2 photos of the 'Alder' Flycatcher, large waves and a sunbathing Common Seal!!Up at 4am, in the car and off to Norfolk at 5am along with Joan Thompson, Phil Busby and Chris Sharp (nice to meet you!) Arrived at Cley beach car park and was nearly blown off my feet by the gale force wind!! Joan decided to take the boat from Morston to Blakeney Point but the 3 of us decided to walk (must be mad). With the 3 miles of shingle and strong wind it took 90 minutes to reach the plantation (7 or so trees!). After a short wait the bird popped into view and did so on and off for the hour or so we were there but as you can see from the photos above it didn't always perch out in the open too long although the pro's managed some good pics. The bird in question is an American member of the Empidonax flycatcher family but are very difficult to seperate in the field. It's most likely an Alder Flycatcher which is the same as the only previous UK record, the Cornwall bird 2 years ago. After seeing this bird my first Redstart of the year was seen nearby and 2 Wheatears and some Gannets were seen on the way back.
Once poor Joan had struggled back to the car soaked to the skin like the rest of us I informed her of a Bonelli's Warbler at nearby Wells Woods. We arrived and wandered into the dell. An hour of chasing around and all i'd seen were 2 Pied Flycatchers (year tick) and 2 Garden Warblers and a few Redwings. But in the end I saw the warbler but only in flight for 2 seconds so couldn't count it! Just after that a Siskin flew over.
No comments:
Post a Comment