Go west young man

Following the discovery of a Western Sandpiper at Cley, Mark came down for the weekend to twitch it.  The identification of this bird has been the subject of quite a bit of debate, having originally been indentified as a Semi-palmated Sandpiper, only on Wednesday once better views and photos in the Cley Birds website did the true identifcation come out, well, true for now.....

We got to the reserve mid morning and were amazed to find there weren't actually that many birders in the hide, I was expecting queues out of the door and packed hides, but it was surprisingly relaxed and the bird showed well, though not particularly close.  I have to confess, I can see why it took so long for the identification to be sorted, from the views we had, I would have struggled to not call it as a Semi-palmated, especially having seen a lot of Semi-p's and Westerns in the States in the last couple of years. In the field the bill didn't appear as strikingly long as the photos show and the range we were watching it at, the tell tale scapular markings couldn't be made out which is what a lot of the identifaction of this bird is being based on, but still a smart little bird.  Also on the reserve was a fellow American, a Green-winged Teal on the adjacent marsh and also a Water Pipit.

After a quick cup of tea, we headed west towards Titchwell.  As we drove through Burnham Overy, we came round a corner to be faced with a group of birders stood by the road, keenly watching something.  Thankfully, there was a convenient pull in, so we stopped, got out and scanned in the direction the others were looking and immediately saw a Rough-legged Buzzard circling by the road, which although distant did show well with the white tail and dark terminal band particularly striking.

Titchwell was typically superb, even though we couldn't find the Yellow-browed Warbler, but the supporting cast of a couple of Spoonbills, Spotted Redshanks, Water Rail and an incredible number of Little Egrets and then a couple of Barn Owls on the drive home certainly made a good end to the day.