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WHITLINGHAM: After the cold snap

22nd November 2015

Following a mild start to the autumn it came as a bit of a surprise that the forecast snow actually fell on Norwich on Saturday evening. By Sunday morning much of it had melted, but the cold snap and the strong winds battering the coast persuaded me to head down to Whitlingham just in case a Little Auk had flown this far inland. It doesn't happen very often here, although much further inland Graffham held Long-tailed Duck, Great Skua, Kittiwake and Arctic Tern as a reminder of the possibilities.

I had a good look around the slipway for the Goosander, but it seemed to be absent. Quite a few Black-headed Gulls were perched up on the solar boat dock, all lacking colour rings. I didn't attempt to do any counts, but there looked like there was more Tufted Ducks than last week, and probably a few more Pochard too. A couple of Goldeneyes were also on the Great Broad, but as there have been up to five at Thorpe recently these are probably commuting between the two. A drake Shoveler was the first I've seen here this winter period (there were probably two females too, but visibility was poor).


By now it had begun to rain steadily, so I decided to loop around through part of the woods and back around the picnic meadow. I heard some Goldcrests calling and watched three of them feeding close by, never staying still enough to get an in-focus photo. There was still some fungi growing, including Brittle Cinder (Kretschmaria deusta) and Split Gill (Schizophyllum commune). The former wasn't a Whitlingham tick by virtue of some seen at Trowse Woods last year, but the latter was new.

Brittle Cinder fungus

3 comments:

  1. " snow actually fell on Norwich on Saturday evening"....
    good job it wasn't Friday evening...
    Norwich motorists just don't do snow!!

    That Helvella crispa in the last post is a handsome fungus...
    but I've never knowingly seen it...
    nor the Otidea bufonia...
    unless, most likely, I've mistaken it for Jew's Ear and passed it by!?
    Never knowingly seen the Brittle Cinder, either...
    again, I might well have observed it and passed on by!

    Saw a female Goshawk yesterday...
    sitting at the side of the road...
    it flew beyond 5x-zoom range before I could get the camera out of the bag... dammit!
    My first thought was resting Hen Harrier...
    then, as it flew to a nearby tree I noticed "NO BLACK"...
    and the wings were far too deep...
    I was still uncertain that it was a Goshawk...
    it seemed too pale, with no sign of streaking...
    then I read in Collins [when I got home] that Europe gets winterers from Russia...
    and they are, according to Collins, extremely pale!
    Made my day that did.

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    Replies
    1. That is very true, a bit of snow usually brings the whole transport infrasctructure to a standstill.

      You'd be unlikely to confuse an Otidea with Jew's Ear as the former grow on the ground rather than branches.

      Goshawks always brighten up a day out, particularly if the sighting is unexpected.

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  2. " unlikely to confuse an Otidea with Jew's Ear as the former grow on the ground rather than branches"....
    not seen it then!

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