Adam and I arrived at Friary Hills and spoke to Stuart White who had told me that the bird had flown into a tree towards Cley but was viewable still. So we left the car and started to walk to the far end of the hills.
Whilst walking along 3 Crossbill flew over head heading west which was nice to see. We got to the end of the hills and scanned but no sign of the Egret, so I suggested the sluice track to Adam and we headed up there. During the walk back a mini Thrush influx had occurred with at least 5 Song Thrush and a small flock of Redwing around the bushes.
We got to the sluice and walked some way out but still no sign, I then got a glimpse of what I was sure was the Cattle Egret flying behind the hedgerow and landing in the cattle field out of view so this time Adam suggested the Wiveton Hall Farm Shop/Cafe and indeed from here the bird was showing well from the field directly opposite.
After this we headed to Salthouse and did a stint of sea watching, with the highlight being the unmistakable grey hood of a Puffin flying west. Many Razorbills and Guillemots were also flying past as well as many settled on the sea.
From here were walked to the West hill and down the middle track seeing nothing of note. A quick lunch at the Dun Cow I added Grey Wagtail to the pubs list. Then just before leaving I spotted a large Thrush that had come in off the sea and fly behind the hedges to the west of the pub, in what was a brief appearance it had a nice super and its back looked a dark navy in colour, the body of the bird itself looked a mottled mess with no distinctive markings. We then spent over an hour looking for this mystery bird but had no luck in finding what was probably a manky Blackbird.
From here we took the footpath the lead us to the Iron Road, a few Redpoll's flew over and two Siskin flew in off the sea as we walked along the single ridge back to the car. A Swallow also flew through.
After this we spent our last time of the afternoon scanning through the hundreds of birds at Cley from Bishop Hide and below are some pics.
Here is a really good video of a Common Snipe.
This Teal was so close you can actually see the refecltion of the hide in its eye!
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