A check of the patch Monday revealed a few left-over Wheatears from yesterdays big numbers along the coast, plus good numbers of the common warblers filling the air with their songs.
A visit to Felbrigg Lake produced the desired result with a Reed Warbler, the first of the year, singing in the reedbed. A lot of patience resulted in a brief flight view and after a further wait it was eventually watched singing from a bush on the lakes edge.
Birds on the lake included a drake Gadwall, a new Coot which had joined the one that recently appeared, and a drake Mandarin flew in. On the north side of the lake, a Wheatear was present around the gorse clump.
A check of the cliff-top fields around West Runton today produced a few Yellow Wagtails and Wheatears but little else of note birdwise was seen there or around East Runton, but with the increasing temperatures butterflies were again out in force with the most notable species recorded being my first Orange-tips, Speckled Woods and Red Admiral of the year.
I then called in at Trimingham, and as I rounded the northern edge of Pond Plantation I scanned the ploughed field to the west and picked out a 'blob' in the field some distance away in the heat haze, but initially couldn't really decide what it was so carried on scanning the field. I then returned to the blob and started to pay it a bit more attention, and through the haze was pretty sure that it appeared to be a bird of prey which appeared to be eating something in the field.
I quickly hastened down to the clifftop, constantly checking it was still there as I went, and then made my way along towards it. With each look I was changing my mind as to what it was as the heat haze was still making viewing difficult, as was assessing its correct size, but what was evident was it was busily tearing apart some prey and was unconcerned by my approach. Eventually I got near enough to get a decent look at it through my bins and was delighted to establish that it was a Merlin, mainly still in juvenile plumage but with some blue feathering evident on the back. Knowing that another local birder was in the area I quickly phoned him and then sat down so not to disturb it whilst watching it continue to devour its meal. Fortunately it hung around long enough for the other birder to connect before it eventually flew off low along the clifftop towards Sidestrand.
This was only the third Merlin that I have ever seen on the patch, with the other two only being fleeting views, so it was a real pleasure to watch this one at close quarters on prey, but as is typical with encounters such as this I had left my camera in the car not expecting to see anything!
