Thursday 13 November 2014

Windswept Desert Wheatear

On Tuesday and Wednesday night I had heard several Redwings calling whilst flying over the garden. What a difference a couple of days makes! My trip lunchtime today Thursday 13th November, at around 12.15pm I drove back to Gorleston beach and was greeted by murky grey skies and a brisk strong south- east wind. I walked along could not initially see the bird but something flitted past and into a tuft of grass by the beach wall opposite Cliff Avenue. Another bloke had seen it in this area and I met up with ex- Pat Geoff who'd spent the last 20 years in Australia and was back home making his home at Lowestoft. A dog walker with a dog flushed the fine female Desert Wheatear out by the wall and it flew back on the stone ledge and showed well before being seen by the posts and then flying further along. With the sand starting to blow around time to gt the camera safely in the bag and get back to work! At 8pm this evening I heard at least 4 Redwings flying over Tesco's Supermarket at Gunton.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you found the waxwings (and that I was right spotting them). Finally getting round to reading more of your entries and realised I could identify a bird I'd spotted at Dunwich in September. The book I checked it in did say it was a Wheatear but I didn't believe it.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/YZnaVkDhglRH4UsnJuPnS9MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Peter Ransome said...

As you can see one of the Waxwings is currently being used as a header picture for the blog! Thanks for the tip off. September is probably the peak month for Northern Wheatear migration on the east coast, and Dunwich would be a typical spot.