22nd/23rd September

One of few weekends, where the weather was looking promising enough to encourage me to escape from the broads and head back up to the coast, was something of a mixed bag. Several good birds, but not the fall of common migrants that I had hoped for.   

Saturday started off with a Yellow-browed Warbler in the hand at Holme, accompanied by the Red-breasted Flycatcher performing in the nearby Sycamore.... unfortunately none of the 60+ observers staring into said tree, heard the Little Bunting which flew out behind them calling! After seeing it perched in the Brambles along the East bank and legging it back to the Obs, the bird had (off course) disappeared. A newly arrived Redstart, in the dunes towards Thornham Channel, proved to be something of a short lived hope than an afternoon arrival of migrants might have been on the cards, with a thorough search of the dunes yielding little more than a single Fieldfare and a flyover group of seven Brambling.

After a bonus Hawfinch, outside the bungalow at Snettisham, Sunday morning was spend in Burnham Ovary dunes, where after about two hours I had seen two, yes TWO, other birders. Either everybody else knew it would be rubbish, which it for some reason was (migrants at Gun Hill being represented by a sole Robin) or they were all at Holme looking at the Red-breasted Flycatcher! Good job that somebody else found a Booted Warbler next to the path on the way down. After a stop at Warham Greens to admire the male Red-breasted Flycatcher, the increasingly persistent rain called for a premature end to the day and a retreat back to Norwich for some much needed (and thoroughly enjoyable) steak and ale pie.