A walk round East Runton produced a singing Blackcap and a few Butterflies including a species of White which didn't settle. A look for yesterdays Hooded Crows drew a blank.
A brief look at West Runton revealed that the Shorelarks were still present in the field and I managed to see all six this time, c30 Sand Martins were lingering along the cliffs and a couple of adult Med Gulls flew west.
The pager then announced that a White-tailed Eagle had gone west and then east over Titchwell and was continuing east over Brancaster. I therefore quickly made the decision to get to the top of Incleborough incase it tracked along the coast. On arrival I met another birder who was then leaving but after telling him about the Eagle he turned round and joined me to have a look for it. As we reached the summit a Ring Ouzel, which had been present earlier, was on show which made the trek worthwhile.
With no further news on the Eagle it wasn't looking good until after c15 mins of scanning Ian shouted that he had it and we watched as it briefly circled over the ridge immediately south of us before powering off to the south east. Views weren't great as it was always going away from us, but as it reached the Overstrand/Northrepps area it started to circle giving much better views in the process. Fortunately with the news quickly on the pager, I subsequently found out that a couple of fellow patchers were able to catch up with it at this point so I was pleased about that, as they were, especially as it was a Norfolk tick for one.
We continued to watch it as it stopped circling and again powered off south-east and I finally lost it behind the tree line when it was roughly approaching Mundesley some 10kms away, showing just how big a bird it was! A really amazing bird and a total surprise addition to the patch list, and which was subsequently tracked across the east of the county as it continued to head south.
Whilst it was circling I made a vain attempt to get a picture just for the record but as at this point it was already some 6kms distant I didn't think I would get anything but miraculously the camera did lock on to it a few times with the 'best' of the results included below tho they certainly won't win any prizes!
