Rather cold and a step out of the car and the newly appeared scrap from sea spray over the wall. The BAR TAILED GODWIT was still around with his single flag and single leg. More DUNLIN here today with a small flock of LINNET. BRENT GOOSE, REDSHANK, LAPWING, numerous MEADOW PIPIT but Rob pinned down a CASPIAN GULL. Adult bird with characteristic features.
After being locked away for five days an hour in the snow is enough. The weather bright and snow only light but with the sun on your back its just the best feeling.
I don't know who was the most shocked when a WOODCOCK took to the air only a meter away. It was one of two but the biggest surprise was the GREAT WHITE EGERET that flew over my head at top of tree level. Also three COMMON BUZZARD went over calling as they went. SISKIN calling eating mast as well as the usual tit population. The best being the usual winter birds on the feeding station. With COAL TIT and MARSH TIT. TREECREEPER and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. A very productive walk for an hour.
Call in with a few MED GULLS and four COMMON GULL. Several TURNSTONES running around. but the best was a BLACK HEADED GULL. First rung in Norway and seen again for the first time this year and several times over six years.
Walk round the smell was ok but nothing to get excited about, in fact less than what is normally around this time of the year. Thats the birds and not the smell. I suppose the best was a flock of 30 GOLDFINCH that had taken to a high oak and where calling to each other none stop. CHAFFINCH 2, L-T-TIT, BLUE and GREAT TIT. BLACKBIRD only two.
Links Hill: About 30 BHG and 4 MED GULS with our usual colour ringed bird but the best was the 5 COMMON GULLS that where at rest.
In view of the governments requirement to stay local, took a walk to South Pier. Lowestoft. So not much to go on about. Except for one of a pair of TURNSTONE that has found what it is like to get tangled in fishing line. What was odd was that it was not sea fishing gear. But fresh water gear. The thing is the bird was impaled by a hook.
A walk through to Loathingland Lake, nothing much out of the ordinary but added to the year list. But always good to catch up with, PINTAIL, SHOVELORE, COOT, WIGEON, GADWALL, MOORHEN, and my first STARLINGS for the year. Where have they all gone.
North Dene's: The surprise was the eight OYSTERCATCHER but also a single STOCK DOVE.
So here we go again, but it doesn't get any easier. The age of trekking is proving more difficult year on year. But we will still be out there in the wild, in the weather and watching out for feathered friends. Because I have still not lost my get up and go, to see the unusual and find the unmissable.
Todays walk brought in 30 species with the best being a KINGFISHER at Oulton Broad. But in real terms the best will be the two GREAT WHITE EGERET which when you think I saw my first in 1964 makes us all understand how thins have changed.
But the KESTREL below took a real fancy to a rodent beside the track, which did not stay alive for long. I also had a fly over SNIPE and a flock of BEARDED READLING on Horseshoe corner.
