13th to 14th February 2016 - Norfolk

Just two weeks later, we were back up in Norfolk agaim, although due to a mixture of illness (me) and late night drinking (Stuart), we didn't actually get there until around 2pm on the Saturday.  The first stop was at Lynford in hope of Hawfinch, but we didn't spot any mid afternoon.  We did however add Nuthatch to the year list, yay!  We took a brief detour after to Brancaster Staithe, where a Red-necked Grebe had been reported and we spotted it before we even stopped the car, best views we'd ever had!  There were also plenty of waders around, including Curlew, Bar-tailed Godwit and Grey Plover.  The last visit of the day was back to Holkham Hall for the Ferruginous Duck, which had appeared the day after our last visit.  It was dozing when we arrived, but a Mallard kindly woke it up and it had a small swim around before going back to dreamland.

Red-necked Grebe
We started the Sunday off in freezing and windy conditions at Blakeney Marsh, where, third time lucky, we saw a Lapland Bunting.  There were also 7 Twite, and seconds after I mentioned that I had seen on Twitter that there had been Jack Snipe, one kindly flew.  On the walk back to the car, Scandinavian Rock Pipit and a pair of Red-breasted Merganser were also seen.

Bad photo of Lapland Bunting
Two more sites that only provided a couple of birds (but included year listers!) were visited before lunch, which were Hickling Green, where a Woodcock flew low in front of the car as we were passing through and Acle Bridge, where the highlight was a pair of Crane.

Reed Bunting
Crane!
Last for the short weekend was a small stop in Burgh St Peter, where a Cattle Egret had been hanging around for a short while.  As we arrived we spotted it, but it flew off seconds later, not to be seen again.  Lucky timing!

Cattle Egret

Year list: 145
Lifers this year: 10

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