MEGA - Dusky Thrush

Ok , I must admit that every now and again I can't resist a bit of out-of-county twitching for a British tick!
The Dusky Thrush was not the best looking bird I have seen, in fact, this first winter female was probably the dullest of all the Thrushes I have seen in the UK but she was very rare. A new BOU tick for almost every UK birder and the first twitchable bird since the late 50's

On arrival she sat in a tree almost motionless surrounded by a few hundred birders. Almost impossible to get a photo as she thought she was out of sight. The presence of so many people chasing the poor bird may have been the reason she was gone the next day!

My first new bird in the UK since last Spring.. and completes a nice selection of rare Thrushes I have seen here which include (in order of my best memories) White's, Blue-rock, Red-throated, Naumann's, Black-throated, Swainsons, Grey-cheek, American Robin.

Seeing this bird was great but finding birds (even if just scarce rather than rare) is much more exciting. So will be back on the Norfolk coast next time!

The terrible shot below shows how hard she was to view.. But close prolonged views meant that all the features could be noted.

Good raptor passage today but  somehow managed to miss Osprey and Montagu's Harrier at Cley and turned back along Point only to find that a female RBFly was found in plantation later in day! Ahh

Highlights of the walk (part of the way!):
3 Wheatear
Willow Warbler, 3 Whitethroat, a hunting Sparrowhawk, Kittiwake.

N hide.. A few Black tailed and one Bar tailed Godwit. A few high soaring Buzzards and Marsh Harriers but little else of note

Better luck back at the Eye field with 5 Wheatear and 7 Flava Wagtail which included at least 3 Blue-headed Wags.. One was a nice bright male

Grey-headed Wagtail

Was alerted to an interesting Wagtail in the eye field by resident birder Tom Green. Very happy when I saw a stunning male Grey-headed Wag appear next to a female Yellow. This is a subspecies I have never seen despite it being a regular scarce passage migrant (mainly mid May)

Much darker head than any Blue-headed would be .. Small white throat does also appear fairly normal and within variation for Thunbergi... Although I will not even go into the hybrid possibility but it had no pale supercillium visible so can't see any reason why this would not be a pure Grey-headed.... Now, a Faldeg would be nice!

No photo as the bird disappeared as I tried to digi scope it... So you will all have to make do with a rubbish sketch instead!

Other birds of note today: 3 White Wag, 4-5 Wheatear, Little Stint, 30 Dunlin, a few Bl t Godwit, Whinchat...

Spring in Norfolk

Was quite pleased with this photo, taken this morning with my phone.

It has been a while since I have posted anything here. This is mainly due to the birth of my beautiful daughter. It means limited time for birding .. But when I do have some spare birding time, I make the most of it!

Today found a really nice drake Goosander while driving over a small bridge in N Norfolk. Scarce around here. A sprinkling of other migrants such as Little Terns, LRP, Nightingale. A Sparrowhawk hunting low over the shingle along Blakeney Point but very few migrants on the ground despite the E Winds...

Will be posting mainly on Twitter only for a while but will try and do a blog update from time to time