3rd January 2022
I had planned to make an afternoon visit to Whitlingham in the hope of seeing the Ring-necked Parakeet fly in to roost, but the visit was given extra interest with news that Drew had found a Shag on the Great Broad. I arrived to the dreaded words "it was on the broad over there, but I've not seen it for about 20 minutes now..." but fortunately after a quick scan of the far end I noticed it perched up on some cut trees, just off the edge of the island. Shag was a patch tick for me (#156), with the only other one I've seen in Norwich back in February 2013 when I found one along the river in the city centre one morning. Whilst scanning I picked up a couple of birds I'd missed on 1st Jan, Pochard and Great Crested Grebe.
After spending a bit of time watching the Shag I decided to take a slow walk around the meadow, and found a couple of new species in the form of a (relatively!) large springtail, Pogonognathellus longicornis and a lichenicolous fungus, Unguiculariopsis thallophila. I then called in at the slipway and read some more Mute Swan rings before heading back into position near the island. A few Redwings called as they flew over, and a Siskin was in one of the remaining Alder trees that had survived the rather dramatic looking cutting. I watched around 220 Jackdaws swirling about before they settled down to roost, but yet again there was no sign of the parakeet, which has firmly cemented itself as my bogey bird here. Still, one new patch bird in the first week of the year is still a positive start.
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