A walk along the golf course was proving to be fairly uneventful when my attention was drawn to the unmistakable calls of BEARDED TITS coming from behind me, I quickly swung round and watched in disbelief as a pair flew strongly east along the cliffs before gaining height and disappearing into the distance towards Overstrand.
This was my first ever record of Bearded Tit on the patch, and looking through past bird reports, although they are an irruptive migrant in autumn, a record of a spring movement in the county appears to be a very rare occurrence and I couldn't find any similar record in the previous 10 years.
I then went to West Runton, and as I was walking along the clifftop path a bird flew along the field edge some way in front of me, and on raising my bins I was delighted to see that it was a Wheatear, my first of the year, and the first one that I am aware of to be recorded on the north coast far this spring.
It was extremely flighty, but I managed a quick record shot before it disappeared off into the ploughed field.
With temperatures today hitting 18 degrees, the warmest day since October, butterflies started to make an appearance, and I recorded Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Brimstone during the day.
