Frustrating...

A curious kind of morning at the Nab today. As I drove out to Crook Ness I had very modest expectations of perhaps recording a little bit of vis mig, most likely in the form of some finches and pipits. This did indeed prove to be the case with the morning producing 84 Linnets, 8 Goldfinches, 16 Rock Pipits and 23 Meadow Pipits heading south. At sea it was predictably quiet with small numbers of Black-headed and Common Gulls moving south being the primary, although somewhat minimal entertainment. I was therefore surprised to see a nice juvenile Pomarine Skua flying north at 0730 and then at 0755 the only diver of the morning proved to be a Black-throated. Shelduck, Dunlin and a pair of Eider added to the variety, but really it was poor. A couple of Lapland Buntings were in the stubble north of the hut and a Snow Bunting was also there before heading south. 

Small numbers of Black-headed Gulls moving south this morning

However, the main frustration of the morning came in the form of a Richard's Pipit that I heard calling twice at 0835 hrs. However I was in the seawatch hut at the time and when I looked out the back, I couldn't locate the bird. Good numbers of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits were flying about at the time and I couldn't locate it amongst them.  I checked suitable fields north and south of the hut, but failed to locate the bird and guess it must have been flying south. Interestingly another observer birding at South Cliff saw a large pipit sp fly south with two Skylarks at 1045. South cliff is approximately five miles to the south, so although it presumably did stop somewhere between, it seems likely that this was the same bird. All very frustrating and one that clearly got away.

During my searches for the pipit, I a flock of Linnets numbering at least 350 were at Cromer Point and a Lapland Bunting was in the stubble field there.

Sunrise at Crook Ness