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19 Oct 2015 Feeling blue

North Norfolk has been heaving with birds and birdwatchers since Friday. Despite the quality and quantity of rares in a single wooded expanse (Holkham and Wells) I really couldn't face the crowds over the weekend, so chanced my arm that continued cloud cover would ground all eastern arrivals until Monday 19th. A risky approach... Arriving pre-dawn at Holkham (Lady Anne's Drive), I immediately bumped into both a Barn Owl and Howard Vaughan, who was leading a group in search of the rare. I headed east and was almost immediately stopped by a Dusky Warbler-like call emanating from an isolated hawthorn. I was excited enough to tape it. Playback elicited no response so after 20 minutes, I continued on my way... and walked straight into a Blackcap. I had my answer. Onwards until the call of a Hume's Leaf Warbler stopped me in my tracks. This was my first and primary target of the day, it being a Norfolk tick. It called (tu-lip) repeatedly and loudly, but rarely showed. Over 20 mins or so, I garnered good views but rubbish photos.

Wildlife

To finish the day, I plumped for seconds of the Isabelline Shrike at Beeston Common. I had seen this the previous week, but fancied seeing two Isabelline Shrikes in a day (two in a day! two!) and the evening sun offered the prospect of decent photographs. This proved to be a good call - and the curtain fell on a brilliant day of filthy twitching (arguably deserved after eight days of trying to find my own rares?).

No rest for the filithily twitchy, and I walked west from Wells onto Holkham via a brief Yellow-browed Warbler and more calls from the Hume's Leaf Warbler. I managed the Isabelline Shrike - distantly - at the second attempt, but the day's second Red-flanked Bluetail (at the west end of Holkham Pines) gave itself up straight away. Two Bluetails in a day: gobsmacking. On this leg of the wander, I also managed a Short-eared Owl flying high overhead, Great White Egret and Firecrest. A text from Howard Vaughan then saw me scurrying back to Lady Anne's Drive, where a Pallas's Warbler was feeding actively in a holm oak. Gorgeous to watch - lemon rump dazzling away - but hard to photograph.

Target Two was Red-flanked Bluetail at the Wells drinking pool. This showed immediately, then not for the next hour, then briefly for a minute. I got a few record shots first time round, but returned a couple of hours later (by which time I had had reasonable views of the Blyth's Reed Warbler south of the Dell; an oddly grey-crowned bird). Views third time round were much better, and I got a couple of reasonable record snaps. This is my ninth Bluetail in Britain - and seeing them still extracts massive adrenalin rushes. An expected rarity nowadays, Bluetail still feels for me like the Mega of old.