Bank Holiday Birding at Burnham Overy Dunes & Gun Hill Twice!

ICTERINE WARBLER

Burnham Overy Dunes

Another incredible day's birding with hundreds of migrants, my second Booted Warbler of the weekend and a stonking Icterine Warbler this evening!

The alarm went off at 5am – it killed me to get up, but there was no messing about this morning – this weekend is as serious as it gets! Arrived at the carpark on the main road to walk Burnham Overy Dunes at just before 7am. There were several cars here aleady. It was a beautiful, sunny morning and it felt so exciting to know that I had a whole day out in the field.

Set off along the track and as soon as I reached the oak tree on the left hand side in the ditch, I stumbled across 2 Spotted Flycatchers! One of them posed on a branch and I quickly got the camera onto the bird. But my camera for some reason was in automatic selection point mode when I looked through the view finder!!! I couldn't understand what was going on. I switched the camera off and on and it still remained the same. It was on single point focus when I last used it yesterday and I have not touched the menu at all. It was so frustrating and this resulted in me getting naff pictures of the Spotted Flycatcher. A young man whom I recognised, was walking down the track with his Canon gear, so I stopped Robin to ask his advice. I would just like to say how massively helpful he was, he was determined to fix the problem for me and even though I said don't worry, I am stopping you birding, he persevered until he has fixed it, so huge thanks to you Robin if you are reading this and nice to chat to you this morning. It was such a relief when my camera was back to how it was supposed to be!

 Spotted Flycatcher at Gun Hill.

 Spotted Flycatcher at Gun Hill.

Willow Warbler feeding at Gun Hill.

Willow Warbler at Gun Hill.

 Whinchat at Gun Hill.

At the end of the boardwalk I dropped down from the sea bank to walk through the sueda to search for yesterday's bluethroat, but found only Willow Warblers and Reed Buntings. I watched a Pied Flycatcher, Redstarts flitting about and Spotted Flycatchers amongst the bushes. I was just going to walk to Gun Hill when the pager bleeped up with 'BOOTED WARBLER at Burnham Overy Dunes at east end just west of Holkham Pines'. I took a slight detour and crossed the dunes and watched loads of Wheatears, Meadow Pipits and Linnets on the short turf near a water logged area – an amazing sight! On route I bumped into Anthony Griffiths who was the finder of the Booted Warbler and he told me he had first seen the bird on a bush at very close range initially and then on a fence wire! I carried on and reached the east end of the dunes to stand with other birders. It wasn't too long before I had several views (although brief) of the BOOTED WARBLER in a large sallow, south of the footpath at 9.45am. There was a good selection of birds here aswell including Reed Warbler, Willow Warbler, Garden Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Whitethroats, Whinchat, Redstarts, Spotted Flycatchers, Pied Flycatchers and also 3 Marsh Harriers. Nice to see several familiar faces here including Steve W. and friend, Jim S. etc etc. I left the crowd (approx 30 people) and walked back along the fence line. There were two birders standing on a hill who I joined as they had seen an interesting cinnamon coloured warbler. Suddenly a Wryneck appeared on a bush, not too far away at 11.45am. Also saw more Garden Warblers, Whinchats, Redstarts and Lesser Whitethroats here. Dave Holman and Julian Bhalerao joined me and others to look at the Wryneck – its wasn't photographable though! I left here and walked back to the board walk and watched a stunning Lesser Whitethroat flitting about in the bushes where I had photographed the Greenish Warbler last night and also a lovely Redstart who posed for the camera. It was now 12.35pm.

 Redstart, Burnham Overy Dunes.

As I walked along the path through the sueda towards Gun Hill, I soon realised there were far more birds here, than on the east, dune side of the boardwalk. The place was alive, there were so many birds. In fact there were so many birds around Gun Hill, my arms ached from lifting up my bins every two seconds!! Seriously it was awesome! By 1.30pm there were at least 100+ Wheatears, 100+ Linnets and similar numbers of Meadow Pipits if not more, 20+ Redstarts, 15+ Spotted Flycatchers, 6+ Whitethroats, a couple of Lesser Whitethroats, 70+ Willow Warblers, a Yellow Wagtail on the short turf with at least 15+ Pied Wagtails, a Pied Flycatcher, a Whinchat, a Wren, 2 Kestrels. At one point I had 6 Willow Warblers balancing on a dock stem together – I just couldn't believe the sheer numbers I was seeing. The Willow Warblers were really bright yellowy ones – it was an absolute joy to witness this amazing spectacle! I searched hard to find something extra special and spent a good amount of time by the bushes on the seaward side of Gun Hill but only found more Willow Warblers here. I was chatting with Steve (Norfolk birder, know his surname) and also Irene Boston, whilst we watched Redstarts and 2 Spotted Flycatchers flitting about. It was now decision time, I had run out of food a while ago, was hungry and needed to think about where to spend the rest of the day. It was also incredibly hot and I could feel my nose burning even with suncream on! I decided to walk back to the car and have some late lunch. On route back at the beginning of the boardwalk, I bumped into Rob Lambert and girlfriend Lucy who had seen a Pom Skua at Gramborough, Salthouse this morning. Back at the car I collapsed, sat on my rug and had coffee, sandwiches, grapes etc. Up on the pager came news of an Icterine Warbler at Gun Hill – I knew this was going to happen, I was expecting it!!! Oh well, I expect it will be gone just as quickly or would it? The clock ticked by and there was no news or updates about the Icky.  I sat in the car and drifted away to the land of nod for about half an hour. As I woke up I could see birders walking back to their cars, so I shot out of the car and quizzed them about the Icterine Warbler – it was still there and showing well apparently – pity birders didn't ring that news out, but hey ho! Rob Lambert and Lucy also walked back and they had also seen it and it was a really nice yellow one apparently. It was too much now, I had to see this bird!

Got myself together and walked out there again! Several other birders also walking out there, told me they had walked Blakeney Point this morning and had seen the same selection of birds as I had seen at Gun Hill earlier. On route there was news that a second Icterine Warbler had been found in the bushes at the end of the boardwalk. When I reached the end of the boardwalk I branched right to stand with other birders on a hill looking down onto some bushes where the Icterine Warbler showed a few times, but only for a few moments before disappearing again. A birder there told me he had been watching the Icterine Warbler at Gun Hill when it flew off and headed for the bushes at the boardwalk, where we were standing now, so sounds like the same bird possibly. The bird was a spec in my camera so I moved over to a different closer position and stood quietly and waited. There was a Pied Flycatcher in the same bush and the Icterine did appear a couple of times and then flew really close to me, like really close and with my heart beating nine to the dozen I attempted to photograph it unsuccessfully as there was loads of vegetation obscuring it from what would have been a full frame picture! The bird then flew off around me and towards the apple tree/bushes. I followed the bird and cutting a very long story short ended up standing in the sueda below the sea bank and stalked the bird very carefully and it ended up flying to a bush right in front of me and I got some cracking photos of it in the sunshine. Also whilst I stood here a Stoat popped out of a hole and squealed! This would have made a wonderfully cute picture if there hadn't have been a whole clump of marram in front of the Stoat!

 ICTERINE WARBLER, Burnham Overy Dunes.

I then decided to try for the Booted Warbler again and walked to the dunes with another couple, Sheila and Frank (hope I have their names right!). It was getting late and this was probably crazy, but there we go! On the way I excitedly found a Wryneck, which quickly bombed over the hill – probably the same bird that was seen earlier (maybe) – I only obtained a record shot of this bird. Joined four other birders at the spot where the Booted Warbler was seen from but it had not been seen for ages. Frank and Shelia walked back and I was the last one here. I sat and had a coffee and a sandwich and then walked back – it was pretty dark now! The last half of the walk was in complete darkness and I at least was sensible enough to have a torch this evening. Got back to the car at 9.15pm! Home at 10pm! Crazy day, crazy weekend!!!

No. 23 in the Top 1000 Birding Blogs [http://www.fatbirder.com/] this evening. I think that's the highest its ever been, thank you all for your support and lovely comments I receive, both by email and when I'm out and about birding, it is much appreciated.

A few more pictures to be added