Friday 31 January 2020

There's Always 'Something'

The penultimate day of the first month of 2020 dawned with a reminder of that delightful old Scottish word, ‘dreich’, which in a nutshell means dark, dismal, dreary and/or downright depressing or a combination thereof! However, even then there were some hopes that the Moth Traps might hold a catch as the overnight conditions had been perfect as windless, with full cloud cover and an unseasonable +9°C on the gauge -
but that also was not to be.
To brighten things up just a little we still had a couple of items omitted from days 1 and 2 of the Norfolk trip, so let’s kick off with them and hopefully get the final day to you before this month is also out. 
 SNOW BUNTINGS
CHINESE WATER DEER 

and something of an iconic gateway to most ardent Twitchers where beyound lie
BUCKENHAM MARSHES
and where once upon a time, long ago, both
LESSER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE 
and

RED-BREASTED GOOSE
once overwintered but not any more

A much reduced rounds of the Recording Area (RA) today all due to the recent poor weath,
with the Heath out of bounds to both vehicles and pedestrians due to flooding and the rest as described above. Nonetheless, we soldiered on undaunted and did pick up on a few more common, but no less attractive Birds.
A chance also to familiarise our new found readers with the lay of the land and a timely reminder to those revisiting as the first stop was the
 IRRIGATION POND
where just a single overwintering

LITTLE GREBE 
was found and moments later a second on the now redundant
GRAVEL PIT
given the state of plumage and their continuous presence here they are both considered to be
from a number of broods (mostly predated) across last years breeding season.
LITTLE GREBE
Additionally, there were also 2 males and a single female
 TUFTED DUCK
in the gloom, along with an uncounted number of

 MOORHEN
Back at Slight Return there was found an unexpected
 JAY
the most wary of all our resident Crows (Corvids)
and not usually recorded in the garden
More obliging, when approached cautiously, is the
GREEN WOODPECKER
which often favour the tennis court as a feeding area.
Only 2 today but there have been a maximum of 5 on a number of occassions.
Many Thanks for Visiting and please pass on the Link as you see fit!