Penny and Lucy at Gramborough Hill, Salthouse
Picked Lucy up mid morning and we drove straight to the Cley Visitor Centre NWT for lunch! It was a blustery day with north west winds and considerably cooler, but I loved it. I hated the hot weather we had to endure over the Summer. I'm much happier now the temperatures have dropped. I had arranged to take Lucy out today a while back and I soon realised with the strong north west winds forecast, that I was going to potentially miss out on the first decent Autumn sea watch!
We had a lovely lunch, cake and drinks and luckily managed to get the last seat by the window overlooking the marshes. Bumped into Andrew Bloomfield and others here and also met a lovely lady who reads my blog every morning, so her husband told me. From here we could see the rolling surf crashing onto the beach – lots of sunshine, dramatic skies and strong winds gave us a exhilarating day. Lucy spent some pennies in the shop and then we left.
We had a bracing walk to Gramborough Hill at Salthouse and also bumped into James Mc. and Kane F., who were looking for early Autumn migrants. There was a Wheatear on one of the fence posts and there was a Lesser Whitethroat (we didn't see) in the main scrub. Nothing else of note, but later elsewhere we did see a Wasp Spider, which Lucy was very excited about.
Cley Deli to purchase Pear and Ginger Cake (diet going really well). Its a good job Lucy and I don't live together – we are as bad as each other where naughty food is concerned! Well, actually Lucy is far worse than me – ok, only slightly!
Stopped at Glandford Ford for a short while, where we had beautiful views of a Grey Wagtail from the bridge and then went on to 'Natural Surroundings'. Lucy prefers to sit and eat cake than walk too far, so sat in the cafe for more cake and a coffee, whilst watching the birds on the feeders. Note we had not eaten the Pear and Ginger cake yet – saved for later/tomorrow! Good numbers of birds coming to the feeders, including Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Goldfinches, Hedge Sparrows, Chaffinches and Wood Pigeons. Lucy fell in love with the Harvest Mice that were in the outside building at Natural Surroundings and was so fascinated by them, she didn't want to leave! They were extra cute and I could have stayed to watch them longer too, but it was a couple of minutes to closing time. I wanted Lucy to walk to the lake with me, but she refused, said her feet ached and wasn't going to walk anymore today.
Parked up at Coastguards, Cley at around 5pm and left Lucy resting in the car for a short while, while I had a quick scan with the scope, but nothing of note whilst I stood here sadly. I had missed all the main action earlier on, with the main highlight being a close in Leach's Petrel! Mark G and Josh (from Brighton) stood here too and Eddie M. turned up just as we were leaving.
Headed to Wells to deliver important documents and then to buy fish 'n' chips along the quayside. 'French's' had a long queue, so went to 'Plattens' – to be honest, the fish 'n' chips are just as good from this shop, but French's won an award, which is why it always has long queues!
Sat and had our fish 'n' chips in the car park at North Point Pools, Wells. From the car we saw 2 Spoonbills flying over and there were 8 Barnacle Geese on the distant stubble fields. Lots of gulls flying in to roost, Greylags, Egyptian Geese, Black-tailed Godwits etc. Local birder Gem told me that he had seen a Curlew Sandpiper and a Garganey here to, but I wasn't able to walk along the track to have a look, as Lucy had had enough and wanted to go home.
Cruised back to King's Lynn and dropped Lucy home with her Pear & Ginger Cake to enjoy later. Fed the Hedgehog/s, changed the bird baths and fell asleep, whilst watching Britain's Got Talent. My Pear and Ginger Cake will go birding with me tomorrow!
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