Long-billed Dowitcher #27

I managed to drag hubby out with me today and had three target birds in mind - shorelarks at Holkham, Long Eared Owl at Cley Spy store and Long-billed Dowitcher at Cley Marshes reserve. 
As we reached Lady Anne's Drive at Holkham we were greeted with the road closed signs and notices saying that they were doing estate management so no access at all - failure at the first hurdle didn't go down too well :(
Not knowing of any other way to get there, we continued on until Burnham Overy Staithe and found a place to park quite easily and then went for a very windy walk. The tide was going out and there were plenty of waders to see on the mud - ringed and grey plovers, curlew, dunlin etc. We did a circular walk and on the way back to the road we saw a Red Kite busily plucking a bird by a pool - possibly a teal as there were lots of them about(extras). 
There has been a Long Eared Owl sitting on a branch behind the Cley Spy optics store and they have very kindly set up a viewing area for people to be able to see this bird (at a very safe distance I might add). They have been posting on their FB page whether it is around or not and I was quite hopeful as it has been there for most of the day for the past three days - and yes, you've guessed it - it wasn't there today - strike 2!
Again, I wasn't very impressed. But we then continued on to Salthouse and the Dun Cow and had a very nice lunch which pacified me somewhat :)
So, the final target bird was the long billed dowitcher, a bird I'd not heard of until a couple of weeks ago and had little idea of how to confidently identify. We had info from the Visitor Centre that it had been seen from the middle hides, so off we trotted. The first hide was very quiet, so we eventually concluded that this couldn't possibly be from where it had been seen and moved on to the next one. This only had two couples who were just stood chatting about holidays. We asked them if they'd seen the dowitcher and they said "Yes, have you?" When they heard that we had not, they not only showed us a picture they had taken a few minutes ago, but they pointed out where is HAD been feeding......but wasn't now. They suggested that we move to the final hide as it would be easier to see from there, providing it hadn't flown off whilst they were talking! 
So, final hide and we sat down with a prime spot facing where the bird had been seen. Eventually, a very nice man with a scope suggested that it was sleeping on the far bank and every now and again it would poke its head out to have a look around. Success - yay! 
We hung about for a while and eventually it came a little closer and then tried to keep up with a godwit, which gives a good comparison of its size if, like us, you've not seen one before(extra) 
One out of three is better than none, so I have to be quite happy with my day. Plus, I got to spend it with my favourite person, which can't be bad, can it? :)