The news that a Great Knot had been found at Titchwell, Norfolk, did`nt have any of us dashing about to see it, as we all had seen the Teeside bird (or great dot as it was called) But after a conversation with one of our York birdwatching friends, I thought it might be nice to acompany him as he planned to go on his own. When Bob K said he would also come with us, we made plans.
We arranged to meet at Fairburn,Yorkshire, around 2am with Mark K at the controls. A Barn Owl was soon seen on the journey down, we decided to call in at Dersingham Bog to see Golden Pheasant or Nightjar etc. As it was coming light and we had just missed a major fall of rain we had no joy with any birds. We arrived at Titchwell around 5am and the wind was blowing birds towards the east. We made our way to the beach and searched through a few small flocks of waders for the Great Knot without any joy. We went into the main hide and looked at every wader that landed, then after about an hour the news came that the bird was on the beach! The hide emptied very quickly and at "route march" pace we all headed down the beach, we could see about 20 birders watching the group of birds that contained the Great Knot. As we got to within 80 yards all the waders took to the sky and split off into 2 flocks, 1 heading east and 1 back to the main hide. Surely they would come back? After an hours wait with lots of flocks of Knot flying and landing in the same spot as before and with no news either way we decided to go and do some birding.
We saw Red Crested Pochard, Little Gull, Grey Plover at Titchwell. Then went to see the Egyptian Geese along the North Norfolk coast, after a few misses we finaly found a pair with young at Cley, there was still no news about the Great Knot, so we headed for Kelling Heath. We struggled to find the car park on the heath and as we found it a "barrage" of shotguns started out and did not stop in the hour we were there. Of course we had no joy at all trying to find any of our target species. We did manage to see a deer species with 2 fawn`s though, Bob K took some nice pictures.
A bit deflated by it all Mark K revealed that the Caspian Tern`s where still present at Gibraltar Point, Skegness, Lincolnshire. He also told us that he needed it for his British List, perhaps we could rescue the day with a visit? After a quick fill up at Kings Lynn we headed off. We passed through a busy Skegness full of holiday makers enjoying the sunshine that appeared. The news upon reaching Gibraltar Point was that both birds had flown off, oh no not again. We made our way to the hide and bingo one of the terns had just flown in. We enjoyed the large tern for about an hour, when it flew off again. Mark K had managed a British species to add to his list, well done. We had no luck with the Turtle Doves on the reserve. The reserve looks nice with its new visitor centre having just opened. We decided it was time for home, thanks Mark for inviting us along. We reached home by 8pm.
