Ice Bird and Moths

Friday March 15

A friend's phone call alerted us to the presence of the Iceland Gull again at Walcott. We've looked for it every day this week..........

The field opposite the Poacher's Pocket has pools of fresh water where gulls full of bread, provided by regular feeders, land to have a wash and preen. It it's high tide - it was - they linger. 

B was still there when we arrived, as was the Iceland Gull. We were just in time to see it take ten steps and sink to its belly, hardly visible in the flock. Bother. It was also blowing a hooley. Perishing. 

Something startled the flock so that the Iceland got to its feet, time for a few quick shots for my year record.

Back to warmth at home. Thank you Bob, the second good find this winter.

Later on, friends Ian and Sue were on their way to see the bird. As it's only about two miles down the road, we decided to try and locate it before they arrived. No luck. It had flown again. We all saw the Merlin called by Pam, fly through low, hugging the field bank

Saturday March 16

Waking to the wind still doing its best to go through everything in its way, we read the latest news from our WhatsApp group re the special moths in south Norfolk. They would definitely be on show at Cranwich Camp this morning. 

After a very small detour due to the web thinking that a postcode request for the camp was West Tofts (!!), we arrived to find two other moth-ers already inspecting the array of pots on a tray in Dave Holman's car. As we have moth-ed in the Brecks before at specially organised meets, only two of the moths were new for us but the others were lovely to see.

We photographed those we could, in the pots of course, expressed our sincere gratitude to David for setting it all up and then sitting in his car in the cold for all of that time. Brilliant. A few of the moths :

Barred Tooth-stripe

Broom-tip

Dotted Chestnut

Mottled Grey

Acleris Cristata - very active

I ended up not photographing the Scarce Tissue.

We then called in at Lynford Arboretum, birding from the disabled parking area. A feeder containing fat balls encouraged a good variety of birds to come in. Nuthatch, Blue, Great, Long-tailed and Marsh Tits, Chaffinch, Brambling and a Wren.

A Grey Squirrel dug up some food - Acorn or Chestnut? - beneath the feeder. A cute pest.

St Helen's parking ground was full of activity with a lot of red and white plastic tape preventing access to the far areas in which we usually park. Some sort of running and cycling race on Sunday. Deciding not to visit Weeting yet , we turned on the heated seats and left for home.