Wells Wood

Many of the good birds of the weekend had already passed through, but i still thought I'd give Wells Wood a look, with nothing else to do on my day off. The constant drizzle felt blissful compared to last Saturday's rain and gale force winds. Walking the sea wall to the woods i saw 3/4 Wheatear, and then by the toilet block in the woods found my best bird of the day, a Red-breasted Flycatcher. In the Dell i found 2 Redstart, 1 Pied Flycatcher and a Great Spotted Woodpecker. A few tits flitted in the treetops but the light was not great to look through the canopy. The scrubby area south of the main path proved to be the best area by far, i walked the area twice, turning up 1 Ring Ouzel, c20 Brambling, 4 Redwing, 5+ Redstart, 8 Blackcap, 1 Barred Warbler, 2 Whitethroat, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Garden Warbler and numerous Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff. Between times i walked a short distance towards Holkham on the main track to where the Bonelli's Warber had been seen earlier in the week. No sign of the Bonelli's today, but while in the area with another guy we found a second Barred Warbler, Garden Warbler, Yellow-browed Warbler, Pied Flycatcher and 3 Redstart. Robin seemed to be in every bush and probably included many 'migrants', a large number of Pink-footed Geese where in the fields south of the woods and more seemed to be joining them in off the sea. I thought about walking to Holkham hoping to find the Wood Warbler, but 3 hours of drizzle had me quite wet. Walking back via the toilet block it was nice to see a birder i had sent in that direction earlier had finally found the Red-breasted Flycatcher and a flock of Siskin flew through. Although quick look in the bushes by the lifeboat station failed to turn up much, 2 probable Twite few over landing on the saltmarsh across the channel.