Work In Progress

Arriving at the beach we decided a bit of seawatching was in order. Being from Birmingham this isn't exactly my birding forte (in fact thats something of an understatement), but its something I am keen to improve on. It was a damn near impossible task previously with our old Opticron Mighty Midget scope, but using our recently purchased Swarovski for its first official seawatch made the job much easier and enjoyable. There were many divers out at sea some too far to try to ID but closer in we found 3 Red Throated Diver, I was very pleased with this - another of our target birds and a lifer!

Later that day we had a long walk of about six miles; a round trip of Cley and back to the cottage with the other members of our party. We walked out through the village past the windmill towards Cley Beach car park then along the beach and bank round along the main road. The walk produced many more Stonechat, also Reed Bunting, Oystercatcher, 2 more Little Egret and we watched a Kestrel eating his lunch on a post. From the beach we had 2 more Red Throated Diver. Along the walk back along the raised path the flock of Golden Plover we had seen earlier took flight, which made a stunning spectacle. There were 3 Barnacle Geese on the grassy field before the main road – probably feral? More blogging to follow shortly including my visit to the Stubb Mill Raptor Roost on Christmas Eve.

Here are a couple of pics from the walk.

 Max by Cley Windmill, my Mum in the background.

 Cley Marshes, a lovely sight in the afternoon sunshine.