superbright Black-tailed Godwits were good to see.

We decided to move westwards rather than spend time on a futile Bluethroat hunt, and pulled into an increasingly productive cluster of pools and scrapes: the first birds we saw were a pair of Grey Partridges, the third and fourth were a pair of Black Winged Stilts! Only one other birder was on site, and he was watching a Turtle Dove up by the road. He soon joined us, as, fairly soon, did two other guys. We watched for some time at a more than discrete distance before a Warden from the Holkham Estate arrived to assess the situation. He left soon after, and so did we!

We carried on to Titchwell, which was pretty disappointing: hardly any waders, no Turtle Doves and few passerines: two male Red-crested Pochards were some consolation... After lunch at reception, (which we shared with a cute little Bank Vole) we retraced our journey, stopping for a walk down to the scrapes at Burnham Overy (dozens of Wall Browns!) before ending up at Cley (where nothing new had been reported) We broke our journey home at Horstead Mill Pool where, despite building work, we glimpsed a family group of Grey Wagtails.

I had intended not posting about the BWSs (which are obviously an adult pair) but since the bird pagers and news services have already given their exact location, that seemed fairly pointless!