Continuing the twitchy theme from yesterday there is a bird up on the North Norfolk coast of a species I haven't seen for many a long year.
Red-breasted Goose has become very scarce in recent years but 2022 has seen 3 turn up with one amongst the Brent Goose flock wintering in the Cley/Blakeney area. With the bird having been reported on Blakeney Freshes I parked at Cley Sluice only to realise the flock was way off from the bank there and only partly in view. So I relocated to Friary Hills where I was able to get to higher ground. Here I located the flock of c400 Brent Geese and the star attraction nice and easily. I watched it at length before heading back down towards the quay where a captive bird of the same species was on the duck pond! A Cetti's Warbler sang from the edge of the marsh as I sought sustainance in the new 'Two Magpies Bakery'!
After that my plan had been to head west along the coast but news of the wintering Short-toed Lark having been seen again at West Runton I decided to head there. After all I had loads of time and it was another species I'd not seen for yonks. So, I did the whole circuit of the stubble field it favours checking flying Skylarks (c30) and Linnets (c120) because the stubble was too high to see anything on the deck. In 3 hours I managed 2-3 flight views which were better when I'd moved away from the clifftop so I wasn't looking directly in to the low sun. 3 Stock Doves and 2 Common Buzzards were the only other sightings. All rather underwhelming compared to the splendor of the goose!
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