What is a lifer I hear some of you ask. Well it is a bird that you have never seen or photographed before and I managed one on 23rd February.

But, in the interest of continuity, before that, I went local to nearby Swavesy on 17th, not only for the Cattle Egrets that have been there for a while, but a Goldcrest that was very approachable according to my friend.

Well it was amazing, singing right in front of me for ages - never had that happen to me before.

and this is just a selection of the many shots I took - undoubtedly my best ones of this species. And even the Cattle Egrets were reasonably close.

Home by lunchtime - that is how it should be but not often.

So on to the lifer. In a previous blog, I mentioned a Red-breasted Goose on the Norfolk coast amongst a large flock of Brent Geese. We missed it then but a Birdguides flash when we at Holkham on 23rd said it was just off Beach Road at Cley so off we went.

Well it was and we soon found it, parked close by and spent a morning taking loads of photos in differing weather, from bright sunlight to dark clouds. The only problem was that it was usually surrounded by the Brent Geese so getting a shot when it was isolated was very difficult which is why I ended up taking over 1300 photos to try to get the 20 or so shots that were worth keeping.

What a beautiful bird.

We returned westwards along the coast, calling in at the usual harbours but the light was often against us, the only shot worth keeping was an Oystercatcher flying off with a mussel in it's beak.

A disappointing afternoon but the day was well worth it for the mornings efforts.