Well, what a day it has been! There I was still tucked up in bed at 7am on a Saturday morning, hot cup of tea made and about to have a chapter of my new book before starting the day when the pager bleeps, followed by my phone ringing. It was JH, "you seen your pager? you going?" The answer to both was yes and yes. Up, fresh cuppa, pack up and 2 flasks made and straight out the door. As we neared Norfolk the sky turned black and the heavens opened, kept checking on the pager.....still there. The drive along the north Norfolk coast, although chocolate box pretty, it was never ending and with the Saturday morning joggers, horse riders and cyclists to contend with on thin windy coastal roads, we thought we would never get there. We were a mile away from Stiffkey when the car parking started, oh my dear Lord above, were there really this many people here ? So we found ourselves a spot and off we went, at speed ! Lots of happy, smiling folk coming away, lets hope we would be the same in a few hours time. Nothing prepared us for the amount of birders that were on the saltmarsh, hundreds and hundreds of them. One group one side of the suaeda that the bird favoured and one group the other. All separated by large creeks which was a bonus and it stopped birders getting too close and flushing it. It was difficult to know where to stand, trying to keep our distance but also wanting to see the bird so we found a decent sized gap and waited. We decided that a photo would be a bonus as we didn't want to stand with the front row crowds. The rain continued and the bird remained hidden for about an hour. Then a call went up, the rain stopped and the bird showed.....BOOM !! But the crowds were on a whole new level, no masks, no social distancing, it was frightening. We distanced and wore our face coverings as did lots of others but the twitching groups (99% male!) simply forgot we are in the midst of a pandemic. The police came round many times, warning about face coverings and social distancing. When we left there were a further 2 police cars attending. And yes, we were happy and smiling as we left the saltmarsh (although covered in ankle deep mud!), homeward bound at a more leisurely pace.
2 new UK birds in a week taking Karen's UK total to 424.
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