Friday May 18
Our Norfolk list for may is not looking good, yesterday was our first day out and the habitat was restricted. We thought we'd give the Temminck's at Cley a go.
Starting out late, we nearly turned round due to heavy rain the other side of North Walsham. Ever the optimist, I kept thinking that the sky looked brighter. It was still raining when we got to Beach Road. I suggested that we sit in the Centre car park for a while, halleluia, the rain stopped and we walked to Pat's Pool Hide.
Another piece of luck, a horde of the coachful of visiting birders, left the hide as we arrived. What a day to choose.
No sign of the Stints, we were pleased to see 2 Common Sandpipers, a pair of Little Ringed Plover, several Great Ringed Plover and a juvenile Little Gull which was hawking the back of the pool.
A Bee-eater had been reported from the Sluice area west of Cley Village this morning, we'd checked but all wires were bare. Someone in the hide mentioned that it was near the chip shop at Beach Road Salthouse. It wasn't when we got there, birders were streaming east along the main road. We tried to scope from Beach Road, seeing nothing. After several false starts and stops, we joined a few other birders in an off road field. One of them pointed out a distant blob on a wire halfway to Salthouse Heath. Very tickable views through my scope, colours, hunting sorties and good frame views at 50x !!
I put my camera away......at least we saw it. Pam asked if it made up for dipping the Savi's (seen again at 5.00 a.m. this morning, I don't think that it's wort getting up at 3.30 for it). My answer. No not really, we don't often dip anything and I resent them all. Including the Temminck's.
BUT, a Bee-eater was a cracking addition, especially an unexpected one.
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