**MEGA**Cley NWT. December 2011.**MEGA**

Western Sandpiper. Cley Norfolk.


Luckily for me the morning after the pager rang out with this little mega, was the first of my night shifts and so I had the morning to try and connect. I picked my dad up at 04:15 and headed off for Cley Marshes. Arriving before first light the thought of continuing my run of dips was certainly in my mind, and with one birder from Hertfordshire already in the hide, we settled down with a birding couple and awaited the sunrise.


The hide soon started to fill up and unlike in Kent the birders here were all scanning for the bird. So it was no surprise that it was picked up on Simmonds scrape after flying in. A very fast moving bird and quite mobile when mixed in with the Dunlin, especially when the bloody Wigeon kept flying in to land after being spooked, probably by one of the many Harriers quartering about. We were to get good views of the Western and I was happy with this set of images considering the size of the wader and distance even for the big lens!

! And best of all....we didn't dip !