Spoonbills at Cley

We headed to Cley this morning quickly ticking the five Temminck's Stints before moving on to the Eastbank where we found another year tick with nine Little Terns sitting on Arnold's Marsh. A Little Stint was reported but we failed to find it. Back in the car and we noticed four Spoonbill flying over Walsey Hills and watched as they doubled back to drop in front of the new Babcock hide. We parked up and enjoyed good views of the four birds feeding which was a real pleasure as most encounters with Spoonbill tend to be hours of the birds resting with heads tucked away out of site.

Spoonbill

Flying over Walsey Hills

Spoonbill

Avocet

Avocet

Mipit

Mipit at Salthouse

A quick drive along the Beach Road at Salthouse gave an opportunity to grab a few images of a Meadow Pipit  before we headed home stopping on route to watch the American F-16 fighting falcons putting on a show at Lakenheath as they came in the land. We also saw a C-17 transporter take off. Now I know it's not bird watching but I challenge anybody to watch these fighter jets taking off and not get something from the experience. The F-16 cost around 14million dollars according to the WWW and travel at over 1500MPH. The noise of one of these jets  passing over at these speeds is unbelievable and a memorable experience. If you're passing Lakenheath take a minute to watch them.
The F-16's won't be here long as they head back to Florida but the F-15's take off most days.

An F-16 Fighting Falcon

The F-16 in all it's glory......what a thrill.

The C-17 transporter

Year list now 247 and one off my best May total of 248