On Friday morning the news that Alex Berryman had found a 1w Brown Shrike at Warham Greens had me getting all hot under the collar! Particularly because I missed the only other Norfolk one at Weybourne a couple of years ago. Norfolk ticks don't come around very often these days so it was an anxious wait for Belinda to finish work in the early afternoon so we could shoot up to the coast.
The drive up was surprisingly quick and we even managed to get a space to park on the concrete pad beside Garden Drove cutting down the walk quite a bit. Making our way to the field west of the drove we were greeted by a small well-behaved gathering and more importantly the bird showing straight away! It favoured the sheltered south side of the hedge keeping low down in dead weeds most of the time and hunting in typical shrike manner by dropping down onto insects. We watched it for a while until we'd had our fill and I'd got a few shots. 2 Redstarts were also along the same stretch of hedge.
With a few migrants obviously arriving on the easterlies we plumped for a walk at Holkham after that. Doing the section westwards from Lady Anne's Drive along the seaward side and back through the woods I found a single Redstart and another single Pied Flycatcher plus a very welcome pristine Wall Brown of what is presumably the 3rd generation. It was my first for about 3 years. A large tit flock near the pool contained only a female Blackcap and a few Goldcrests of note.
A celebratory pint in the Warham Three Horseshoes was most enjoyable!
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