At the end of December 2016 a pale looking Stonechat was seen at Dungeness and was DNA tested and reported as a
Stejneger's Stonechat so a fair few people went to have a look including myself but into the new year it was revealed that a mix up in the lab had occurred and the bird in Kent was a bog standard
Stonechat.
Stejneger's Stonechat
Fast forward nearly 2 years and a bird just east of Salthouse village seemed to fit the picture for the rarer chat and so I joined Matt and George Moreton on a trip up. It was quite windy on arrival so it wasn't a surprise that it took over an hour to finally see the bird. Just after we left some poo samples were taken and a few days later it was confirmed as just the 4th
STEJNEGER'S STONECHAT for the UK so the trip was fully justified.
Pomarine Skua
Due to the wild weather we headed to Cley beach car park to do some seawatching. Driving up the beach road a
Short-eared Owl flew over the car heading inland and once at the beach shelter we were told to look along the beach as there was a
Pomarine Skua sat on top of the shingle ridge. We looked and sure enough we got our best ever view of this species. In the following hour we were treated to one of our best seawatching sessions ever with 2
Great Northern Diver, 3
Red-throated Diver, a
Long-eared Owl coming in off from the sea and inland, a
Little Auk zooming west close in, 2
Snow Bunting and 2
Long-tailed Duck past!
It then chucked it down with rain so we retreated to the car and went onto Stiffkey for a reported
Great Grey Shrike. 9
Little Egret and a juvenile
Spoonbill were noted but the highlight was nearly being decapitated by an in-off
Woodcock! No sign of the Shrike unfortunately.
2 more
Spoonbill flew over Holkham Freshmarsh as we drove past.
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