Local Patch?

Wednesday January 30

We don't really have a local patch which we 'do' regularly. In the days when we did winter recording of 1 k squares for the BTO, our local squares were already allocated to others - who actually live elsewhere in the County. 

Bob is now probably the hardest worker of our area, taking in Bacton Woods, the coast from Mundesley to Winterton and inland to North Walsham. He found the Black-bellied Dipper at Ebridge Mill which recently won him the Great Yarmouth Bird Club Jane Bamford trophy, for 2018's best bird discovered by a member, reported, and available for all.

We decided to have a mosey about , starting with Crostwight Common then Honing Long Lane, Edingthorpe, Bacton Woods and Walcott sea front. The 1 cm of overnight snow had cleared from the roads and a lovely sunny day lifted the spirits.

We added four birds to our year list, Goldcrest in Crostwight Common woods and Red-throated Diver, Great Northern Diver and Guillemot at Walcott. 

In the twenty minutes we spent sea watching, we saw over twenty Red-throats either flying by or on the sea. 
Whilst Pam was searching for the Kingfisher at Ebridge, I spent some time watching a young Mute Swan playing with a buoy. It pushed it around with its beak, sometimes successful in grabbing the blue rope and dragging it as far as it would go. It was having fun.

We've never seen Little Grebe on the canal. To-day there were 9 birds.
 
We'd seen Chiffchaff at Glandford yesterday after meeting friends at Natural Surroundings. Greg mentioned that he'd seen one there. We were looking for Grey Wagtail at the Sewage Works really, we often bird that lane when we are in the area. 

My bird photograph folder now holds 73 species - a good handful of them are of embarrassing quality. I hope to make improvements to those during the year. I doubt that I will be able to improve on my female Smew digiscoped smudge. Actually seeing another would be an achievement.