Grey Partridges on a bitterly cold Sunday

On Sunday, 10th February, I looked over at Hamilton Dock and it was good to see the Great Northern Diver at Hamilton Dock swimming right out in the middle for around half an hour before it disappeared! At a bitterly cold Ness Point and a very high tide, 7 Purple Sandpipers, flew past the finger and 7 huddled together, against the bitter cold south wind. At lunchtime, I joined the Lizards (Andrew E, Rob's Wil & Win, James W, James B, Paul & Jane F, Richard W et al) putting in some 500 bushes (Gorse, hawthorne, elderberry etc) and scrub paid for by Suffolk Wildlife Trust as the western hedge around the Ting Dene caravan park on the North Denes. Mid afternoon, I saw the Wren in the near border in the back garden running parallel with the kitchen, it flew left over to the lavender bush. A text from Roy H and then Jane F had me driving just a few yards west of Mutford along the Hulver road, by the SEO field at Mutford, I could see a Barn Owl hunting, initially no GP's seen and negative reports from Maurice B who was also there. But while I was yet again fruitlessly scanning the Ellough area, a call from Roy H (one good turn deserves another see yesterday's post), I drove back to the Hulver road area just yards from the end of the village by the for sale signs, in the large field north of the road, we spotted 2 excellent Grey Partridges in the eastern end of the field on the far side just yards from the blue bag. They huddled low amongst the cut stubble. One was male and female, the male had chestnut brown markings on the face. They slowly walked east along the back of the field. Nice to see a species I hadn't seen for over a decade, I'd never seen them in either the Ellough, Beccles or indeed Mutford areas before, the last ones I'd seen were the Corton ones over a decade ago.