4th February - Frozen Gonads - Part II

Well after a marginally better nights sleep in the car, I stepped out of the car and did a few star jumps to help thaw out my balls! After a toilet stop I and a brush of my teeth I was ready for another days birding! First stop was Titchwell, hoping for Black Brant. On arrival there was no sign of the Brants, but plenty of other birds to see. The pick of the waders were Avocet, Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit and Spotted Redshank. A nice Marsh Harrier gave some good views. A brief seawatch produced three drake Long-tailed ducks.....nice! The Cetti's Warbler gave a burst of song (note I say The, like there is only one, or I know him personally - I think his name is Cedric, though I am not really sure as I think the conversations I thought I had with him were in my sleep deprived head). I met a birder who had travelled down from the North East, though there was no sign of the Little Gull (hmm)! We got nice views of a Brambling on some nuts (not mine) by the visitor centre.

After some scran, we made our way to Thornham again to get more spondicious views of the Lesser Yellowlegs.

Next up was the long trudge to the pumping station at Snettisham. I estimated it was about a 375000 mile walk, as I wore out four pairs of boots and one pair of knees by the time we got to the pumping station. The long walk was worth it (sort of) as we got amazing (ly distant) views of the long staying Black-eared Kite!

After more views of the Kite we decided to head back towards Cley to look for Black Brant. I had been reliably informed by super birding information service Birdnet that there had been regular Black Brant on the Pitch 'n' Putt course at Wells. On arrival there were no geese on the course, however a quick scarper up the banking revealed that there was a largish flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese on the saltmarsh. We begin scanning through them to try and locate the Black Brant. Before we could check them all, the flock took flight and they landed on the pitch 'n' putt course. It was not long before Craig picked out the Black Brant amongst the flock. We got excellent views of the bird and a good opportunity to get some half decent pictures! This was an excellent finish to our birding for the trip, all that was left was the journey back home!