A New Year and Two Lifers.

Colin and I decided to do the usual New Year thing and visit the Titchwell area of Norfolk. I was a bit unsure about how things would pan out, but I managed to get through the day without too many problems.
The day started out as per usual with a singing Robin as I got up closely followed by a croak from the local Carrion Crow. A Blue Tit arrived on the fat feeder and then Colin arrived. It was a bit of a drag adding a handful of species as we drove up the A10 and by the time we got to our first destination I had accumulated a year list of around 15.
The farm between Sedgeford and Ringstead has a nice big dung heap-a great place to kick off the year!. The attraction was the male Eastern Yellow Wagtail which has been around for  a week or so. Luckily most had already been up to see it so it wasn't too busy, but there was a steady turn over of visitors while we were there.
Although the Yellow Wagtail complex is a bit of a minefield with various subspecies and head patterns throughout Europe Asia and Africa, it has recently been split into two species with the divide somewhere east of the Urals, and the eastern species have a much harsher call than (most) of the western ones. All the previous records 0f which there have only been a few accepted have been the grey female/juvenile plumage whereas this is a first winter male and is a bit of a stunner.
We first saw it on the side of the dung heap but then flew down to the puddles in front of us and was heard a couple of times.

It was very cold there and after about half an hour of very close views-amazing in the scope we decided to carry on to Titchwell, missing our usual call in to the Thornham Harbour Twite.
Unfortunately with a lot of water there weren't many birds apart from wildfowl on the fresh marsh, but things improved somewhat as we reached the tidal areas and the beach. For once pretty much all the available waders were found-no need to wait until autumn for Spotted Redshank this year. The sea was a bit quiet and it was pot luck as to what various people were seeing and I missed several divers grebes and sea duck that others had reported. Visibility was a bit poor though the clam sea was some compensation as most birds were distant.

After lunch we headed home via Chosely. The huge flock of Pink footed Geese-several thousand strong held a few Tundra Bean Geese which proved a bit hard to find though the Barnacle Goose stood out rather better. Some Russian White Fronts were also in the flock but they were very hard, tucked well down in a corner dip behind a hedge but did show occasionally. No idea if there recent Lesser White Front is still around.
The next stop was at Fring where many more thousands of Pink Feet held more Tundra Beans, Barnacles and more importantly a Grey Belled Brant from Melville Island in arctic Canada. This enigmatic form of Brent/Brant has been reported on a few occasions in Ireland and elsewhere in the UK but this was the first that we were able to get to. Looked very good, and despite the distance really stood out in the binoculars.
A quick pit stop and shop at Welney provided a stunning hunting Barn Owl and a flock of Tree Saprrows before the light went completely.