Jill and myself left early to see the Western Sandpiper at Cley next to sea and left Surlingham before sunrise. The first bird of the year was Little owl roosting in its usual place at the top of holloway lane.. I had heard Redwing as i left the house but didn't count it as i prefer to see the first of the year.

On route to cley we breifly stopped off at Holt Country park to see what birds where coming to the feeders. We quickly added Marsh Tit, Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Blue Tit, Coal Tit and Great Tit.

We arrived at Cley just after 8.20 and went straight to Bishops Hide where the Western Sandpiper was added to the Yearlist. It was fairly distant and was lost to view. It was claimed again about 15 minutes later but was only a Dunlin and can not reason why somebody should string the bird. We left the hide and headed towards Arnolds Marsh where the weather condition were quite windy.

We scanned the waders on Arnolds and i thought i had a Curlew Sandpiper but wasn't 100 sure. We added Grey Plover and ringed plover and had at least 2 Little Egrets.

The weather was awful so we headed back to Cley and Simmons Scrape where we took up a position in Teal Hide. The Western came close but the pictures weren't as good as i had allready taken