Nov 3rd Cley

I've been missing out on this years migration action with many rare birds visiting the UK. I just haven't been able to travel as far as I have been these days. So today, Mum and I made our way to Cley to see if anything interesting was about. It was a bit of a drizzly day, but not enough to get wet in. We paid a visit to the central hides, though it was mostly teals, godwits and lapwings at Pat's Pool and gulls at Simmond's Scrape with the odd dunlin and spotted redshank.



Yellow-legged Gull

For me, the gulls were the most interesting birds out on the pools today. There were a great mixture of species amongst them. There were great black-backed, lesser black-backed, herring, common, black-headed and even a yellow-legged gull. Gulls are not exactly an easy group to identify or the most appreciated, but seeing all these species in one place together is pretty impressive in my eye. The yellow-legged in particular was an exciting find as it is likely visiting from somewhere in the Mediterranean of all places.






As I felt like I've been missing out with my birdwatching lately, I decided to leave Mum to head back to the visitor centre and go for the long walk around the reserve. I made my way to the beach car park via the path on the embankment on the west side of the reserve. A large gaggle of possible a hundred or so brent geese greeted me as they grazed by the fence bordering the car park and I could see a few distant barnacle geese in the next field up.



Guillemot

As I made my way to meet up with Mum at the top of the East Bank, I met a lot of sea watchers with their scopes. Autumn is a great time of year to for those who love to scan the sea for birds passing by and you never know what will turn up. Sea watching isn't my strongest point as a birder, but if it is big enough to spot or sitting on the water close to the shore, it makes the experience much easier. In a short session, I was able to spot a few gannets, a red-throated diver, a guillemot fishing not too far from the shoreline and a cormorant that caught an eel.

Female Long-tailed Duck

Further along the beach, I met another large group of people, this time looking in the opposite direction. A flock of about 40 snow buntings were a little bit hard to spot amongst the shingle just over the reserve's fence, but that wasn't what everyone in the group was looking at. What caught their eye was a female long-tailed duck ducking and diving in a pool on the far eastern corner of the main reserve before you reach the East Bank. Its probably only the second time I've seen one that's not bobbing about on the sea. Possibly the main highlight at Cley for me today.