Glorious!

An absolute corker of a weekend weather-wise here, with blue skies and nearly warm sunshine, it felt like spring had got a rush on winter! First thing Saturday after walking the dog I nipped down to Felbrigg Lake, the wildfowl appear to be thinning a little;

Tufted Duck 8
Gadwall 2
Pochard 1
Coot 5
Shelduck 2
Mute Swan pr
Mallard 30
Mandarin 7 (at least)

Elsewhere here the Great Spotted Woodpeckers were out in full force with at least 6 drumming away, and the pair of Stonechat were still present. Best birds of the morning were also the most frustrating, with a flock of eight, silent wild Swans flying west over the Lake. Initially I thought they were Bewick's as they went away and disappeared over the trees. However about 10 mins later they were seen again, going south-east at distance, when they looked fairly hefty and more like Whooper's! This is the second occation I have managed to 'lose' an ID of wild swans in the parish- poor show! To make matter's worse I took a nostalgic trip over to Gunton Park this afternoon, the site of my first Norfolk patch. It was pretty dead, but there were 3 familiar faces over there with the Grey-lag and Canada Geese- Barnacles!!! So now I find I'm going out birding and coming back with less birds on my year list than I went out with-Typical!

Day Break


Female Mandarin, cute but wary


Marsh Tit, tantilising but no poser!




Lesser Celendine at the pond




time for reflection...





'nother day done gone





Oak Beauty at the moth trap