Isabelline Wheatear & great supporting cast at Cley

On Wednesday 13th November, rather fortuitously I had to cover for a colleague (in the mid to late afternoon, when I usually finish work at 2.30pm) and was able to take most of the morning off. So following some excellent directions (as always) from John H, I drew up into the little car park by the famous East bank walk, the haunt of the late, great Cley regular Richard Richardson in the 1950's- 1970's. There was only 3 cars in the car park, when I arrived so I duly parked up. I saw 2 birders who came back off the east bank stating it was negative news on the Issy Wheatear but it was only 7.30am! I read someone's blog yesterday when they had arrived at 6.45am and hadn't seen the bird until 8.15am. It was only now that the sun was rising and became a gloriously sunny, but cold day. 5 minutes later, I was nearing the end of the East bank walk and John had mentioned about the Long-tailed Duck on the pool near the beach looking out to your left as you walked towards the beach. I saw the female Long- tailed Duck swimming left from a a group of 4 Mute Swans, she was constantly diving but was seen well, if distantly. On a near dyke, a Little Grebe seen and quite a few c80 Wigeon seen too. On one of the posts marking the marsh boundary from the beach sat a large, probably female Peregrine Falcon, ominous given the news that the Wheatear hadn't been seen. A chap I was following along said "Is that it?" The Wheatear perched on the shady ridge by the sea, was clearly the excellent Isabelline Wheatear, other birders walking along on the pebbly beach flushed it further down the beach. Also present were 2 very close Snow Buntings literally at our feet that sadly could only be briefly enjoyed. Then the Wheatear flew over the fence and into Arnold's Marsh where it hunted for food along a distant grassy knoll and several times it was seen perched up on a post. It then flew much, much closer but disappeared behind a bush. We then didn't see it for a tense 25 minutes but we were treated to a gorgeous group of 30 calling Snow Buntings flying over our heads, there tinkling calls straight out of a musical advent calendar and the left and then right over the beach, always a joy to see. The Isabelle Wheatear hoped out heralded by a cameras snapping in unison (only problems was it was back on and against the light) briefly back on along the right hand side of the bush before it flew back again to the more distant grassy knoll on Arnold's Marsh. It then spent a lot of time in the grassy knoll just beyond a marram mound and could only be viewed distantly. Finally, it flew over the fence and onto the beach and was semi- settled in a small grassy area and we were able to admire it at closer quarters at around 15 metres away, where it settled for several minutes. At this point it was 10.30am and very sadly, I had to leave as I had to be in work by 11.50am. I didn't want to leave as it probably would continue to be very confiding, especially after my first hour and a half at Cley the bird was keeping its distance. So it proved when Chris L tweeted it had been very close to him at one stage, oh the joys of working!