Breydon & Covehithe

I walked along the Breydon South wall 12th January, I had just missed rare showing by the Richard's Pipit by the kink in the wall around 3/4 mile south of the farm. Richard & Ian, the Dereham boys were there so it was worth hanging around as they rarely miss things. Richard spotted a lone Stonechat by the field edge. After 2 and a half hours it looked as if I would continue my new year dipping tally, but mercifully a shout went up and we walked down another 1/2 mile to where there was a lone bush and after some difficulty getting onto it I finally spied the excellent Richard's Pipit walking around tussocks of grass and dead thistles at the back of the near field in front of a thin line of reeds. Also present was a lone Barn Owl hunting over the distant Burgh Castle marshes. From there I went onto Covehithe late afternoon and met Dave & Pauline, former work colleagues and we looked over the back fields of Covehithe looking for Bramblings we didn't see any in half an hour. Walking down to Covehithe Broad, I met Tony B he said the Smew was still there along the northern end of the Broad. sadly some dog walkers let a dog swim in the Broad and all I could see were 30 Mallards. The dogs had also flushed the Larks. 8 Goldeneye were seen in total including 3 smart males. I finally saw the redhead Smew in the distant south- west corner of the Broad.