Lapland Bunting - Salthouse . Scarce and not that easy to see most winters, but showing well only a short distance away from the Sparrow, with a large flock of Snow Buntings.
Snow Bunting - Salthouse. Not too difficult to find on the coast most years, but definitely a rare bird in land locked Bedfordshire.
A part of the assembling crowd. Luckily when I got the phone call about the Sparrow at Cley I was only about 20 miles away, in the Dunes at Holme looking at a fairly empty stretch of Sea. One of the advantages of spending a lot of time in Norfolk is that the County has an impressive track record in turning up rare birds. Thus the 'Twitch' to see the Sparrow, only the 4th British record, involved none of the high mileage, or the pre-dawn starts that had been needed to see the Murrelet in Devon or the Green Heron in Anglesey. It also gave a head start on the crowd that was bound to follow once news of the Sparrow's appearance spread !!!! Good views were had on the day but it took a return visit to be able to catch the bird on Camera.
The most famous and well watched driveway in Norfolk
Sometimes birds make life difficult.You know they are there, but you just can't see them. Not good after what may have been a long journey for a rare bird.In this case,with the viewing angle down the driveway so restricted, even with a long wait,luck and patience may or may not be enough to give you the views you hope for. In the event the Sparrow has lingered long enough to allow birders more than 1 chance to see the bird -and, raise several thousand pounds in Donations from visiting birders towards repairs to the local church.
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