Tuesday 7 May 2019

Great-spotted Cuckoo Weybourne Camp Norfolk

We set off a little late this morning but still arrived in Chalkpit Lane by around 10am and very quickly found the reported five Dotterel hiding in the field on the west of the road. The birds were hunkered down and not at all mobile and were in the company of two Golden Plover.

Dotterel record shot
Dotterel...not easy to pick out in the gravel
We moved on to Titchwell and found another year tick with Turtle Dove as one fed on the path just past Fen Hide where the staff have put some seed on the floor funded by operation Turtle Dove.

Turtle Dove
Greylag
Greylag
We had a good walk around Titchwell and then decided it was time to chase the Great-spotted Cuckoo to give the old man a lifer if we could. The Cuckoo has been giving the locals the run around for a few days but with news that it had been seen at Gramborough Hill we decided to drive down and see if it would stick at all. On arrival the few guys on site said it had only been seen in flight heading towards Weybourne so we jumped back in the car and drove down to the Weybourne beach car park. We walked along the shingle beach to view Weybourne camp only to be told the bird had just been seen to drop out of the pines and head back towards Salthouse. Back in the car and heading west again we decided to try Muckleburgh Hill to view the trees at Weybourne from the other side just in case and to cover all bases and this proved inspired as on arrival we got the thumbs up and quickly shared good scope views of the Cuckoo sat in the trees in the "clump". It gave a couple of short flights before dropping into the bramble and out of sight.

The massive crowd at the hill
The clump at Weybourne viewed from Muckleburgh hill 
Whilst on site we picked up another year tick with a Hobby hawking over the hill.

Year list now 243

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