.gif)
Last Minute Birding
Hello to anybody taking the time to read this!
I’ve been birding for about 8 years, mostly in the interior of Norfolk with varying degrees of success. I would love to class my self as a 'patch addict' though in truth I haven’t been able to decide on a single local patch, and instead I cover 2-5 various areas at least once a week.
I must admit that living in Norfolk it is difficult to avoid the lure of the coast, and I’m sure everybody is aware of quite how fantastic the coast can be. I general treat myself to a trip once every 2 weeks, unless there is something in particular that I want to catch up with.
This year thanks to copious amounts of coursework, the vast majority of my birding has centered around my village, and slowly but surely I’ve really began to appreciate the avi-fauna of my area. In March, whilst taking a break from a history of plant evolution, I decided to visit an area near my local sewage farm. The area is a gently graduated river valley, with pasture on both sides with a sewage farm situated along the river. On this particular afternoon I managed to count 132 pied wags, 5 grey wags and a single female white wag. Not bad. As I was cycling along the river my attention was drawn to a pair of lesser black back's mobbing a bird sat in one of the pastures. To my astonishment the bird was a peregrine! Admittedly I’ve probably seen over 100 peregrines before, but they were generally around the coast, or on their breeding quarters in northern England. A mini-twitch ensued as this was the first twitchable bird in the area for 8 years.
I visited the site again in mid April & managed 2 wheatear, 1 fem ring ouzel, 1 fem Whinchat and a stone curlew. Not bad for the centre of Norfolk!
Thanks for reading, and my next blog will be coming to you from Namibia, where I hope to log 100+ sp on a months research program. My new 'local' patch will be in the Kalahari, where I hope to encounter golden breasted bunting, fiscal shrike, martial eagle and comb duck amongst many others!
Daniel