Choices of fog

red sky at night shepherds delight - my arse - it was foggy

We could have stayed home due to the poor visibility this morning or spend three hours in the valley seeing bugger all till the Long Itch Diner opened or sod it and head east and if the weather stayed crap at least we gave it a try.

So east we headed and though the fog was pretty bad in places we made good time in reaching the Big Chill Café where 9 Whooper Swan flew over.

Once fed and watered it was back on the road and conditions had brightened so much that by the time we arrived at Hunstanton you could see both the Boston Stump and Skegness Big Dipper across the other side of the wash.

Unfortunately what little visible migration there was it was either going over high or diving in to cover before it reached us so did not identify a lot but the sea was productive with Great-northern Diver, 5 Red-throated Diver, 6 Common Scoter, Red-necked Grebe, 25 Great-crested Grebe and 10+ Gannet plus 2 Grey Seal.

Moved on to Titchwell where we had 3 Spotted Redshank, 2 Greenshank, 10 Little Egret, 2 Marsh Harrier, Water Rail, Cetties Warbler and Chinese Water Deer on our way to the beach. The sea conditions were not ideal as the chilly north east wind picked up but after an hours effort we had managed to find 3 Guillemot, 2 Eider, 30 Common Scoter, 40+ Gannet, 6 Red-throated Diver, 4 Great-crested Grebes and 7 Red-breasted Merganser on the incoming tide and by this time a notable Starling passage had started with 1000+ counted between here and Wells-next-the Sea.

Spent some time on Holkham Freshmarsh but only managed 2 Buzzard, 2 Marsh Harrier and a Merlin plus a few Pink-footed and Brent Geese before we put the bins away and chilled out with Fish and Chips overlooking the harbour at Wells- next-the-Sea. Nineteen more Whooper Swans seen on the way home and Dave had 2 Red Kite but by then I was in the land of nod.