Nov 16th Cley

I'm back at Cley today as I've heard that there has been an Isabelline wheatear that has been hanging around for most of this week. This is a scarce wheatear from Eastern Europe and it sure was attracting a crowd. From the visitor centre, you could see where the bird was from the amount of people watching it. You could see a crowd of them by a gate at the far end of the dunes east of the East Bank and many more people making their way there to replace others returning back that were clearly satisfied in seeing it. Shortly, I was going to join this on-foot traffic.



Snow Bunting

I made my way to the East Bank, trying to get to the bird as soon as possible. When I reached the beach at the end of the main path, I was momentarily stopped in my tracks as a flock of snow buntings flew from the mound of shingle to my right to right in front of me. Their mix of white and brown plumage blends so well with the shingle stones and pebbles that it would have made it tricky to spot them if it wasn't for their movements betraying them.

Following the trickle of twitchers making their way eastwards along the same shingle mound to join the main crowd, I was just a few yards from them and I could see the end of my walk to the bird in sight. But then, another distraction. An even larger flock of maybe 50 snow buntings flew over my head and landed right behind the crowd. None of them seem to have noticed or even given them as much as a glance their way before the flock took off again and out of sight.

Isabelline Wheatear

Finally, I had reached the crowd by the gate and was soon pointed into the direction of the bird I came to see. The Isabelline wheatear was standing still looking a bit sleepy amongst some grass before it decided to hop around a bit. This was a really charming little bird, as you expect from a relative of the robin. It looks no different to a normal female northern wheatear (the species you are more than likely to see in the UK) to me, though. I guess the real difference would be that the Isabelline wheatear is more paler than the latter.

Happy and satisfied with the amount of photos I took of it, I decided to make the return journey to meet up with Mum. On the way, snow buntings distracted me yet again and, as I reached the East Bank, I learned that the female long-tailed duck from two weeks ago was still diving around the same pool a few yards west of the bank. As I was watching the duck, Mum arrived and we continued the walk back together. However, there was an obstacle in our way. Another crowd had formed overlooking a dyke and we had to get pass them. On our approach, members of the crowd stopped us and instantly got us to join them with just one word. "Otter!" Mum and I only manged one quick glimpse of it swimming across the dyke, but it was more than enough to cap a great visit at Cley today.