East To West Birding On A Glorious Summer Day!

After almost no sleep, I left early morning and returned to the Blakeney/Langham area and had a little cruise round, just in case the male Red-flanked Bluetail decided to relocate, move.... or the finder decided to allow a few people to visit her fabulous bird!!! No hope with any of this, so went to Gramborough Hill at Salthouse!

It was a glorious day, but I was very tired from yesterday's big trip! Dunlin and Ringed Plovers + chick on the pool next to Gramborough Hill. Only birds in the scrub at the hill were Linnets, Goldfinches, Blackbird and several Red Admiral butterflies. John F. joined me and a bit later Mike E. I was seriously impressed with Rob Holmes's insanely light camera set up that he showed me yesterday at the Bee-eaters. I was talking about this with John and Mike this morning – more on this another day.

Went to the Cley Visitor Centre NWT and purchased a hot Cheese Scone to take out, YES!!! Sat in my deckchair by the car and enjoyed my scone with a cup of coffee overlooking the marshes. Parked up at Walsey Hills and ambled around the reserve. Warden Emma wasn't there, so presumably on her day off or on holiday. Took some arty farty poppy pictures with the iphone and amazingly managed to photograph a Sand Wasp sitting on a white stone with my phone too! Sat on the seat overlooking the new pond, which is maturing nicely. Goldfinches, Chaffinches and a Robin were on the feeders. The bottom public footpath is quite overgrown and needs trimming again (council's job).

Had a wonderful snooze in my car at Coastguards, had some lunch – I felt exhausted! A family were having a full barbecue in the sea watching shelter, or as Eddie calls it 'The Beach Hotel'. Didn't really see any birds of note whilst here.

Popped into CleySpy to ask Andrew to fine tune my phone scoping kit, which he did. Long and short of it is, that if I remove the protective case, the entire thing works tons better and I can now take pictures as well as video! Huge thanks to Andrew and the CleySpy team. Enquired about the forthcoming Swarovski NL's 8x32's.......!

The highlight of the day was spending lots of time at Natural Surroundings and Bayfield Lake! Such a beautiful spot and the little footpath that runs alongside the lake was looking so pretty and I was the only one here! Spent a long time photographing Banded Demoiselles, both male and female, perched on iris's and reed stems. Several Red Admiral butterflies seen and also a Speckled Wood butterfly. Lots of damselflies skimming over the water and a Mute Swan was at the far end of the lake. Walked along the entrance road to photograph the magnificent Gunnera plants, which my late mother particularly loved. So peaceful here and so beautiful.

Headed east and parked up at Stiffkey Campsite car park. Walked all the way through the clifftop wood and back in hope of finding something mega, but only found a pair of Blackcaps and some Wood Pigeons! Left here and parked up on the concrete pad at Garden Drove, Warham. No one else here. Walked along the very overgrown track to the copse at the bottom. Horses have been along here and didn't bag up their sh*t!!! LOL! So I had to be very careful where I placed my feet! Very short bird list: 1 Blackbird, Chaffinches, Robin and 2 Chiffchaffs!

Ended the day at North Point Pools, Wells. On getting out of the car, I realised I was too tired to even get the scope and tripod out of the boot! So scanned the pools with binoculars only. Three Marsh Harriers seen and one flying over put up all the Avocets and other waders up into a frenzie. Swifts and Swallows skimming over the pools. Had a coffee and left. Saw a Barn Owl flying through a gap in the hedge just before I left Wells.

LOTS OF PICTURES TO BE ADDED