Another North Norfolk Cracker!

5 am start and a decent drive took Jono and I to Warham Green where an Isabelline Shrike had been seen for the last few days.

We were not alone and other birders were already in the general vicinity that the bird had been seen. Sadly though, it has moved on so Jono did not get his first lifer ever when being out with me!

We made our way to the beach car park at Cley and to nearly Eye Pool and found the Grey Phalarope.

This tiny little, elegant wader swam in and out of the foliage giving as decent views.  A lifer for me and a year lister for Jono so a much happier duo set off for a deserved coffee at the visitors centre.

Looking at the list of birds that day there had been Little Stints on Simmonds Scrape and Snow Buntings on the beach.

A quick walk to the hides gave a small selection of the usual waders, ducks etc but no Little Stints. A pair of Stonechat never quite stayed close enough to get great photos. A fly by Kingfisher was good to see.

However, a revisit to the beach did give wonderful close up views of a particularly smart looking Snow Bunting and a female Wheatear too..

We then made our way to Wells Wood and walked around the Dell. Apart from a pair of Jays and large numbers of Redwing flying over there was little about.

Reports had come in about a Pallas Warbler at Holkham.

After a quick remortgage to park in Lady Anne Drive we had only gone 150m and a group of birders were scouring the trees. It seemed that the Pallas Warbler was with the Tit flock and had just passed by.

We moved into the trees and had Long Tailed Tit, Coal Tit and Goldcrest before i spotted a Firecrest and Jono spotted a Yellow Browed Warbler.

None lingered long enough to get good views nor did the Pallas reappear so back to the car.

Due to a party that night we had to leave sharpish so decided on a quick half hour at Holme Dunes.

Again, lots of small birds in the trees and had time not restricted us I suspect we could have spent longer here.

Just as we were leaving the reserve I glanced up and a 'blackbird' was sitting on a cable. However, it was not quite right and had a silvery sheen whn it flew. Jono thought it could be my elusive Ring Ouzel (I am yet to get one in the UK) but a 5 minutes look around and we could not relocate it.

Nevertheless a super day again in shirt sleeve weather.

Work trip to Rhodes

I had a hotel inspection in Rhodes and due to Ryanair only flying on a Saturday and Tuesday, had a whole day to myself.

I did research on Fatbirder and the like and identified four likely looking areas to see if i could get some decent birds. Each area could not have been further apart and so I hired a car and circumnavigated the island.

First stop was the Appolika Reservoir which is the only permanent freshwater on the island.

I had expected a selection of common ducks, gulls etc and actually got a lone cormorant!

It had taken an hour of winding roads and 3km of rough track to get here so was a bit peeved to say the least. I did get some Ravens flying, the ubiquitous Hooded Crows, a solitary Willow Warbler and a very elegant soaring bird of prey.

I certainly had not seen one before so ruled out the obvious Kestrel, Peregrine etc but could not identify.

I am hopeless at photographing birds in flight but rattled off a couple of shots and hoped one would be good enough to ID when I got back to the hotel.

I did not have the benefit of looking on a computer and the small size on the back of the camera meant I had to wait until I got home. Even then I still could not pin it down so emailed the photo to Jono.

Unsurprisingly, my font of all knowledge picked it out immediately as a Red Footed Falcon which is a lifer for me so the journey was worthwhile after all.

The only other wildlife was a few Meadow Brown butterflies and this damselfly (I think another for Jono!)

I then made my way to Plimmini which is a small beach with scrub behind at the very south of the island. I could see how good this would be for migrants - sort of Minsmere like without the water!

However, I had obviously missed migration and had nothing other than a large amount of Crested Lark.

Next stop was Garoudis river which gets good reviews. I am sure it would be good if it had any water in it!

The whole area was completely barren and I did not see one bird!

Other birds seen over the three days were Red Rumped Swallows, House Martins, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Jay, Yellow Legged Gull, Buzzard, Kestrel, Blackbird, Starling, Collared Dove and House Sparrows. Very average.

The island is lovely and I am sure if you hit it right with migration it would be better than I experienced.