Holme NWT, NOA & Titchwell RSPB!

No sign of the male Red-backed Shrike at Holme Dunes NWT this morning, when I searched thoroughly at 10.15am. I found it very odd that a 'no sign of' message came up on my RBA pager at 9.46am, when you can't access the Forestry until 10am?! Whilst I was here, I didn't see another birder at all! Parked up in the NWT car park and queued up for lunch, but got inpatient. There were too many beach goers, families and dogs for my liking.

Went to HBO and chatted with Sophie for a while. Saw a Stonechat on a fence post just yards from the observatory which was nice. Nothing else of note seen. Returned to my car and went to Titchwell RSPB for lunch and then left to go to the family home for my usual chores. Cleaned and changed the bird baths, watered the plant pots, quick sweep round. Chatted to a neighbour for ages about the house and then a couple turned up unannounced to view the property – I showed them the garden, but not the house and didn't need to anyway as they said it would be too much for them to take on.

Returned to Titchwell RSPB and walked along the main path and joined Mark and Tracey Bradbury. It started to rain, so I relocated to Island Hide. Shortly after I escaped the rain, Mark and Tracey also escaped and went to Parrinder Hide. A very productive evening with highlights being a Little Stint and a Continental Black-tailed Godwit (both found by Mark). Other birds seen: lots of Knot, Black-tailed Godwits, Redshanks, Ruff, Dunlins, Med Gulls, Black-headed Gulls, Shelducks + lots of juvs, Avocets, Teal, Mallard, Pied Wagtails, Common Tern, Marsh Harriers, Cormorants, Egyptian Geese x 2, Lapwings, big Starling flock bathing, Swifts, Swallows, House Martins, Sand Martins, Reed Buntings, Spoonbills x 3, Sedge Warblers, Coot, Moorhens, Oystercatchers.

Around the Fen Trail there was a wonderful surprise! A Water Vole was feeding on reeds at the edge of the Dragonfly Pond! Unusually I had almost no battery left on my iphone, otherwise I would have done a video. 6 Little Egrets, 2 Mute Swans + young on Patsy's Pool, lots of ducks, but didn't ID them properly, as it started to rain again, so I speed walked back to my car.

Drove back along the coast road and pulled in at Gypsy Green, just before the bridge at Old Hunstanton. There was a flood here by the field which held 2 Common Sandpipers (which flew the second I pulled up in the car), 3 Mallards, 1 Black-headed Gull and a Pied Wagtail. I had not expected to see Common Sandpipers here!!! Drove along Waterworks Road as far the golf club entrance road and found a Hare feeding amongst flowers, but no birds of note aside from Wood Pigeons. Parked the car by the church and duck pond at Old Hunstanton, but apart from the usual ducks waiting to be fed, there was nothing else of note here at 8.30pm! Arrived back in King's Lynn – cleaned my bird baths out, topped up bird table and fed the Hedgehogs!