Two-barred Crossbills - the day after the day before!

I missed all of the excitement on Saturday, with at least six Two-barred Crossbills turning up across East Anglia, with four of them being in north Norfolk. So today I headed up to Cley where I picked up Mark Golley with the aim to try and find a 2-b Xbill of our own. First though we headed for a quick seawatch to see what was being blown in by the north-easterly winds. The best bird was a pale-phase Pom Skua, slowly gliding by, distinctly more broad and  rotund than the 7 or so Arctic Skuas that we also saw. A 1st-summer Little Gull, my first Red-throated Diver of the autumn, a juvenile Med Gull and good numbers of Gannets made for an interesting couple of hours. One of the Arctic Skuas, an adult dark-phase, flew over Eye Field and had a few dive-bombs at a Brown Hare, probably leaving the hare wondering what it'd done wrong!

Arctic Skua, dark-phase adult, Cley

Arctic Skua, dark-phase adult, Cley

Arctic Skua, dark-phase adult, Cley

Arctic Skua, dark-phase adult, Cley

Arctic Skua, dark-phase adult chasing Sandwich Tern, Cley

Arctic Skua, dark-phase adult chasing Sandwich Tern, Cley

First-summer Little Gull, Cley

First-summer Little Gull, Cley

First-summer Little Gull, Cley

First-summer Little Gull, Cley

First-summer Little Gull, Cley

Mark and I headed off to Walsey hills after the seawatch, but no sign of any crossbills of any kind and then we decided to finish the days' birding off with a walk from Stiffkey Fen along to Stiffkey Woods. The fen look quite good, with 9 Spooonbills, quite a few Med Gulls (adults and juveniles), 2 Green Sands, 5+ Common Sands, Common Terns, Whimbrel and about 50 Black-tailed Godwits. The walk along to Stiffkey Woods was pretty quite with very little to show for our efforts.

Juvenile Spoonbill

Adult Mediterranean Gull

Adult Mediterranean Gull

Adult Mediterranean Gull

Adult Mediterranean Gull

Common Tern

Common Tern

Eurasian Whimbrel

Eurasian Whimbrel

Eurasian Whimbrel

I missed all of the excitement on Saturday, with at least six Two-barred Crossbills turning up across East Anglia, with four of them being in north Norfolk. So today I headed up to Cley where I picked up Mark Golley with the aim to try and find a 2-b Xbill of our own. First though we headed for a quick seawatch to see what was being blown in by the north-easterly winds. The best bird was a pale-phase Pom Skua, slowly gliding by, distinctly more broad and  rotund than the 7 or so Arctic Skuas that we also saw. A 1st-summer Little Gull, my first Red-throated Diver of the autumn, a juvenile Med Gull and good numbers of Gannets made for an interesting couple of hours. One of the Arctic Skuas, an adult dark-phase, flew over Eye Field and had a few dive-bombs at a Brown Hare, probably leaving the hare wondering what it'd done wrong!

Arctic Skua, dark-phase adult, Cley

Arctic Skua, dark-phase adult, Cley

Arctic Skua, dark-phase adult, Cley

Arctic Skua, dark-phase adult, Cley

Arctic Skua, dark-phase adult chasing Sandwich Tern, Cley

Arctic Skua, dark-phase adult chasing Sandwich Tern, Cley

First-summer Little Gull, Cley

First-summer Little Gull, Cley

First-summer Little Gull, Cley

First-summer Little Gull, Cley

First-summer Little Gull, Cley

Mark and I headed off to Walsey hills after the seawatch, but no sign of any crossbills of any kind and then we decided to finish the days' birding off with a walk from Stiffkey Fen along to Stiffkey Woods. The fen look quite good, with 9 Spooonbills, quite a few Med Gulls (adults and juveniles), 2 Green Sands, 5+ Common Sands, Common Terns, Whimbrel and about 50 Black-tailed Godwits. The walk along to Stiffkey Woods was pretty quite with very little to show for our efforts.

Juvenile Spoonbill

Adult Mediterranean Gull

Adult Mediterranean Gull

Adult Mediterranean Gull

Adult Mediterranean Gull

Common Tern

Common Tern

Eurasian Whimbrel

Eurasian Whimbrel

Eurasian Whimbrel