I've been to Specsavers...

...well Gun Hill actually. The Spectacled Warbler turned up last Monday just as a started the stretch of rota that sees me with only Wednesday off, a day I already had plans. So for a week I have read the blogs of friends and wanted to headed to Burnham Overy dunes, but surely the bird wouldn't stay to give me the chance. We luckily for me it did, so today dad and I headed up the coast. We arrived about 10am and didn't have to wait long for the Spectacled Warbler to show. Although it spent much of the time scrabbling through the sueada, on two occasions it perched up singing, before resuming what looked like nest building activities. The bird was always quite close and there was no need to my scope, the below photo was taken on my hand held compact camera.

The warbler had a supporting cast of Little Tern, Spoonbill and a slightly unseasonal Ring Ouzel, alongside the commoner species, before we headed further inland. The birds were harder to come by, with the exception of Common Whitethroat that seemed to be in every hedge. But we saw Tree Sparrow and Montagu's Harrier our target species.

Travelling back toward Kelling we saw a Little Owl sunning itself near Stiffkey, sadly he got camera shy. Two Yellow Wagtail were seen near Warham and a Barn Owl was hunting over the meadows in Cley. Kelling Heath was, with the exception of Linnet rather quite,  and the hoped for Woodlark and Dartford Warbler could not be found. A fly over Turtle Dove excited dad as he hadn't seen one or 3 years, and a family of Stonechat was nice to see.

Since my last blog posting I have on my travels to and from work seen a Red Kite and one of the juvenile Peregrine. Closer to home a Song Thrush has taken up residence in our garden, he has taken to singing from the guttering right out side our bedroom window at 5am and leaves snail shells all over the path.