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