Titchwell, Sunday 7th September, James and Simeon

Having learnt the basics of pressure chart reading we had been watching the weather forecasts all week and continually changing our weekend plans accordingly (It's astounding how vastly incorrect the forecast can be, even 5 days beforehand!). Simeon wanted to do Blakeney Point as it looked reasonable for migrants, but I managed to persuade him to do Thornham Point, as it is near Titchwell so we could visit the reserve afterwards and seawatch (seawatching looked good for the afternoon). This turned out to be a good decision since the county was almost devoid of rare passerines - all we could come up with was a warbler which flew from a bush, realised it was raining, and promptly dived back into cover never to be seen again. We took shelter in the watchtower (my dream house!), which gives a great view over the surrounding area and has an absolutley amazing garden list! A lone Brent Goose in Thornham Harbour was early.

Realising there were no rarities to be found, and spotting an Arctic Skua flying along the beach, we walked back to Titchwell feeling a little dejected. The mood didn't improve when a couple told us they'd only seen a few Eider, but then Dave Hawkins appeared from behind the dunes and gave us his totals which included good numbers of Arctic and Great Skua and an adult Long-tailed Skua! We joined him out of the wind, and began racking up the skua totals. Simeon locked onto a large pale-brown shearwater but was unable to confirm its identification - in hindsight it was probably a Cory's, which would have been a lifer... The action died down, and we were beginning to get bored, when suddenly Dave located an extremely distant shearwater. I managed to get onto it, though Simeon did not - this time it was definitely a Cory's, though the extreme distance meant that it looked to me more like a Gannet, save for its banking flight. One of the worst ticks I've ever had! However, matters were complicated by the fact that a party of 4 Sabine's Gulls appeared in Dave's scope view as he was following the as yet unidentified shearwater! It was mayhem as he tried to get the 50+ observers onto the birds whilst calling the other wardens. 2 summer plumaged Red-necked Grebes put the finishing touch to a memorable seawatch.

Unfortunately the rain had managed to enter my battered eyepiece and prevented wader watching on the reserve, although the 3 Spoonbills were gorgeous as they demonstrated their characteristic feeding action known as 'spooning'. A false White-rumped Sandpiper alarm had us excited for a few minutes, but it turned out to be a Dunlin (try and get your head around that one!). It was incredibly small and slim-bodied, giving it a vaguely attenuated appearance, although the black underside gave it away.

An amazing day, even if it wasn't what we were expecting!