The Whitlingham Bird Report for 2023 is now available to download from the Bird Reports page or from here

More local wandering

10th October 2009

With an uncharacteristic October lull (I was dipping a Wilson's Phalarope this time last year) I decided to head back to Whitlingham. Following a mini-influx of Yellow-browed Warblers, I scrutenised all of the Long-tailed Tit flocks I could find, but no luck. The best part was whilst watching some on Trowse Common, a Kingfisher dived through my binocular view into the river! A large amount of canoeists were on the main broad, and further up I saw a group of old people power-walking sideways along the path. Puzzled, I walked up to them (it took a while, they were surprisingly nimble) and found that they were having a model yacht race, but were worried about the yachts going out of range, and were keeping parallel with their boat. So anyone that thinks birding is a bit odd, there are odder hobbies out there.
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In the conservation area a large amount of Coot, about 50 Tufted Duck and some Gadwall were joined by three pairs of Pochard. About a third of the Great Crested Grebes are now in winter plumage. I walked up the tree-lined avenue looking for roosting Tawny Owls (I heard two calling last month, but couldn't pinpoint them), but saw nothing other than a few Jays. Lets hope we get a few rares next weekend, to make up for not being able to go to the Scillies with Adam, Gary & Phil.

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