RBS find (not the bank!)

Today I decided to go to Winterton, ideally to try and re-find the scarce blue tailed damselflies but failing that I had not seen Southern Emerald in Norfolk so thought what the heck its a win win situation as the SE's have been there all week.
As happens so many times when birding winterton....it seems dead! Even on a good day Winterton has so much habitat it is hard to work and hard to keep focus especially when there is sod all about. so today I walked about 800m before seeing my first grounded bird, it was however a Whinchat so I thought it at least showed promise. 6 Mipits flew South, reminding me that vis mig should be better than it had been up to this point too, but the sun was out and it was very pleasant. After another 8 or so different whinchats I thought there could be something else on the cards for today. At this point I saw a pale bird on top of a bush, bins up,  juv Shrike, nice one! The number of times I have wanted to see a shrike on top of one of the many decent 'shrike bushes' and now I had one, a juv. I had to look through the scope as it was pretty distant and fired off a couple of shots just to make sure I had something on record, pretty sure it was red backed though, then I noticed a dog walker heading straight for the bird...great. I tried to move closer to get a better view before it was flushed, put my camera up took the shot below and then it was gone. I could not relocate it dispite looking quite hard, each scan turning up more Whinchats on top of bushes but no shrike.I should imagine I had well over 20 Whinchats this morning in the dunes up to the concrete blocks, I'd only seen one before today this year. I phoned it into RBA and just made sure I had the id as Red Backed Shrike correct. Great start to the first bit of birding of the week. I didn't see the ode's I went for but got a good find to compensate nicely.

Morning seawatch

Seeing the number of seabirds reported off the North Norfolk coast yesterday evening I decided, having been woken up at 4.45 to head out and see what I could find.
I arrived at Waxham at 05.45 and began, the strong Northerly wind had my hopes high but unfortunately there was not as much as hoped for.
My totals were as follows 05.45-08.00

Sooty shearwater-3
Arctic skua- 4 definate with 5possibles
Pom Skua- 1 possible at long range
Manx Shearwater- 1 probable distant
Bonxie-1
Gannet 100+
Fulmar 26
Guillimot-2
Things far too distant in the haze, but looking interesting 20+!

There was stuff out there but it was all very distant going up and down on the horizon, there was also a bad heat haze due to a warm sea and cold air temp which didnt help. Good to see the Sotty's though, these passed through at medium-close range which was nice.

About time for an update

Its been a little while since my last update for so many reasons, I have so much going on right now I have hardly been out with binoculars in the past 3 weeks. I did manage to have a walk at Waxham on Monday which was pleasant if a little quiet. Was just nice to get out and see the sea and feel some fresh air to be honest.
The highlights of the morning were a Whinchat on the wires not far from Horsey mill, id'd at 40mph thanks to it flicking off the wire at the perfect time to reveal its diagnostic tail pattern. The other highlight was a flock of 32 Common Cranes all in a single field, I believe this is the most I have seen on the ground together before so certainly worth a mention, anywhere else in the country, or even Norfolk and there would have been quite twitch on for them.
The photos below showcase the incredible zoom on my camera too. The first pic is with no zoom, the arrow points to the thin strip of yellow field in which the cranes were, the second shows a zoomed image of part of the flock, pretty impressive for a 3 year old camera (Panasonic fz35)

Buckenham waders

I have been to Buckenham three times in the past three days. The pools are looking pretty good at the moment with water and muddy edges at a good ratio for a whole host of waders.
Nothing particularly special seen but
1 wood sand on fri and this morning
4 Green sands on fri and up to 6 this morning
2 Common sands this morning
2 Dunlin on Fri
1 Greenshank present both days
2 Whimbrel on the mill pool this morning
3 Little Ringed Plover

Also present are small family parties of Yellow wags, today I saw an adult with at least 3 fledged young (I winder if they are actually from Buckenham?).
Birds of prey have also featured well on all visits with 5+hobby's, 3 Buzzards, 2 Buzzard sp's, Marsh Harriers, Kestrels and Sparrowhawks all out and about.
Brown Hawkers seem to be featuring heavily along the riverbank too, one seems to take off every 10 paces!

Next week I want to report that I have found something like a stilt sand or similar, we'll see!