Back to local birding

17th & 18th April 2010

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Following last weeks Scotland adventure it was back to local matters over the weekend. Saturday was a beautiful sunny day, so I stayed indoors waiting for temperatures to cool and daytrippers to go home before setting off for Whitlingham. Unfortunately my actions were in vain, as a group of teenagers were having a party on the Little Broad beach. On the warbler front there was still only one singing Sedge Warbler, but Willow Warblers were up to four and Chiffchaffs were calling all around. The three remaining Egyptian Goose chicks are all looking healthy, and there were four broods of young Mallard chicks (10, 9, 5 & 3). A flyover Grey Wagtail, anting Green Woodpecker and the little hybrid goose were all seen on the way round.

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Another sunny day on Sunday, so I decided to give the quieter Thorpe Marsh side a go. Watching the skies failed to yield more than a Swallow and a Kestrel (2nd patch record this year), but I did finally break my Little Ringed Plover duck, watching one feeding merrily along the muddy margins of the pool near the cattle pound. A lap of the site revealed three Sedge Warblers but little else, probably a few days too early for Whitethroat, Gropper etc. A further two LRPs were on the western shingly edge of the broad, four Oystercatchers on the spit and a further check of the first pool revealed three Snipe, but that was my lot. On the way back I called in at Carey's Meadow, which was similar devoid of Whitethroats.