Early Bird, Late Bird!

I didn't bother posting yesterday as I HAD to do lots of important, but boring jobs. After being very quiet in the Holme household over the last few days, things got out of hand again last night and Father was very distressed indeed. Feeling guilty about not going over last night to support my poor Mother, resulted in a very poor amount of sleep. I got up early and drove to Holme early morning.

Arrived at my parent's house at 6.45am. I have a key for emergencies, so let myself in. To my surprise, all was quiet – both parents were still asleep, which is very unusual at this time. I sat in the armchair in the dining room and waited for someone to wake up. Only birds seen in the garden were pheasants, fluffy juv. Hedgesparrows, a Robin and a couple of monster sized rats. I spent most of the day with my parent's, helping with as many chores as I could, to give Mother a rest. I washed and dressed Father etc and then had a blitz in their hall and sorted all the tablets out and had a general tidy up. Plugged the new phone in and sorted that out. I was quite horrifed when inspecting the dates on my Father's latest batch of medication from Boots The Chemist in Hunstanton – they were ALL out of date, not happy is an understatement!!! I will be ringing them on Tuesday!!! I had a cat nap in the afternoon for half an hour. Left Holme at 3.20pm. Pouring with rain and terrible 'Sunday drivers' on the road.

Arrived at CleySpy just about in time before they closed, to drop off both my Paramo Coat and Waistcoat. I have been meaning to drop them in for a while, as both zips have broken. I will have to wait a few weeks to get them back from Paramo, but wanted to get this done before the colder weather kicks in.

I had a desperate need for cake – I HAD to have some! Just made it to the Cley NWT Visitor Centre with 1 minute to spare before they shut, to purchase a piece of carrot cake to take away. I sat at Beach Road, Salthouse to enjoy this with a cup of coffee and very nice it was too. I decided that I would sit here and wait for the rain to stop and then blitz Gramborough Hill for all the easterlies megas that would be dropping in (yeah, right). I was not the only one with the same idea! David Bratt was sitting in his car in front of me and Eddie Myers was sheltering in his car behind me! John Furse's car was already parked up and empty, so John had obviously braved the rain earlier.

A short while later, the rain eased off enough to head to Gramborough Hill and we all searched hard for something exciting. John had indeed been here earlier and had sat in the pouring rain waiting for 'all the bluethroats' to drop in. The only bird I saw in here, several times was a Willow Warbler. Other birds seen by others here were Garden Warbler, Robin, 2 Hobbies and also a Hummingbird Hawkmoth which John had watched feeding on the buddleia in the rain!

Kelling Water Meadows is a good place to find Barred Warblers, so that's where I headed off to next. The rain had eased off (again) and I headed along the track to the water meadows. The rain then started to fall heavily and I attempted to shelter under a tree. I spent a good while watching Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers, Long-tailed Tits and 1 Lesser Whitethroat flitting about and feeding in a large sycamore tree. I had good views of the juv. Red-backed Shrike between the fence line and a bramble bush, viewed from the far corner of the pool and also saw three Wood Sandpipers amongst the Teal, Greylag Geese and pair of Mute Swans. Also saw a juv. Goldfinch, heard Whitethroats,saw 2 Linnets distantly and watched a Kestrel hovering. Several Swallows, Sandmartins and House Martins skimming over the pool. Walked back to my car in failing light and got home around 9pm.