Gary Howard's birds and wildlife

News broke late Friday afternoon that a Rufous-tailed Robin had been found in Norfolk, at Warham Greens near Wells. Only the second record for Britain following an untwitchable one-dayer on fair Isle in 2004, twitchers everywhere geared up for a major event.

At 04.00 under cold cloudless skies that shouted "surely it's not going to be there", Mike Buckland, Barry Wright, Andy Lawson, James Hunter and I climbed into my car and travelled north in the darkness. The temperature dropped steadily to a low of just 1C as we drove through the Brecks, the skies remained cloudless and star-filled.

Just before 06.30 we arrived and bumped along tracks in the Warham Greens area until we eventually found the "designated" parking field with Lee Evans on hand to martial the traffic and supervise the crowds!

It was the first cold snap of the autumn and we stood shivering chatting quietly to each other in the dark, catching up with old friends and mostly saying "it won't be here but you just had to come for that 1% chance.................".

 It wasn't ...........

The dawn was a stunning orange blaze and as the light came up a small search-party set off to scout the hedgerow-lined track. They drew a blank and birders slowly spread out to flank the hedgerow standing in empty fields in long lines. I'd say there was around 350 people present, perhaps a few more.

Small numbers of Brambling, Redwing, Siskin, Redpoll, Blackbird and Chaffinches flew overhead. Skeins of Pink-feet and Brents flew along the coast.  A few Lapland Bunting flew over and Golden Plover, Lapwing and Curlew appeared but no sign of our quarry.

It was a beautiful morning but really that was the reason we'd dipped. Fog, heavy rain, maybe just drizzle might have kept it from leaping but not a cloudless, calm night.  At around 10.30 we headed off.  Surely Norfolk in October could not fail to provide us with loads to see ?

We started at Wells Wood at the Dell. A few Brambling and Redwing flew over as we walked in and split up to bird the area. Two hours later I'd had a few Treecreepers, Goldcrests and Jays but not a single warbler. Andy and James had the same experience, Mike and Barry a single Yellow-browed Warbler.

 A report of a bluethroat at Stiffkey had us heading back east. We parked by the coastal footpath and walked for about 30 minutes to view an area of saltmarsh where the bird had been reported. Arriving we learnt that it hadn't been seen for at least 90 minutes, an hour later we'd not seen it either and decided to cut our losses. On the way back to the car I heard a Yellow-browed Warbler but it was well past 13.00 and that was little consolation for 6 hours birding!

James searches for the bluethroat.

Our next stop was Holme where they'd trapped a Red-flanked Bluetail in the early morning. After negotiating the ridiculous dual-ownership ritual of the site - NWT/NOA - we parked and found large numbers of birders in the pines looking for the bird. After 30 minutes I'd seen nothing as the bluetail flicked between clumps of pine trees in the dunes. If it did settle for a few seconds I couldn't see past the crowds of people.

 After 10 hours of birding I'd still seen nought of note!

Eventually it took to feeding in an area of more open pines and I got a good look, scope views and was more than satisfied. After watching it for around 30 minutes it retreated into cover once again.

Red-flanked Bluetail - record shot.

We walked back out into the sunshine and discussed our options. It was nearly 16.00 and dismissing Titchwell we headed to Wells woods and parked on Lady A Drive and walked west along the pine belt.

It was quiet, as expected really. No warblers, no firecrest, just a few Goldcrests and Coal Tit's.

As darkness fell we returned to the car.

 We'd had a lot of laughs, seen very little but enjoyed a good day out catching up with mates and bumping into old friends.

Amazing that a Red-flanked Bluetail, once the stuff of legends, barely raises an eyebrow now.