Outing 6

Outing 6 of the annual 10 year project - a weekend with John B, Mark A, Rob L and guest appearances from Ian R and Sacha B...

Potential for rares appeared high on Friday 2nd, with reports of Norfolk Blyths' Pipit and Marsh Sandpiper... alas it was a quieter weekend than hoped - but not without 5 more ticks for the overall 10 year trip list

10 Years 10 Trips…
Trip Totals	81	117	115	98	112	107
Cumulating Totals	81	145	181	193	211	215
	Mull/Iona 8/9 May 2010	Norfolk 27/29 May 2011	Northumberland 23/24/25 Mar 2012	Speyside and Scotland Tour 3/4/5 May 2013	Norfolk and Suffolk 1/2 Mar 2014	Norfolk 3/4 Oct 2015

The new species - Golden Pheasant (quite unexpected at Wolferton - male on the roadside early morning), Yellow-browed Warbler, Arctic Skua, Great Skua and Great White Egret.

Some pictures...

Doh!witcher

Early afternoon was spent at Cresswell - reports of a long-billed dowitcher were suffice to make up for the miscalculated weekend. Friday night was a late one, so Saturday morning on Holy Island was abandoned, while Sunday morning reports from Phil revealed that the arctic warbler was no more. Saved some petrol I guess...

The dowitcher was readily available from the hide, roosting with snipe.  It didn't do much... until the seemingly resident great skua decided to pop over for a visit. Up and off...

Forgive the picture quality - I'm test driving some new image processing software.

Hard Lad

Also present - 1 merlin (caught a dunlin), marsh harrier, greenshank, ruff and a single great-crested grebe.

Not a great deal

A quick late morning venture up the coast with stops at Lynemouth (ruff, dunlin, yellow wagtail and a surprise tree pipit) then Cresswell Pond where the great skua still resides - apparently favouring coot for sustenance. No killing while we were there, unfortunately.

Gastronomic success was had at Widdrington Farm, with the consumption of two sausage rolls, a bacon pasty, chicken and vegetable pie, finishing off with Maltese slice and hot tea.