Thursday 10th April. As some of you may know. my car was written off last year by a sheared lorry wheel while on my way to photograph the Parrot Crossbills at Holt. All the insurance, hire car and finding a replacement problems were resolved a few weeks ago but, in the meantime, I did not feel like revisting Norfolk. Last Thursday, I decided to go.

The main reason was to try for Ring Ousel and Wheatear at Holme Dunes NWT - but there was nothing there at all - should have been there a couple of days earlier!!! A Black Kite was riding the thermals in the far distance but that was the only bird of interest so I moved on to Thornham with the tide on the turn.

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Only the usual with an Oystercatcher showing well

and then really confirming that spring has arrived.

I then moved on to Titchwell RSPB in readiness for high tide - and the clouds moved in with a vengeance and with a very strange light but a small group of Sanderling provided some entertainment.

and a Turnstone made a meal of a crab.

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Then I noticed a strange duck preening on the beach a couple of hundred yards away among some Oystercatchers. I knew that however carefully I approached, the Oystercatchers would flush and take the duck with them and this proved to be the case with the duck paddling out to sea and staying distant but not before I was able to identify it as a Common Scoter. There was a  large raft far out to sea.

I kept low on the beach and it came in close enough for some distant shots. These are heavily cropped in poor light with the 500 lense, the 2x converter and the 5D MK3 but decent record shots of the only time I have had a Common Scoter in my viewfinder.

I then returned to Thornham and, in the absence of anything of real interest, decided to have some fun with the 500 lense, the 5D MK3 and flight shots in poor light. Loads of images and surprisingly sharp, given the poor light but only one really worth keeping - the camera held focus despite a busy background.

I will have to try some more flight shots - the 5D MK3 is very forgiving of my rather slow reactions!!!