The first week of our holiday ended when we left Horning and headed towards Thornham where we were due to spend a week at the cottage we have previously hired from our “friends” Tom and Anita. It was a bit of a drive and we wanted to do some shopping for food and drink and to get settled in at the cottage so we only had time for one stop on the way and that was at NWT Cley.
As we arrived at Cley it was quite wet and so we settled in for a cup of tea and hoped for a lull. While sitting in the cafe I saw a Great Egret fly by and you could make out some of the ducks and the Avocets out on the scrapes. When we eventually decided it was not too wet to venture out, we decided would take a walk around the three central hides, giving the other places a miss – we could always catch up later in the week and not much had been sighted that day.
There was a smattering of the usual suspects and some of the waders were interesting because they were no longer in their winter coats, but the only significant bitd was the first Little Ringed Plover of the year for us.
We worked the three hides and then decided that we would rather get supplies in and settle down in the cottgae, hoping for better weather tomorrow.
Bird Sightings NWT Cley 3rd May 2019
| Greylag Goose | 30 |
| Canada Goose | 2 |
| Common Shelduck | 8 |
| Gadwall | 6 |
| Mallard | 6 |
| Northern Shoveler | 2 |
| Common Teal | 2 |
| Common Pochard | 1 |
| Grey Heron | 1 |
| Great Egret | 1 |
| Eurasian Marsh Harrier | 2 |
| Common Moorhen | 1 |
| Common Coot | 1 |
| Pied Avocet | 8 |
| Northern Lapwing | 6 |
| Little Ringed Plover | 1 |
| Common Redshank | 2 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 10 |
| Ruff | 8 |
| Dunlin | 6 |
| Black-headed Gull | 10 |
| Common Wood Pigeon | 10 |
| Eurasian Collared Dove | 1 |
| Carrion Crow | 6 |
| Sky Lark | 1 |
| Sand Martin | 20 |
| Common House Martin | 3 |
| Sedge Warbler | 5 |
| Eurasian Reed Warbler | 2 |
| Dunnock | 1 |
| Reed Bunting | 2 |
| European Goldfinch | 2 |