Out Birding at last!

Got up late, visited my parents and delivered a huge coffee cake to father which I bought from the Knightshill Farm Shop at King's Lynn. Father loves coffee cake and so do I - but I didn't have any at all as I am dieting again (seriously this time, no really!).

Holme Marsh Reserve NWT
Complete waste of time as all you could see out of the flaps of Hide 1 and 2 were reeds. The skies were gloomy and grey and not a single butterfly was seen either.

Cley Coastguards
Bumped into John F. and Pete S. and together we walked to North Hide in hope of the Pectoral Sandpiper that was seen yesterday. The sun had finally decided to break through the grey clouds and it turned out to be a beautiful evening. Nice selection of birds including marsh harrier, several ruff, avocets, dunlins, redshanks, spotted redshanks, black-tailed godwits, 7 Spoonbills, lapwings, cormorants, shelducks etc and LGRE! No Pectoral Sandpiper in view though! The Short-toed Lark at BP had only been seen first thing this morning. I suddenly remembered about the recent Red-veined darter Dragonflies that have been seen at Kelling, so off I went with John F. Paul W. and others to find them in the now glorious sunshine.

Kelling Water Meadows
Black-tailed Skimmers, meadow browns and bees were seen. 2 Egyptian Geese on the edge of the pool and that was it. But I did have awesome views of a barn owl hunting and actually got some half decent shots on the camera, which cheered the day up.

Went to Walsey Hills to inspect the bottom public footpath - what bottom path? Its as though there never was a path its so overgrown - never seen it this bad. Lets hope the local council cut this back soon - its going to be seriously hard work to cut back, now its in this state!

It was now 7.45pm and a bit too late to bother going to the NWT hides so went to Cley Coastguards again - sat here eating the rest of my lunch/tea. Norfolk Exhibition Project Committee has some arty farty pieces located on the shingle bank at Coastguards including a giant Teepee constructed from reeds, a giant metal toaster and two other pieces. Saw a barn owl here and watched the swallows flying back and forth to their nest. Sandwich, Common and Little Terns all going west along the beach. 2 spoonbills flew east across Beach Road as I left. A beautiful sunset this evening with shards of light radiating down to the horizon over the sea.

The finale of Festival Too was this evening with headline acts being Marcus Collins and Lemar, but I couldn't be bothered to go.

PICTURES TO BE ADDED