The forecast for Saturday was for rain, arriving overnight and perhaps starting to subside by mid-afternoon, not ideal conditions for being outdoors and birding. Kev @kev07713 and I chatted and resolved to have a try for the pallid swift that had been present in Winterton-on-Sea for the last week - Kev had already visited mid-week with his wife Karen but was happy to visit again for seconds.
A pallid swift is quite difficult to distinguish from our common and is a rare visitor to the UK, perhaps due to it being a short-distance migrant breeding across the Mediterranean and wintering in the South Sahara. It has slightly paler plumage overall, a white throat patch, subtly blunter wings, and a less deeply forked tail - the underside of the body is dark brown with a pale brown scalloped effect, giving the impression of scales. As with our common swifts, pallids feed on the wing catching prey in their beaks, their diet consisting of a range of flying insects. At least at this time of year few common swifts remain, and Kev mentioned the pallid had an altogether different look in flight.
We arrived in the car park looking out over the village green and immediately read an update that the pallid had just been reported where we were watching. The rain was hammering down and no one else was to be seen. We watched from the car but eventually decamped to stand under a roof beside the cricket pavilion; from here we had a much better view.
After a while the rain relented becoming a drizzle after which there was some excitement as a sparrowhawk tore into a back garden beside the car park, nailing a starling. It carried the starling up and into a tree, but out of sight - the other birds were far from happy. In a minute or so the sparrowhawk burst from the tree carrying the starling in its talons but inexplicably the starling broke free - we expected the sparrowhawk to recapture the starling as it was right on its tail, but they broke apart and the starling was in the clear - quite a sight and very odd.
The rain stopped. Kev was scanning towards the church while I viewed towards the wood - Kev called to say the swift was in view over the village beyond the church. In a minute or two I was on it and added another life tick - I took a couple of photos in case we lost the bird.
We decided to make our way round to the front of the church to see if we could get closer views and found there were quite a few people, apparently traveling in a couple of minibuses and on a NatureTrek tour - all RSPB Edinburgh members. They'd arrived just as the bird had started showing. The sky was still heavy and grey - the swift fed at distance working back and forth parallel to the road, as we watched from the church. Poor light but a cracking bird.
We spotted a chap that we'd met at Grafham Water the previous week (green-winged teal) but before we had a chance to talk to him, he wandered off. We enjoyed watching but the views never got any better - eventually the rain started again. We decided to make our way to Cley but enroute decided that we'd drop into Wiveton as 12 waxwings has been posted.
Pulling up and parking we found a handful of birders strolling around - the waxwings had recently departed down the valley after showing well in the trees and berry bushes behind the pub for at least half an hour. We waited and watched, eventually meeting a couple who said they'd see the birds at the other end of the village. We joined others strolling through the lanes and about 15 minutes later saw the waxwings fly back towards the pub - by the time we got back to the pub they'd landed briefly and taken off again - we saw them depart, left and passed the church.
The number of birders grew and although we saw numbers of red kites, small flocks of starlings and larger of goldfinches we were not afforded any further sights of the waxwings. Despite waiting an hour and a half we eventually left for home with only flight shots and views - nice regardless.
Year List: 277
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