Friday 24 August 2018

Aug 24th Cley

Female House Sparrow
This afternoon, my parents dropped me off at the reserve at Cley while they went for a walk to the actual town of Cley just down the road. I had a couple of hours at three of the four hides around the main set of pools. There were plenty of waders at these pools, especially black-tailed godwits which were the most abundant. I counted 9 snipe along the edge of one of the larger spits of land, 2 little ringed plovers as well as several avocets, ruffs, dunlin, lapwing, knot and a few redshanks and shelduck. There was apparently a spotted redshank out there too, but everything took to the air when I started looking for it. I expect the culprit was a marsh harrier, though there was also a kestrel around very briefly.
Male House Sparrow
Black-tailed Godwit
Godwits, Lapwing and Knot
Knot and Black-tailed Godwit
Knot
Ruff
Lapwing and Snipe
Snipe, Lapwing and Dunlin
Avocet
Shelduck
Redshank
Woodpigeon
Dunlin
Lapwing
Little Ringed Plover

Rain clouds gathering over the hides and pools
The weather was fairly good for the most part while I was at the hides, but then it suddenly turned. The clouds grew dark and you could sense that it was going to rain any minute. Without a coat and worried about getting my camera wet, I made my way back to the visitor centre as quickly as I could. By some miracle, I got there just in time as it suddenly threw it down as I entered the building. My parents, on the other hand, were caught in it on their return from Cley-next-the-sea. Then, when they joined me inside, the rain stopped and a rainbow formed.


Black-tailed Godwits
Rainbow

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