Snettisham, Norfolk. April 2009.

I decided to spend the morning here, but on driving up there I was to find fog all the way, I hoped that it would burn away but after a few hours it had only just started to lift and to be replaced by bloody cloud. So I made good of what was there and it eventually lifted to give sunny skies for the last hour or so whilst there.

There were plenty of swallows skimming the water for flies, and approaching the beach the scrub land held a few common whitethroats and a solitary sedge warbler. There were a few hundred brent geese out on the flats and frequent skeins flying inland. There were good numbers of shelduck all over the place and a single marsh harrier scouring the farmland nearby.



Along near the first hide I saw a whitethroat moving in the scrub, but as it began to sing I realised it was not a common but a lesser whitethroat. I decided to spend some time trying to get some shots as there was not much else to photograph due to the light. It proved a tricky little bird frequently singing from just below the bank out of sight. But every now and then it would perch atop the bushes and I could grab a shot . It appeared quite dark on the back but the improving light made it appear different when viewed from certain angles, a nice little bird all the same, and very vocal.