1st January 2018
After a relaxing morning Cathy & I took a slow stroll along the south shore of the Great Broad. It was very busy, perhaps with people who have made a new years resolution to walk more, so should be OK next week. The meadows around Trowse were completely flooded, but fortunately the broad had only overtopped onto the path in one place.
We started accumulating the common species from the car park, with a flyover Fieldfare a bonus as with the exception of a light autumn passage they have been hard to find here this winter. Reaching the broad we saw Mallard, Coot, Gadwall, Tufted Duck and Egyptian Goose on the broad, followed by Mute Swan, Canada Goose and Greylag Goose, plus the Chinese Goose x Greylag Goose hybrid. Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull and Herring Gull were all added, along with Cormorant and Great-crested Grebe.
Moving along until we were level with the island we could see some Teal and seven Little Grebes. Not much more was added until we reached the end of the broad, when looking across to St Andrews Broad we could see Shoveler, Pochard and one of the Ferruginous x Pochard hybrids (Justin had found a second similar looking bird this morning, so I'm not sure which I saw). Cathy picked out a Kingfisher flying across the river, and a flock of Long-tailed Tits flew through.
On our way back we picked up a few passerines, and heard Bullfinch and Goldfinches. Walking back along the road to avoid the worst of the mud Cathy found another Kingfisher, which based on the location was probably the same one I saw on the 29th Dec. In total I saw 33 species with two more heard only to start my patch year.
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