Stunning festive Eastern Black Redstart... eventually at Sheringham promenade

On Thursday 25th December, Christmas Day, I travelled up to Sheringham. This was because the day before, sensational news had broken of an Eastern Black Redstart had just been found along Sheringham Promenade, but unfortunately I was working Christmas Eve and I wasn't leaving work until 2pm. With us only just past the shortest day of the year, light was at a premium and I knew daylight would start fading just after 3pm. Journeytime from Gorleston was about 1 hour 20 minutes at least, the light would have been going and with no optics I decided to play it cool and wait until the bird had been seen the next day. So on Christmas Day as soon as the first notification that the bird was still there, 8.38am, I leapt into the car and on the drive up I saw a fine Red Kite flying over fields just south-west of Repps with Bastwicke village, up to 4 Kestrels (in differing locations) seen hunting low over the road and 4 were seen on the journey back too plus 2 Buzzards seen flying over too. By 10am, I was pulling into at Sheringham. Parking just by The Esplanade (free for 24 hours), there were some birders looking around some cultivated gardens area just north of thge seawatching shelter. The bird had been seen here but wasn't currently on show, a lady had seen the bird on the beach, so I went down there no sign of it. Back at the top, by the cultivated gardens, I saw a Robin, Dunnock and by a concrete stream area, a Grey Wagtail was feeding then it flew inland. By this time 1 hour and 15 minutes had passed, so I walked down onto Promenade again and walking up to the Lifeboat station saw Paul & Jane F walking back, they had just arrived and seen the bird 6X but for them always it had been disturbed by passers by. We teamed up and I hoped the famous Ferguson luck would rub off onto me. Initially, we went up to the cliff top as we thought someone was waving to us saying they had the bird. False alarm so we walking past some closed chalets and I was slightly ahead of them past the last closed chat was a little alcove and incredibly the fabulous Eastern Black Redstart flew down and flopped onto the ground barely 2 metres away from me, an absolutely wondrous bird, with grey head, back, black breast and vibrant brick red underparts, what a stunner! I saw it for all of 5 seconds, marvelling at such a beautiful bird, before it flew up to the roof of the closed chalets but it vanished. So Paul, Jane and I after searching along the beach front walked up top again. The bird was seen just left of the ramp up to the cliff tip and a green grassy area bordered by a concrete path and railings by the cliff edge, the fantastic male Eastern Black Redstart was feeding along the edge often underneath the seats and it constantly right along, I joined some photographers and the decided to position myself on the right hand end of the green. This proved to be a wise move as the bird was constantly running this way and it fed right in front of us for sometime before it met a fence, it then ran left a little before feeding again to the right, again giving superlative views and taking many pictures and in perfect light too! It then flew up to a wall perched here for a minute or too before hopping down and then out of sight. Looking closely at the bird and the wide gape, yellow at the base, it might just be a young bird born this year so maybe a 1st winter male? The bird then disappeared onto the steps and hopped out of view. It was amazing to see this Chat constantly for 10 minutes, this particular sub- species is one I had always wanted to see hearing famous tales of bird at Salisbury Cathedral, one I couldn't go and see during lockdown in 2020 at Snettisham, this particular bird exceeded all expectations and I was thrilled with the pics I was able to obtain too, conditions were sublime, the weather was perfect and the bird was particularly obliging for all of those magical 10 minutes. Merry Christmas!