Seaford and Holkham (10 May)

Sunday 10 May.  My third successive morning with John King seawatching at Seaford in the vain hope of seeing some Pomarine Skuas.  Even one would have been nice.  Each day was successively worse and the first was pretty poor to start with.  Two hours was about all we could take and we decided to try Seaford Head before giving it another go.  Matt Eade had a similar idea but was an hour ahead of us and reappeared at Splash Point just as we were thinking of leaving.  We saw at least 4 of the spotted Flycatchers he had had in Harry's Bush and scoped the Spoonbill but a pager message about a mobile and elusive Citril finch in Norfolk had us heading back to Splash in the hope of more positive news.  Little was forthcoming in an even quieter hour's seawatch then it was reportedly seen again in the same area.  Matt and JK were keen to go and it didn't take much twisting of my arm to join them.  Matt drove, so we made excellent time, stopping to pick up Mick Davis at Pease Pottage.  We arrived at Lady Anne's Drive just before 3pm and then had a 25 minute route march to where the bird had been seen.   It was all I could do to keep up with Matt and was very glad he decided not to run!  We arrived and had just found a position when the bird was picked up flying towards us.  It did a big circuit showing its colours but no critical detail before dropping out of sight.  We had seen the bird but it wasn't really an acceptable view. Fortunately it was relocated about 10 minutes later when it gave good 'scope views and allowed me to get the record shots below.  We then left, calling in on a trip of Dotterel just SW of Titchwell after rather more diversions for a closed road that would have been necessary with adequate signing. The Dotterel were distant, in haze, and at the brow of a field.  There were/had been 24 but the most I could convince myself of counting in a single scan was 21 and 2 of those might have been stones - although they appeared to have moved on a later scan.  Certainly at least 19.  Matt drove us back to Seaford with a Barn Owl on the way and I was home by 22:20.  An excellent day (thanks for twisting my arm and some epic driving Matt), great company and a superb bird.  Much better than seawatching!

Citril Finch at Holkham.  It spent almost an hour feeding unobtrusively in a fairly open glade at the extreme western end of the pines allowing good scope views - better than these images suggest!  It was unringed and in immaculate plumage.

the olive green rather than a brownish mantle rules out Corsican Citril (see below)

Corsican Citril, Col de Sorba, 9 May 2013 (see http://birdingneversleeps.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/corsica-may-2013-col-de-sorba-and-east.html)

My seawatch records for 8-10 May are as follows.  My arrival on 8th being just too late to pick up 2 Avocets that were flying east while I later missed two Swifts.

	08-May-15	09-May-15	10-May-15	10-May-15
	06:40-14:30	06:15-10:15	06:15-08:15	10:00-11:00
diver sp.	1E
Great Crested Grebe	1E
Fulmar	40+	√	√	√
Gannet	7E:7W	10E:3W	18E:3W
Brent Goose		1E		2E
Shoveler	2E
Eider	1m on beach
Common Scoter	154E	38E	8E:9W	34E
Red-breasted Merg	2E:3W
Marsh Harrier	1f in
Peregrine	1
Oystercatcher	24E:1W		3E:8W
Grey Plover	3E
Knot	3E
Sanderling		2E
Whimbrel	42E		1E
Bar-tailed Godwit	29E
Great Skua	1E	2E
Arctic Skua		4E (1p3d)		1E (d)
Black-headed Gull		15E
Kittiwake	400+	√	√	√
Sandwich Tern	40E	18E	13E:3W
Common Tern	3E
Little Tern				1E
auk sp.	2E		1E:1o/s
Swallow	47 in	21 in	14 in
House Martin	2 in	2 in
Rock Pipit	1
Raven			1