Double dipping

So back to the birding. Despite a howling gale this morning, I decided to head for the north coast and look for the Gramborough Hill / Kelling Quags' Richard's Pipit. I knew this one could be hit or miss, its been around since before Christmas but all reports have had the moniker, ".........tho elusive" or ".........very mobile" and so on. I spent two hours at the site but neither saw nor heard it. I hadn't been up to the coast since the early December tidal surges and was really amazed to see that the car park at Salthouse has disappeared under tonnes of shingle.
With the bird a no show and nothing else of note (apart from a flock of forty or so DB Brents), I decided to try for the Wiveton Glossy Ibis. At least I thought this would be a shoe-in, no problems. I struggled to interpret the directions on RBA, because all I could see in the flooded fields between Wiveton bridge and Wiveton Church were Curlews, therefore I assumed I was in the wrong place. Eventualy I met another birder who told me it had been seen earlier in the day in the very same field I was looking into, right place but wrong time. I searched around to no avail until about 4.30pm, by which stage the light was gone and both cold and hunger had gotten the better of me.
However, I did see two Barn Owls hunting that general area, the first of 2014, and a third one on the way home. Hopefully they're faring better than last winter.

Barn Owls - Wiveton, Norfolk - 9th February 2014