24th May. Norfolk like

An early start saw me wandering round Orgreave at 06:30 with low confidence of finding anything out of the ordinary. Two and a half hours later and just a Dunlin for my trouble I was thinking that a Sunday morning lie in would have been a better idea.

Elsewhere strange things indeed were occurring. West Yorkshire had turned into some kind of rare bird vacuum cleaner sucking all the rares out of Norfolk and depositing them at Swillington Ings, namely Collared Pratincole and a nice trio of Whiskered Terns. Tempting stuff but it appeared that the Pratincole had done one mid-morning leaving just the Terns. The addition of a Woodchat at Pugneys flicked my twitching switch and we made the short trip up the M1. The Shrike showed well as did the Terns but a muffled shout from the Swillington hide indicated that the Pratincole was heading towards us - hurrah a spot of luck for a change. We ended the day on Hatfield Moors failing to see the Buff-breasted Sandpiper but none the less very impressed with the quality scrapes - definitely a future wader mecca and only 30 mins from home.