Golden Oriole still here!!!

Got home from work and started to doze on the sofa – there had been no news on the Golden Oriole today – but then it had been lashing down with rain all day and had anyone actually been hardcore enough to go out and look? Well somebody had to!!!! I got togged up in waterproofs, grabbed camera and bins and went off down the road to Snettisham Coastal Park.

I arrived at 6.30pm. As I pulled into the empty carpark I felt quite excited - I was the only one here and as an added bonus, the rain had just stopped - lucky me! Lots of wheatears on the large open area of grass, a big flock of linnets on the shingle bank, several cettis's warblers singing, along with willow, reed and sedge warblers. Cuckoos were calling and a common whitethroat was sitting in the same bush that Jim Swalwell had first found the Golden Oriole on Sunday. I walked through the very water logged paths, through the gorse bushes and eventually to the area where I last saw the Golden Oriole. Ahead of me I could see Jim Scott who is Site Manager for Snettisham RSPB Reserve. At 7.15pm a bird suddenly came into my line of focus, bounding past me, back in the direction I had come from - it was the Golden Oriole!!! Jim Scott now joined me and told me that he had just been watching the Golden Oriole only 10 ft away on the ground before it took off - I was absolutely gutted, if only I had not had that snooze earlier, that could have been me!!! I could see where the Golden Oriole had dropped in, but much searching was sadly in vain. I trudged back along the water logged paths to the carpark. A barn owl and a marsh harrier were also seen on the way back. I am mystified as to why this Golden Oriole has stayed so long - unless of course there is a female around, that we don't know about!