Breydon & Rush Hills

10th August 2009

The offer of a lift to Rush Hills to see the Baird's Sandpiper saw me & Adam go to Yarmouth to meet Gary. With time to kill, we walked around both parts of the cemetery in the drizzle, seeing bugger all. The highlight was a Herring Gull trying to bring up worms by dancing on a grave. After this we still had time to kill, so we went to Breydon Water, where we met a birding tramp. As I walked into the hide, I thought "ah a birder. Hang on, why does he have a 2 litre bottle of cider? Oh no" He then surprised us, by saying something about how many Avocets there were (500+ at a rough count), and proceeding to tell us how he couldn't see some of the waders because his binoculars had been stolen. He must be a few years off the birding bandwagon, because he asked if we'd seen the Wood Warblers at Kelling.

Having made our excuses and left, we walked round to the Tern platforms (1 Arctic, 20+ Common), seen a juvenile Cuckoo and 16 Little Egrets. We had time for a cup of tea at the station, before meeting Gary and going to Rush Hills. A birder at the hide helped us onto the Baird's, which was on a dark stretch of mud with a Little Stint, some Dunlin and Ringed Plover. Distant views, but a life bird nonetheless, thanks to Time Allwood and Andy Kane for finding and IDing it. On the way back to the car we stumbled across a mimicking Acro warbler, annoyingly another Reed. Adam noticed a smart Garden Tiger Moth near the path.

Back to North Walsham, chips for tea, then off to the White Swan for drinks and pool.