Stonking Male Rosefinch!!!

STUNNING MALE

COMMON ROSEFINCH
Walsey Hills NOA

Started off at Salthouse Heath at 8am looking for yesterday's Golden Oriole, but found out later that it had been seen at the Kelling 'Triangle' and I was looking in the wrong place. Only saw a few common whitethroats, linnets and a single yellowhammer here.

Had a look in Walsey Hills NOA, but didn't find anything of note!

Cley Coastguards - spent the rest of the morning attempting to photograph Swifts in strong winds!!! Big numbers of Swifts going through this morning.

Swifts, Cley Coastguards.

Sandwich Tern.

Swallow, Cley Coastguards carpark.

Cley Visitor Centre for soup and bread lunch.

Dauke's Hide, lots of hirundines going through and the two avocet chicks that I photographed before (see previous pictures) have got a bit bigger!

Left here and cruised along the coast road to the Citrine Wagtail field at East Runton - nothing here but woodpigeons. Felt really fed up with the strong winds and lack of rares!

Stopped at the ice-cream van at Salthouse for a cornetto.

Walsey Hills NOA - stopped here and was just about to go for a look round, when a big car pulled up and parked immediately next to me and everyone got out. So I waited for a while as like to look in Walsey by myself. Oh how I wish I had gone in there before those people!!!!!! Anyway sat in the car and had my cheese salad tea and about 10 minutes later I walked along the bottom track to meet Gary (local Cley birder who lives at Hilltop). We chatted briefly about lack of birds etc and then as the people who had gone into Walsey earlier were coming down the steps, I walked back to the car and left.

Little Ringed Plover, Daukes Hide, Cley NWT.


Swallow, Daukes Hide, Cley NWT.


Little Egret just coming into land!


Little Egret, Daukes Hide, Cley NWT.

It was about to pour with rain so thought it would be a good time to go to Dauke's Hide again. I just made it before the rain fell. 2 Little ringed plovers close to the hide. A huge plane was doing very odd movements on the horizon and was fairly close, lights on/off, going west, going east, climbing steeply - I thought it was going to crash in the sea! Andy J. joined me and the rain came down and 2 Greenshank appeared and also 2 Med. Gulls. We were hoping for the Bonaparte's Gull to drop in! Anyway Gary who I had seen earlier came into the hide and I found out later he had come to look for me especially - thanks Gary! to tell me that the people who had gone into Walsey before me, had photographed a red bird feeding on the ground and showed him on their camera as they didn't know what it was - it was A STONKING MALE ROSEFINCH!!!!!!!!!!! Noooooooooo!!!!!!! Gary had spent a while looking for it after that, but hadn't seen it. So off all three of us went to see if we could find it. Sod the gull, I wanted that rosefinch! We stood at Walsey overlooking the feeders and nothing. I walked through the centre path and back round the bottom - as I climbed the steps to get back to the top again, Andy J. said quietly 'its here Pen' - OMG and there it was, absolutely stunning bird. BUT it was incredibly quick and VERY mobile, feeding on the ground for sometimes only a second, not quite long enough to photograph at all. I have no phone signal at Walsey Hills at all, so someone else put the news out to RBA and several local birders turned up quite quickly! The bird teased people terribly, flitting across left and right, landed for a nano of a second before flying under cover again!!!

Meanwhile reports of the Bonoparte's Gull were being reported again on the marsh at Salthouse (big area)!!!

Drove home late!

COMMON ROSEFINCH