Rain Break

Tuesday July 19

After waiting in for the SKY man to come and replace both boxes - free update - which included replacing the cheapest SKY box with a Sky+ HD (Bedroom) and replacing the dish, we drove to Cley NWT. Our first shower of the day deluged the road within a mile of leaving but,  we saw no more rain. Plenty of dark, threatening, towering, cloud clusters though.

Parking at the triangle, we camped out in Daukes Hide. Two diggers were working at the road  end area of Pat's Pool, which was completely waterless.

A good number of birds from Daukes and we eventually, with a bit of patience and assiduous scanning, added 5 month birds. One was an en route Turtle Dove on wires north of North Walsham, the others: Teal, Green Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank and an adult Yellow-legged Gull. all from Daukes.

Fifty Curlew floated in, two Sandwich Terns and four Common Terns courtship fed. Twenty Black-tailed Godwits - and even more Ruff - gradually appeared from the vegetated islands. At one time there were five Marsh Harriers in the air at once. I contented myself with taking a few photos of Avocet, the nearest birds, and then just the one snatched photo of a Reed Warbler which poked its head out briefly. It was collecting food for its fledged young, flitting through the reeds outside the hide.

Reed Warbler

Adult

Juvenile Avocet

I sat on an outside bench to warm up in the sun - boy was it cold in the hide -  whilst Pam had a look  from Avocet Hide. This male Marsh Harrier circled overhead, gradually climbing into the evening sun. Lovely.

A very enjoyable outing, especially as we had the hide to ourselves for most of the time.