Searching for Rares at Burnham Overy Dunes!

    SUNSET AT BURNHAM OVERY    

With Greenish Warblers, Icterine Warblers, Pied Flycatchers etc bleeping up on the pager throughout the day, I just had to go birding after work this evening!

I decided to search Burnham Overy Dunes again and managed to get there by 5.55pm. There were several LBJ's in the sallow and brambles that just wouldn't show themselves, along the first section of the track. At the end of the boardwalk I watched 4 Pied Flycatchers flitting about in the main bushes/scrub, including one in the bushes just east of here – fabulous! Only managed to get a record shot of one of them though. I passed and chatted to two birders who had been searching for the Barred Warbler for over two hours with no luck – which doesn't surprise me at all, they can be elusive at the best of times!

Pied Flycatcher in the scrub at Burnham Overy Dunes.

I was the only person here now at Gun Hill, so hoped very much to find something exciting. The bushes on the seaward side of Gun Hill only held a single Chiffchaff and no LBJ's! There were no other migrants west of Gun Hill at all.

Trudged back along the seawall with failing light. A Green Sandpiper called and there was a massive gull roost in the harbour. 3 Spoonbills, 1 Heron and other birds that I couldn't ID because of light, were on the pool east of the seawall at 8.30pm. Suddenly I could hear the magical and haunting sound of Pink-footed Geese – they filled the skies and approximately 2000+ flew low over my head and landed on the marshes east of the seawall – the noise was tremendous! What a spectacle!!!

It was almost dark when I stumbled upon 2 Barn Owls sitting on the gate by the stile at the end of the track – they had no idea I was standing only yards from them – special moment indeed! They did fly off over the hedge as I got even closer though.

A Greenish or Barred Warbler would have been nice, but even without them it was a fabulous evening's birding after work.

I noticed on facebook that Ashley Banwell found the following at Burnham Overy Dunes this afternoon: 1 Barred Warbler, 2 Pied Flycatchers, 2 Spotted Flycatchers, 3 Whinchats, 4 Wheatears, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Willow Warbler, 2 Lesser Whitethroats, 1 Yellow Wagtail – excellent list!

    SUNSET AT BURNHAM OVERY