With the patch continuing to be fairly quiet I took a trip along the coast today recording a few new species for the year that I haven't had round the patch. Star bird was a male Montagu's Harrier watched hunting for about ten minutes, with other notable sightings including 3 Turtle Doves, Grey Partridge and Little Stint.
However the surprise of the day came whilst at Cley as when walking along the shingle bank near Arnolds I noticed a GBB Gull sitting on a large brown blob in the sea. I couldn't quite make out what it was but part of me thought it looked like a large (obviously dead) animal of some sort. I watched it as the tide drifted it nearer and nearer to the shore when its head became apparent and it appeared to be a deer! Eventually it was caught up in the breakers and dumped onto the beach just west of the end of the East Bank when it could be confirmed that it was indeed a deer, being later confirmed as a Red Deer, but where it had originated from was anyones guess, maybe it had drifted all the way over from the continent?
