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WHITLINGHAM: Ooh a bug

12th August 2011

A good look around the country park, meadows, woods and marsh still failed to turn up any unusual birds (how I wish the White-winged Tern at Graffham had chosen Whitlingham instead). A couple of Common Terns were flying around the Great Broad, but that was it. From memory the number of Coot should be building up now, but it isn't. A few Blackcaps were eating Blackberries near the river, and a "bull-necked"-looking Marsh Tit may have been strung for Willow in the days of old. Whilst scanning the meadows for partridges I saw a large bug out of the corner of my eye, which it turns out is a Western Conifer Seedbug. Smart looking thing, but apparently a huge pest species accidentally imported to Europe from the USA. On the bright side we are quite low on Ruddy Ducks, so it'll give DEFRA something else to shoot.

2 comments:

  1. Hi. It is nice to pop over and get an update on what has been happening in my birth county. Raveningham on the Norfolk'Suffolk border. I hope to be visiting during September so I will keep looking in to see what is about.

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  2. Hi, thanks for your comment. By September there should be much more avian activity in the county so hopefully the blog will be of more use to you then!

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