Mist it...

The early morning mist which lifted yesterday round 11 am, didn't today - so spent the day birding in some misty and slightly drizzly conditions. Made a start at Burnham Overy Dunes.

The bushes at the end of the boardwalk had about twenty bird spotters in front of them, but on our approach we found a Red-breasted Flycatcher feeding near the path, a Redstart, Lesser Whitethroat and a Garden Warbler.
By the bushes there was another Red-breasted Flycatcher, Lesser Whitethroat, a couple of Spotted Flycathers and Chiffchaff. Viewing was considerably hampered and photography was virtually impossible - there is a Rb Fly in the middle of this pic !

 

Being crowd intolerant Phil and I decided to bird the rest of the dunes towards Gun Hill which produced more Redstarts and another Spotted Flycatcher. Everything was too far distant to photograph apart from this Spotted Flycatcher which although some distance sat in the drizzle just long enough to have it's photo taken.

Another skirt round the bushes revealed a few more Garden Warblers, Lesser Whitethroat and Chiffchaffs and although we could hear the Yellow-browed calling yes never saw it. The mist was closing in significantly but I did attempt this Lesser Whitethroat - but it was a poor result as the awful conditions played havoc with the camera.

We left as groups of Siskins started to bounce their way along the track, amid groups of Swallows, Chaffinches and thrushes. It had a real migrant feel. Plus I heard my first Pink-footed Geese of the autumn.
On to Wells Woods where we added Pied Flycatcher, some more Spot Flys and then another birder (Ashley) gestured that he'd just seen an Olive-backed Pipit. We searched around for a while then headed to the Drinking Pool where we found this Red-breasted Flycatcher. We returned to the car park to increase our stay.

Adding more money to the car park proved a problem as the machine wasn't accepting credit cards so we had to get cash from the shop - while this was happening the "birders of the Dell" were busy watching the Olive-backed Pipit and my phone (my thanks to Geoff for trying to alert me) which had decided to switch to answer machine mode was telling my pocket that good views were being had. Oblivious to this we returned to The Dell and the Pipit decided not to show, well to me, Phil was lucky enough to see it briefly. Still none of that detracted to a great day of migrant spotting. Soft and unusable pics but some lovely birding moments.