On the 1st I visited RSPB Frampton Marsh, hoping to see the pectoral sandpiper that had been present for a few days. Unfortunately, it wasn't around, but I was able to add a juvenile little stint (the first of a large influx of little stints here) to my year list. Several curlew sandpipers were also seen. Unfortunately, the visitor centre and some of the tracks were closed whilst re-development work took place, so I wasn't able to look for dragonflies on the west of the site.
On the 7th I took myself off for a bird watching trip to the Norfolk coast - always an enjoyable experience. Arriving at Sheringham at 8.40am, hoping to see some seabirds on passage, I found a flat, calm sea and only one other person in the shelter. Fortunately for me he turned out to be an expert and was able to pick out Arctic, great and pomarine skuas, sometimes at great distance, and point them out to me on what could fairly be described as a 'quiet' day for seabird passage. The pomarine skua (a juvenile) later put on a somewhat closer show as it chased a gull, and I was able to pick out a few of its distinguishing features - in particular, the double pale bar on the undersides of the wings. I decided not to pursue the wryneck at Kelling (just as well, as it had disappeared overnight) or the hooded crow at Warham Greens but headed for Titchwell where I again saw little stints on the freshmarsh, this time much closer than the bird at Frampton. and newly arrived bar-tailed godwits amongst the waders on the beach (I saw 16 species of wader, including whimbrel and spotted redshank, on the day). Willow emerald damselflies, which used to be extremely rare in the UK but are now getting quite common, were seen (and photographed) all over the reserve.
My partner and I spent the weekend of the 9-11th based at Deal in Kent. It wasn't a bird watching weekend, but I did have one interesting sighting - a juvenile cuckoo that was catching insects below the cliffs at Margate. No doubt it was feeding up before the long and dangerous flight to its winter quarters in Africa.
I led an RSPB coach trip to Rye Harbour (East Sussex) on the 18th. In preparation for the trip, and since I hadn't been there for several years, I did a 'recce' on the 14th. A splendid new visitor centre, with cafe, has been constructed in my absence, and the volunteer manning the reception desk was very informative. On the reserve I saw 59 species during a five-hour visit. It should have taken four hours, but I deviated somewhat into the marshes and reached a dead end, although not before seeing all three of our naturalised egrets (little, cattle and great) on the same lake! A huge number of southbound migrants, particularly wheatears, yellow wagtails, swallows and meadow pipits, were coming through. Warblers included willow warbler and lesser whitethroat. Chiffchaffs seemed to be in every tree, and some were doing 'flycatcher' impressions. Sadly, I saw none of the real thing, but I did find three redstarts (always a treat) on the way round. The RSPB trip itself went off well, with 81 species being seen on the day by our Local Group members. Highlights (most of which I missed) included merlin, great skua, spoonbill, rock pipit and Mediterranean gull.
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