Wednesday 23 March 2016

The middle weekend of March was spent up in Norfolk visiting my younger brother and some of the north coast.
Saturday 12th I visited Cley.A fantastic reserve and whilst there wasn't anything rare about I watched the sea for a while and found a Black -Throated Diver amongst the many Red -Throats and had a single Eider.I also had my first Chiffchaff of the spring (still none on the patch).
I took the opportunity to go to Blakeney to see some Lapland Buntings and try to get some shots of them.
Lapland Buntings

Back to the patch and not a lot has changed but Fieldfares and Redwings remain in decent numbers. On 19th two Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers were displaying in the alderwood at the southern end and the feeder was still attracting several Tit species including the Marsh Tits.
The lake was quiet as usual with 6 Mandarins and a Cormorant being the highlite.
In the afternoon we had a walk and had a flock of about 130 Redpolls fly over us at Bassetts farm, definately the largest flock i've ever seen!
On 20th there was the welcome sight of a Reed Bunting singing in the ditch at the bottom of the lake and 2 Kingfishers were present with 2 Grey Wagtails on the stream.
At lunch time I picked up a large raptor going over the house which turned out to be my first Red Kite(68) of the year and later in the afternoon we were treated to 6 Buzzards circling over the village.
On the morning of the 21st I popped in to the lake on my way to work to find two Reed Buntings singing and on the way home a drake Teal was on the lake plus a Grey Heron.
On the loop round past the sheep pasture I found a cracking male White Wagtail(69) in amongst the sheep but unfortunately I could refind it when I returned with my camera.
STILL NO CHIFFCHAFF but I'm sure it will be any day now. 



1 comment:

  1. Surely not counting White Wagtail for the year list Steve! Heh heh. I had a Red Kite here on Tuesday :-)

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