Hot Birding, Hot Day!!!

A VERY hot day indeed with tons of traffic, shorts, tea shirts, sunhats, dogs, children, ice-creams etc etc! More importantly what a fabulous choice of birds in Norfolk today!!! Then evening news of a MEGA ALPINE ACCENTOR at Gibraltor Point NNR in Lincolnshire, would have got the engines revving! What will tomorrow bring?!

I didn't get home until 10pm, so am absolutely shattered and its taken ages to write up all today's bird news, so I will be far briefer than usual.

Went to find my own birds. Paid £3.50 for 2 hours parking at Wells and searched the woods for migrants. I didn't see the reported Pied Flycatcher, nor did I see anything else of note, aside from a few Blackcaps, Whitethroats, Cetti's Warbler, Long-tailed Tits and a Goldcrest. Just before I sat by the drinking pool, just east of The Dell,  I disturbed the cutest thing ever – a gorgeous Muntjac fawn, it was so tiny with big white blotches on its body, it had been drinking at the pool with its Mother and both of them ran into the wood – I only managed to get a record shot sadly. Wells car park was full to the max, as you can imagine on a hot day.

At Garden Drove, Warham I found a lovely Spotted Flycatcher half way along the track at 3.30pm, but it wouldn't play ball for a photo. Several Blackcaps and Whitethroats here, but nothing else of note. I missed MAG's and Steve B's Osprey by approx 15 minutes!

At Cley NWT Visitor Centre I watched the Black-winged Stilt distantly from the car park! Parked by Old Woman's Lane and walked to the hides to have a closer look at the Black-winged Stilt which I watched from Teal Hide – gorgeous bird, but not close enough for my 300mm lens. Some really nice birds on the scrapes too, including several cracking Ruff, a Greenshank, Black-tailed Godwits, Avocets etc. Saw Dave Foster in here, Jill and Rob Wilson and met Marcus Nash's son who was a very knowledgeable young birder. Walking back from the hides I got some cracking pictures of a very smart Reed Bunting.

Walked to Gramborough Hill at Salthouse where I saw a Short-eared Owl fly west. In the main bushes on the hill I saw 2 Stonechats, Linnets, Meadow Pipits and a Whitethroat. Over the marshes south a Heron was feeding. Spent a while watching tons of Sand Martins above the sandy cliff, whilst watching the waves crash on the shingle and the sun setting over Cley marshes – stupendous!

Walsey Hills produced a midge festival from hell, so retreated quickly! Returned to Teal Hide and watched the Black-winged Stilt alone until 8.30pm. Went to Waterworks Road in Cley and heard a Cuckoo calling before driving home.