Birding with Bridget and Aileen

Tuesday August 11
We'd arranged to meet at the Gore Point parking area, Holme, we all love viwing the beach and sea from the Point. It turned out to be the very top of high tide, not good news for the beach waders. Dog walkers cleared the water's edge leaving just a few Knot, Danderling, 2 Grey Plovers in splendid summer plumage and a single Turnstone. It was such a lovely day, warm and sunny, that we lingered and were rewarded with a distant Pomarine Skua flying west and the first Red Breasted Merganser of the Autumn.
One Green Sandpiper, a singing Cetti's, Reed and Sedge Warbers from the Holme NOA car park hide before making our way to Marsh Pool at Titchwell where we had views of the female Red-crested Pochard and her full grown young, we could only see four young to-day. The biggest surprise of the day was a group of three circling raptors. A Marsh Harrier, a Hobby and a Peregrine. The low water level on the freshmarsh may be good for the waders but, they are now very distant, the heat haze making identification even more difficult. Everyone present still complaining about the new hide,,,,,,,
Two Spotted Redshanks, many Ruff and Black-tailed Godwits, three Common Sandpipers, a single preening Yellow-legged Gull and another Green Sandpiper from Daukes Hide at Cley to finish off the day- not quite. A Salthouse duckpond ice-cream stop gave views of a single Ruddy Shelduck lying amongst the flock of Canada Gees on the far pool. Our second year bird of the day - the Skua was the other.