Hooded Merganser Titchwell

Well after a week of rain, westerlies and gardening, Colin and I decided that unless something came up, we would go to Titchwell on Saturday. It was expected to be dry with light winds so it was a bit worrying when I woke up to rain-we had quite a lot overnight. There was no sign of it letting up when Colin arrived, and it wasn't until we got past Ely that it started to improve.
We called in at Choseley briefly in a pull in south of the barns. The adjacent fields were full of Pink Footed Geese, with around a 1000 visible and many more flying around. As usual there were also a lot of Red Legged Partridge and a couple of Buzzards sitting on the ground. Apart from a small Linnet flock and some Skylarks there weren't many small birds around and there weren't any thrushes at all.
Titchwell was jam packed, as shortly before we arrived a drake Hooded Merganser had been reported, so all the locals were turning up in the hope of a county tick. It was initially on the fresh marsh and then flew into Patsy's pool for a nap. Before we went for it, we spent about an hour around the fen trail and on the tank road looking for warblers. Several yellow Brows were present-I think I heard three different birds and there was also a Siberian Chiffchaff. This proved to be a bit more challenging as there didn't seem to be any Chiffchaffs present. Eventually a classic juvenile appeared and shortly after a more interesting grey and brown bird with very dark bare parts. This spent a bit of time in an elder before flying off with a short piping call-pretty convincing for the Siberian. Two male Blackcaps entertained us while we were waiting and on a couple of occasions a Long tailed Tit flock passed through but the Yellow Brows never actually showed for us.
Eventually we made our way to the pool to see the Merganser. Most of the time it was asleep but woke up on a couple of occasions. The wings appear to be intact and apparently there wasn't any trace of rings, so there is some hope it might get through as a wild bird.

Water levels on the fresh marsh were very low, but as the tide was out, most of the waders were on the beach. The only notable sight was a flock of 52 juvenile Ruff-with another 7 birds elsewhere this was probably the biggest I've ever seen.
We didn't spend a great deal of time looking at the sea-the southwester-lies meant that there weren't many birds around, though a juvenile Gannet flew by just past the surf line. Had to give it a check to eliminate a Booby......
The Grey Phalarope that has been hanging around Thornham Point for a few days was still present so we headed up the beach and climbed through he dunes to the old control tower. Interestingly it wasn't spinning around on the water as they usually do but feeding on the marsh. Unfortunately this meant it was very obscured and I didn't get any decent images.

We returned to the car for a spot of lunch and then spent about an hour back on the fen trail and walked along the big hedge adjacent to the paddocks. Looked good for Barred warbler but apart from a few crests, lots of Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters the best i could manage were a few Blackbirds which never turned into Ring Ousels. We did get to hear one of the elusive Yellow Brows again, and found quite a few Chiffchaffs but nothing out of the ordinary this time.