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Sunday 24 April 2011

CITRINE WAGTAIL - New for the Patch

For the third time in a week the cattle field at East Runton came up trumps today in the very unexpected form of a Citrine Wagtail. Unfortunately I was beaten to the find but with it being in such great plumage and naturally a new bird for the patch I was nonetheless very happy indeed that it was still present when I arrived.

It had only stayed briefly on the area grazed by the cattle before it moved to the adjacent field where we relocated it as presumably there was too much disturbance there from dog walkers. It showed very well in the company of a few Yellow Wagtails throughout the rest of the morning but became a bit more mobile in the afternoon visiting the carnival field and the paddock on the north side of the road but eventually returned to its favoured field.

A steady stream of birders visited the site during the day and being on a bank holiday weekend, and on the side of a busy main road, it also caused quite a stir with the holiday makers most of whom where genuinely interested and came for a look at what was attracting the crowd, but as usual a minority of people decided to shout stupid comments and blast their horns as they passed, presumably thinking they looked clever (not)!

It continued to perform well until late afternoon, but not long after the sea mist that had shrouded the area most of the day had cleared and the temperature as a consequence rose, it headed off strongly west along the coast.