October Holiday Pt 1 Norfolk

 My usual  holiday started last weekend-the usual October fortnight.

My first chance of a trip was on Sunday 4th. Ideally it would have been to Hartlepool for a Masked Shrike. I had missed the first two records due to ill health, and despite misgivings Colin and I decided to go for it, but with apparently poor restricted views and zero social distancing we bailed and headed for Norfolk instead. Not a bad idea as much of the east coast was covered in. migrants all Saturday. Unfortunately as it turned out a lot had departed overnight and the Shrike showed well all day with a better behaved crowd.

We got to Titchwell not long after first light with only a couple of cars in the car park. There were a lot of thrushes heading east overhead with smaller birds like Siskin, pipits and a nice Crossbill.  There were a few Blackcaps and tits feeding on the car park apples and I glimpsed a larger pale warbler which could have been Garden or possibly Barred. There were also several Bullfinch as well. 

We headed off round the Fen Trail in the hope of migrant chats etc but it seemed a bit quiet. There were a lot of Song Thrush, Blackbird and Redwing in the trees but smaller birds were hard apart from a few Chiffchaff and crests. Dunnocks and Robins tried their best to be Redstarts and Flycatchers. At the end of the trail at Willow Wood I found and eastern (probably Siberian) Lesser Whitethroat-the first I'd definitely seen, but it was too far from the camera. Over the pool and reed-bed masses of hirundines were feeding-mainly House Martins but lots of Swallows and a few Sand Martins as well.

Walking up the bank, the usual assemblage of waders and wildfowl were on the marsh, but Colin found a Swift, so I alerted the guys following us but they had already had a message from further ahead. We got closer and became rather excited as the scope views seemed to show a brown bird with a pale throat-all signs of Pallid Swift, which being October is pretty much the expected Swift. Unfortunately close views put paid to that idea and it turned out to be Common-very unusual at this time of year.

The sea didn't produce much. There were hordes of gulls and waders feeding on razor clams trhat had been washed up on the previous weeks storm, but the south easterlies meant that there were few birds passing offshore apart from a couple of Gannets and a flock of Wigeon.

After lunch we headed to Burnham Norton. It was a bit showery and windy and the small crowd part way down the track had not had a sighting of the Barred Warbler for some time. A couple of Blackcaps and some Redwings were feeding in the bushes and again Robins and Dunnocks tried hard to be rare. Further down on the dunes, the reported Radde's Warbler hadn't been seen since early morning, so we gave up and headed to Holme instead.

I havent been to the NOA observatorty for a few years, so it was a bit of a shock to see the state of the wooded dunes after recent years storms with large open areas where we had in the past seen things like Little Buntings, Flycatchers and chats feeding in and under trees. What the open areas did provide though were many more hirundines, and some more Swifts! We may have seen a dozen in total and I guessed that storm Alex had brought them up from the Mediterranean.

The dunes otherwise seemed quiet so we went into the reserve which offered more sheltered feeding areas. Sophie directed us to the Heligoland trap  where the Blythe's Reed Warbler was lurking. While waiting we also checked the birches and pines opposite, and patience produced three Yellow Browed Warblers, a female Pied Flycatcher, Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests, and my second Siberian Lesser Whitethroat (this had been trapped and ringed). Eventually the Blythes Reed also showed-as I had only seen various bits of two birds previously it was nice to have a whole one for a change, out in the open and not skulking as typical. One couple had spent several hours over two days before they got to see it so we were rather lucky.