Holiday Day 4, Pallas's Warbler, Two-barred Crossbill, Pallid Swift and Parrot Crossbill

There was a small part before Day 4, on the 22nd October during a walk with my daughters I found a Pallas's Warbler on the patch in  a huge tit flock, I also nipped into Winterton and saw the Velvet Scoter (could they be the same five that I saw fly past at Cley only the week before). Also got to see one of the three Shorelark that were around.

 

 

But here goes Day 4, 23th October.

I decided that it would be a good idea to head out a little later, winds from the west so nothing looked promising. With this in mind we headed for Lynford.

We arrived and kept ourselves entertained by looking at moths (Spruce Carpet Below) and Plants whilst waiting for the Crossbill flock to return.

Found some pretty trees also.

Eventually the flock returned and it wasn't long until I picked out the Two-Barred Crossbill, the picture is awful but never mind.

 

 

The flock got spooked by some nearby helicopter training and even though we waited in the area another hour they did not return.

 

After this we decided to head to Titchwell, but before getting to Docking news of a Pallid Swift at Cley had us headed in the other direction.

 

Last reports on route of the bird flying West made me stop at Blakeney Freshmarsh, no sign of it here. Another message on the pager has the bird viewable back over the Cley reserve. A quick drive through the village and we were watching a distant Swift.

 

We parked up at the beach car park, and slowly but surely we got some good scope views of the bird and I was able to please myself that it was indeed a Pallid Swift.

 

After 45mins or so the bird drifted east, we shot down to Salthouse so I could try and get a picture. The bird did arrive at Salthouse but before coming overhead it drifted out to sea and was lost to view.

 

During this time we'd received word of some Parrot Crossbills in Bacton Woods (my patch) so I couldn't resist but to look. We got some gen and headed out into the woods.

 

Bacton Woods are by no means small and a few Crossbill could go any where, we had been told of a flock of 25 Common and a smaller flock of 7 Birds that held 3 Parrot Crossbill.

 

After 3 hours searching going round in circles we finally heard a Crossbill(s) over the tree tops. We gave chase and found a group of 7 birds. They flew off over the trees and whilst out of sight one of the birds gave a Parrot call. They flew over the path again and landed in the top of a pine briefly before hopping down to another pine out of sight.

 

We walked down to see the tree we thought they were in...and nothing, not a sign or whisper of the Crossbills.

 

I continued to watch the trees for 10mins with no sign of any birds, they must of snuck off further than we thought, then a helicopter then flew over and would you believe it the Crossbill flock flew out from the very tree I was looking at.

 

It was getting late by now so we gave up and headed home, slightly disheartened by the fact that we technically had seen a Parrot Crossbill although it was as least one of 7.