WHITLINGHAM: Lots of Little Egrets and a new psyllid

19th February 2023

Highlight of the February WeBS count was seeing 9 Little Egrets, a new record count for me. There were three roosting on the Little Broad plus one active bird, then another four roosting on the Great Broad with another one further along. A redhead Goosander was also of note, and a Coal Tit was singing alongside the path. I also got amazingly close up views of an Otter, having noticed it a few feet away before it saw me, and managed to find my first Spanioneura fonscolombii, a psyllid associated with Box.

NORWICH: Another encounter with an Otter

18th September 2019

Early in the year I was fortunate to see an Otter on my way to work a couple of times. As a result if I see ripples in the river I always wait a minute to see what will emerge. The previous week I had done this and up popped a Cormorant, but today I once again waited, and up popped an Otter! It quickly dived again and moved further away from the edge before I had to move on to go to work.

NORWICH: A recent miscellany of local sightings

Early February 2019

As the daylight hours increase I've seen a few more bits and bobs, mostly before or after work. A female Blackcap in my inlaws garden in south Norwich was my first of the year and has apparently been seen for around a week or so. A Sparrowhawk flew through the garden one morning, whilst other species seen on my walk into work include Grey Wagtail near New Mills, a Buzzard over Barn Road and a Greylag Goose over Penn Grove.

In terms of smaller species I noted a leaf mine on a Polypody Fern. Finding a large clump of sporangia underneath I knew it would be one of the Psychoides moths, and after examining the larva I was able to identify it as Fern Smut, Psychoides filicivora. I also saw a Pyrocantha bush covered in the mines of Firethorn Leaf Miner, Phyllonorycter leucographella.

Finally on my way home on 15th Feb I once again saw the Otter, this time further west level with Wensum Park. I was able to watch it for a while as it swam and dived along the middle of the channel.

NORWICH: City centre Otter

31st January 2019

A misty morning on my walk into work, livened up by an Otter in the river near New Mills. Having initially seen some ripples I went to the edge of the path, only to see the Otter looking up at me a few feet away! A Little Grebe was also present a bit further along.

WHITLINGHAM: November WeBS, Velvet Scoter & Brent Goose

13th November 2016

After a busy week I was looking forward to getting to Whitlingham to carry out the November WeBS count. The Velvet Scoter found mid-week was still present on Saturday at dusk, and various other winter birds had been seen in the past few days, including flyover Bewick's Swans, Goosander, Brambling and Redpoll.

I arrived early, aiming to maximise flyover bird potential and hopefully beat any boating activity. The Little Broad is rather grown up around the edges, so it took multiple viewpoints to count the Gadwall and Shoveler amassed at the western end. Whilst counting a Lesser Redpoll flew over, my first of the year here after a mild winter period. Whilst stood at the east end I met Steve and Jo, and a Siskin called in the distance as we had a brief chat before carrying on.

On the slipway I scanned the Black-headed Gulls to look for ringed ones (in addition to our Norwegian returner, a 'new' German-ringed bird was seen in the week). None of the gulls on the pontoon were ringed, so I turned back to the broad and began counting the Coot and Tufted Ducks. I got a text from Gary to say that he was further along the broad shore and there was still some Bramblings around. Before leaving the slipway Steve pointed out that a 1st-year swan was rather late in moulting. I agreed, then noticed it had a ring on. The swan was very tame, but if anything that hindered viewing it side on. The ring was on upside down, so I gave up trying to read it in the field and just photographed it instead.

I had to leave the shore of the broad temporarily as the model yachters had closed off a small section. I had just set up my telescope to make sure I hadn't missed anything when a small dark goose flew past heading westwards. I raised my binoculars and saw that it was a Brent Goose! Looking ahead I noticed that Steve and Jo hadn't seen it, but at that point the Brent swung round and headed back east. I called Gary, hoping he would see it flying past, only to find out that he had seen it on the Great Broad initially, before it had flown up. He had texted me but I hadn't noticed the beep. Steve & Jo did see it as it flew back (Steve kindly came running back pointing in case I hadn't noticed it), so we all got to see this rare inland bird. This is my second patch record, after the February 2012 bird found by Cathy & I.

Whitlingham Brent Goose - photo courtesy of Gary White

Further along I met up with Gary, and Rob & Jill Wilson overtook us looking for the Velvet Scoter. After counting another section of the broad we reached them, and scanning across towards the island we saw the Velvet Scoter, an excellent addition to the local WeBS list. In a flurry of activity we concentrated on some Brambling close by in Willow scrub (crazily my first here since 2008!). About five flew out, there were at least another five left, when two more large flocks flew up and combined. Gary counted around 90 in the combined super-flock, but whilst he was counting them I turned back and watched the Otter that had swam in front of the scoter! Unsurprisingly the Velvet Scoter flew off, but after a similar lap to the Brent Goose it headed to the east end of the broad and landed there.

Walking further along the Great Broad we drew up level with a big Aythya and Coot flock, which contained the Velvet Scoter. The sun was out and we got good views as it swam about, diving occasionally. I had plans for the afternoon, so I had to leave the scoter and carry on around the broad. There was very little on Thorpe Broad, but quite a few birds in the conservation area bay, including 40+ Teal and a group of 11 Little Grebes, my highest count here and quite impressive all together, bobbing around a swan.

With all this excitement the actual counts were something of a secondary consideration, but here are some of the main counts, compared against last year (brackets = Nov 2015):

Gadwall 112 (29) - Dec 2015 (106)

Mallard 64 (67)

Teal 45 (2) - Dec 2015 (42)

Tufted Duck 194 (141) - Dec 2015 (198)

Pochard 7 (18)

Great-crested Grebe 9 (4) - Dec 2015 (8)

Little Grebe 11 (0)

Cormorant 30 (65) - Dec 2015 (37)

Coot 254 (157) - Dec 2015 (264)

Black-headed Gull 96 (300)

With the exception of Mallards, the November counts seem completely different to the equivalent 2015 data. However, looking at the whole of last years data, six of the ten here actually have similar numbers to the December 2015 counts, so anecdotally it looks like winter has arrived one month earlier than last year!

THETFORD: Otter time

17th February 2013

Cathy has wanted to see an Otter for some time, and as she doesn't particularly like Strumpshaw (probably the best place to see Otters locally) we decided to go to Thetford where several Otters have been showing well recently. We arrived, saw a small group of photographers, walked up to them and there in the river were two Otters! I had hoped that we would see them, but was still a bit surprised that they would be there on cue, particularly as information on their presence was largely restricted to 'Thetford' to reduce the risk of attacks by people who aren't as appreciative of them. We went for a nice riverside walk in the sunshine hoping to catch up with them further along, but in the end settled for our initial views.

Otters can be a divisive species. To some they are a beautiful mammal that is very much a part of the river ecosystem, to others they are unwanted predators that devour large collections of expensive fish. I'm not going to tell people what they should think, but I would say is that I advocate critical thinking to support your own view. If you want to know about Otters, then please look at several sources to back up anything you read online or in the papers. Be particularly wary of figures that don't have a source. If someone is claiming that x number of Otters are present on a river, is that from a properly carried out survey? It could be an estimate, or it could be completely made up (as I suspect one letter in particular to the EDP suggesting that there were 70 pairs of Otters along the Wensum was). Also, does the writer have a particular agenda? Someone who has just lost some expensive fish may not be impartial. Some people are against culling of any species, whilst at the other end of the spectrum some want to cull almost anything that eats large fish (Otters, Cormorants, Goosanders...)

A few key points:

• Otters are currently protected by law - it is illegal to kill or disturb them
• Otters were re-introduced to Norfolk after their population had dropped significantly
• The re-introductions were carried out by the Otter Trust, and ceased in 1996 - see here
• Otters and other predators numbers don't just keep going up. They are governed by predator-prey dynamics - if there is not enough prey items then the number of predators will decrease.