WInterton Dunes - 27.10.13

 

The "Nice" Shorelark!

 

After breakfast we again said our goodbyes as I wanted to make sure I was home before the storm hit. But not before we visited my Norfolk local patch. After paying to park in the beach car park we walked into the south dunes to the trees below Hermanus holiday park. After a short wait I heard the bird I was hoping for call so I called the other birders over and shortly after out it popped at the lower limbs of a Sycamore. There giving better views than the Lowestoft bird was my 2nd Pallas's Warbler in just over a week! I managed to get Tom on it but I knew his heart lay down at the beach and throwing stones into the sea!! I picked it up another twice before we left which impressed Tom into saying "You're a very good birdwatcher dad"! We went  down to the beach and he was happy lobbing his stones into the sea as I looked for the Shorelark that was around. Eventually another birder found it and after a couple of photos I let Tom have a look through my scope. "Nice" he said! A quick scan of the sea saw a Red-Throated Diver flying south and last weeks scoter flock were still present minus the Velevet's. I wasn't done there though as I headed north towards Trimingham. I stopped in Horsey for a quick take away sarnie and then in Walcott for an ice cream for Tom and 29 Pink-Footed Goose that were in the field opposite! These stops though cost me in the end as by the time we reached Trimingham and walked to the cliff top the Pallid Swift had flown out to sea 5 minutes earlier never to be seen again! Even worse news broke by the time I had reach the traffic jam in Thetford that a Black-Browed Albatross had flown north just a mile or two along the coast albeit 3 hours after we'd left!