The UK yearlist (241) had recently gone into underdrive towards my target of 250 so I needed to make every new bird count. A Wilson's Phalarope at Cley was too good to ignore, especially as I was stopping a few miles down the road in Sheringham so I made a beeline to Cley.
This particular bird had been unpredictable and elusive over the previous few days so it was with a sigh of relief that I was greeted with a tick (lifer as well) on arrival at Bishop's hide overlooking Pat's pool. Distant but reasonable scope views....
It was mid afternoon and with little else of interest, I decided to stick it out here, would the Wilson's would come closer? A few shots of other birds present, taken to pass the time away.....
Black tailed Godwits, one showing a nice 'black tail'......
Ruff - plenty of those, some males developing white heads.
Common Snipe in reflective mood.....
Common Teal wash and flap dry, effective motion blur given the slow shutter speed......
Marsh Harriers, at least three, remained distant - a nice male here......
Pink feet arriving all the time....
Bearded Tit - impossible to avoid 'ineffective' motion blur!
Always keeping my eye on the Wilson's, eventually it flew, landing within approx 40m!! I got a couple of bursts in before something spooked it and it was off again - leaving Pat's pool completely and probably cheering up everyone in the North scrape hide!!
A talk in Norwich planned for tomorrow so not much birding, heavy rain forecast too......
