But after 1 1/2 hours searching the river around Hunworth, with no more than a Little Egret, I decided to head up to Sheringham. One Purple Sandpiper was immediately located on rocks by the short stay car park at the north end of the town and showed well bathing and slipping around on the rocks (three birds were reported later).
A walk around Sheringham Country Park produced calling and seen Nuthatch by the entrance and after a while a small flock produced a Firecrest, a few Long-tailed and Coal and a showy Treecreeper.
I returned to Hunworth (only to get frustrated by news of another bird that was not put out because they did not want others on a bird race to see it! - my frustration with all that has gone on recently boiled over, so I apologise for my language at the time!) when, just before noon, news came out that the Dipper was at Letheringsett. At last, I thought, being only 5 minutes away I really thought I'd see it, but no! The bird had been present at the site for at least 1/2 hour but disappeared - probably before the pager message came out, and, unfortunately, the only other person to see it other than the two re-finders is one of the nicest birders in the county (I really mean that). Unfortunately, he was too nice and asked the others if they minded if he put the news out, they asked for 5 more minutes so that they could photograph it even more! (then the excuses of the message not coming out straight away etc!)
I returned to Hunworth (only to get frustrated by news of another bird that was not put out because they did not want others on a bird race to see it! - my frustration with all that has gone on recently boiled over, so I apologise for my language at the time!) when, just before noon, news came out that the Dipper was at Letheringsett. At last, I thought, being only 5 minutes away I really thought I'd see it, but no! The bird had been present at the site for at least 1/2 hour but disappeared - probably before the pager message came out, and, unfortunately, the only other person to see it other than the two re-finders is one of the nicest birders in the county (I really mean that). Unfortunately, he was too nice and asked the others if they minded if he put the news out, they asked for 5 more minutes so that they could photograph it even more! (then the excuses of the message not coming out straight away etc!)
I spent another couple of hours searching the general area to no avail, so the selfish act of these people, who (presumably) were looking for the bird on other people's news meant that the only time it was viewable today was missed by the 20 or so birders who had also spent a lot of time looking for it (me, bitter, yes!)
I stopped off at Guist on the way home, where a pair of Mandarins were seen, giving their weird crocking call as they flew.
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