Salthouse - Twite delight!

I only had the afternoon for birding the previous day and wasted my time waiting in vain for a Purple Heron reported at North Warren near Aldeburgh. It didn't show and an end of day sea watch didn't produce anything either!

First stop on Sunday morning was Sheringham where a seawatch produced a few passing Scoters and Red-throated Divers but I was in danger of being trapped by a Remembrance Day service..... Salthouse beckoned, where good numbers of Twite have been reported recently. Never an easy bird (unless you are in a favoured location for them!) I still needed them for the year, having dipped them on the Wirral earlier in the year :-(

They didn't take long to find either, in between the pools and Gramborough Hill. One would have done but there were 20+ Twite (290) feeding in the short grass, together with Linnet, Reed Bunting and Goldfinch.

Occasionally flitting onto the fence wires.

Then feeding often out of view on the seed crop!

A hint of the pink rump here!

After quietly watching them for about 30 mins, one came mush closer, happily feeding in front of me:-)

Eventually perched up on top, I'll settle for these?

You beauty!

There was also a confiding Purple Sandpiper nearby!

Salthouse - Purple Sandpiper

I really needed to move on but found this very obliging Purple Sandpiper on one of the nearby pools to be be too tempting to ignore.....

Nearly a decent reflection.

The moment it actually stood still for a couple of seconds!

Heading straight for me....

Before slowly moving off again.

White water doesn't really help?

A final couple of portraits.

Then called it a day..... off to Holkham beach and (hopefully) Surf's up?

It was!! Hardly worth a separate post but the Surf Scoter (291) was well distant off the beach at low tide. It was surprisingly visible at ?400m due to the rear nape/forehead patch which through bins was all you needed to look for. Scope views were pretty good but then it drifted away with a few Common and Velvet Scoter. There was a Long-tailed Duck too.

Reculver - Desert Wheatear

Most of my distant twitching is done around talk commitments and I couldn't believe my luck (and an overnight stay) when my West Kent destination coincided with a showy male Desert Wheatear (287) dropping in nearby!

This way to the beach!

And some pretty horrendous squalls were being blown on a near gale force wind!

But it didn't deter the Desert Wheatear!

Although at times it was literally blown over!

The tail comes in handy as a stabiliser :-)

A few different angles.....

Delightful bird whichever way it looked.

Caught at take off.....

Sometimes perched on vegetation.

But the closest views were on the shingle by the rocks

I couldn't believe my luck when two bonus year ticks were on offer. Shore Lark (288) and Lapland Bunting (289) which were loosely keeping company with four Snow Buntings! They were extremely flighty however but I managed record shots of the Shore Lark and one of the Snow Buntings...

The weekend is just beginning, I plan to take in a detour back to Shropshire, via Suffolk and Norfolk!

Brotton - Eastern Crowned Warbler

I was the wrong end of the country when news broke and a fairly anxious 24 hour period followed! Ian Grant was up for a Saturday trip 'up north' and with Reevesy joining in we opted to miss the dawn scrum and set of at 7.00.....

At 7.24  precisely, we were all smiles, news had come out - still there!! By 10.15, we were there with just a short walk from the overflow car park at the golf course for the short walk to the plantation!

A nervy 20 minutes or so followed, we were assured it would return to a favoured sycamore but that doesn't always relax you? And when it did we were the wrong side (but rather quickly relocated!) Glimpses of it tucked in the foliage followed and then eventually - in clear view!! I'd never really got over not being in a position to go for the Durham bird so with smiles all round, we duly unblocked this rather nice little Eastern Crowned Warbler :-) moving on to 285 for the year!

Setting the scene - tightly packed galleries....

And just a camera or two in evidence?

The ECW was engaging in bursts of feeding activity with spells of simply sitting on a branch - nearly always out of view - but eventally I managed to get a clear view through a hole in the leaves...

OMG, it doesn't get better than this when twitching a mega with a packed gallery (I thought) but then it did!!

The sun came out and after what seemed like a eternity, feeding out of view, it emerged out in the open! Now that really brought the colours to life!

Neck extensions whilst weighing up the next appetising leaf!

Why was it favouring the sycamore(s) - there's a clue here.....

One more here, the underside of the leaves were full of food in the form of aphids :-)

I never did get one being plucked off :-(

Three images, which show all the id features nicely. I would have loved a head on / head bowed  shot of the crown stripe but it's clearly visible here! The grey head, Arctic-like supercilium, and long bill with dark upper mandible / orange lower.

The two wing bars, off white underparts and yellow green fringing to the flight feathers.

Not an angle I would normally choose but shows the pale yellow undertail coverts nicely!

The day wasn't finished either with a 30 min drive to Sleddale early afternoon, where three Rough-legged Buzzards (286) were waiting! Always distant they didn't really trouble the camera but at least a few record shots were forthcoming!

Quite a day and a big thanks to Ian for driving!!