So off we set yesterday mornin' around 0500 arrivin' at Warham Greens just after eight. How we got there in one piece I'll never know, Malc was drivin' the old Mystery Machine as if it was a formula one car and at one point on the A17 I almost shat meself as we missed an head on collision with a forty foot artic by literally a few feet as Malc pushed himself to the limit in his quest to be the first man down his road to join the 300 club!!!! Luckily pour moi I'd been for a tom tit before I left home otherwise it could have been a tad messy owd duck!
Two and a half hours at Warham produced zip! No sign of either the Pallas's or Yellow-browed Warblers only a single Chiff'. Good views of the dark-bellied brent's could prove useful later in the year if old David the Brent turns up again in Cheadle.
With a Little Auk up for grabs off Cley coastguards we hit the road again and after almost skittlin' several wellie wearin' toffs in Cley as they took their mornin' constitutional we arrived to find the auk had flown off! The only birds of note here were a single bonxie, around fifty Common Scooters and a Red-throated Diver preening close in shore. Despite drawin' another blank we decided to hit nearby Stiffkey Fen in hope of jammin' on to the Little Bunt' that was seen briefly on Saturday.
No sign of the bunta but plenty of birds on the scrape with two Bearded Tits showin' quite well close to the dyke. Lookin' at that scrape just emphasised pour moi how fortunate coastal birders are in comparison to inland birders. There must have been at least thirty Pintail on what is little more than a large puddle. Bloody hell last weekend I was chuffed with just one Pintail at Croxden which is one of the largest holes in Europe!!
News of a Yellow-browed at Muckleburgh had Malc's nostrils flarin' so off set at warp factor three in the old Scooby Doo Van. What followed next left both me and old Norbert completely shell shocked . Spying a blonde photographer the normally very reserved Malc' started chattin' and displaying to the young lady as if he were a Ruff at a lek!!! I've never seen the old chap seem so lively and animated. At one point he threw his coat down on the ground and beckoned her to join him despite other birders bein' present!!! Anyway it did the trick and she offered to show us all where the Yellow-browed had last been seen. The YBW was feedin' in a Sycamore and so when news of an RB Flicker at Holkham broke our blonde friend bade Malc' a fond farewell and strode off like a moden Lady Godiva minus the horse, well that's how the mad lad sees her.
Anyway back to birds and despite lookin' through tear stained bins our Malc' connected with the little swine almost immediately as it chased two or three Chiff's around but then gave directions to the wrong "tree"! The tree was a bush! Just then another lady birder turned up and fortunately for her Malc' only noticed her when she read out a pager message that said" RED-FLANKED BLUETAIL AT HOLME". That's when I stepped in and said "right lads no more ######' about let's go see a real bird!"
Three quarters of an hour later we were strikin' out across the dunes at Holme towards The Firs where the bluetail was bein' ogled by around fifty other birders. After around forty minutes we finally had a brief view as the bluetailed gem fed on the ground under the Sea Buckthorn. Luckily for us it then flew in our direction and dived into the scrub right infront of us. At this point I was right at the front of the assembled throng sittin' on the ground when my Fawlty Towers ring tone suddenly went off amid the silence of the crowd as we waited for the bluetail to reappear!!! Luckily pour moi I managed to locate me 'phone pretty quickly and switched it off but knew full well I could be facin' the wrath of our Jan later after ignorin' her call. Over the next twenty minutes the bluetail showed again briefly twice within' ten yards of us and just long enough to unleash The Beast on TARSIGER CYANRUS!
Amid all this one thing struck me and that was that a pal of mine has now seen three bluetails in a year and only just ticked Yellow-browed Warbler!!!!! How mad is that? It doesn't seem five minutes since I was moping around at home unable to get time off work to see the Winspit bird in '93, now bluetails have been relegated to nothin' more than almost typical late autumn migrants.
That's all folks.
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