North Norfolk & Coate Country Park

                                                       North Norfolk  10th August

Icterine Warbler .

My first trip was to North Norfolk on Monday the 10th  , i started of at Burnham Overy Staithe to look for the Icterine & Barred Warblers that had been seen the previous day plus any other drift migrants that might be around , i spent a little time looking for the Barred Warbler along the track but without success , these can be quite elusive at times despite being big bulky warblers.

Very close Icterine Warbler.

I decided to carry on and look for the Icterine Warbler which has been showing very well indeed , and no sooner had i arrived at the group of bushes it had been seen mostly from when i got onto it straight away but not in the bushes !! it was actually foraging on the sandy path right in front of me !!

Icterine Warbler on sandy path.

I have been lucky enough to have seen several Icterine Warblers over the years but have never seen one this obliging , incredible views were obtained .

Cracking looking bird.

I spent sometime here and enjoyed prolonged views of this cracking bird before i headed off to Titchwell RSPB reserve , i added plenty of waders as you would expect including some close views of Avocet & Ruff ,there was good numbers of Black Tailed Godwit , Knot Dunlin with a few Bar Tailed Godwits amongst them.

Close views of Ruff

However the star of the wader show was a summer plumage Grey Plover which was quite stunning to see , i also saw 5 Spoonbills here.

Grey Plover.

Coate Country Park  12th August

Spotted Sandpiper in full summer plumage.

On Wednesday the 12th i  headed to  Coate Country Park in Wiltshire and my target bird was a Spotted Sandpiper in full summer plumage , i arrived in good time and made my way round to the bird hide which the Sandpiper has been favouring , and it was packed with all the regular local birders taking all the front row seats , i had missed the Sandpiper by about 10 minutes but was told it normally flies back in after approx 30 to 40 minutes .

Lots of spots.

Well after an hour it still had not reappeared , one of the local rangers popped into the hide and asked the local birders to give up their seats as they have already seen & photographed the Sandpiper lot's of times and fair play they all gave up their seats without complaint and eventually after nearly two hours the Spotted Sandpiper flew in and gave us all some fantastic views , this was a very welcome year tick for me .

Spotted Sandpiper.

Other birds seen here were at least 3 Kingfishers , Grey Wagtail , Common Terns and plenty of Hirundines hawking over the reservoir .