Glaucous Gull on groyne no.25 Waxham Beach

On Wednesday 25th February, after I finished work at 2pm I drove straight to Money Lane at Waxham parked up and took the path to the beach, entering the concrete steps, I walked right (south) for 3/4 of a mile going through groynes 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 & 25. But initially there was no sign of the Glaucous Gull. The groynes were made up of large rocks extending out to sea and these barriers were attractive to a large number of Grey Seals, at least 500+ , in groups of 50-80, who had gathered on the beach. I checked all the groynes and the beach and I couldn't see the Glaucous. I met another chap who walked up from the south and as we were talking, I could see a large very pale biscuit coloured Gull, the excellent first winter Glaucous Gull flying south and it settled on the end of groyne number 25. It had a large pink bill with black at the tip. A typical first winter bird. I can only assume it was on the beach perhaps concealed by the Seals. It perched on a rock right at the end of groyne 25 and spent the nexr hour here before it eventually flew north and onto the beach by the shoreline. It probably had plenty of food to feast on as I saw at least 1 dead Seal pup carcass. On the wayback walking in the dunes, I saw 30 Linnet, gathering on some gorse, a female Stonechat and walking back along Money Lane, I saw another female Stonechat and heard the 'tic' of a Yellowhammer but the bird was not seen.

Back to the muddy quagmire

On Sunday 22nd february, having just returned from a very successful trip to Georgia, in the early afternoon I made my way to Carlton Marshes and took the long walk down to the North hide (1 and a half miles). Checking the Geese at the west end of Share Marsh, amongst the Greylag, I could see 2 White- fronted Geese, 1 sitting down and 1 feeding. Unfortunately they were against the sun. I carried on and just before the first hide, they were lots of ducks very close to the path, mainly Wigeon and Teal but no sign of the American Wigeon or GW teal, at the North Hide Pool there were very few ducks so I walked back to the first hide before I reached there I spotted the excellent American Wigeon at mid distance amongst some duck but it swam behind a 30 metre line of reeds and I temporarily lost it. walking back half way towards the first hide, I potentially spotted it again, a very grey headed Wigeon asleep. I kept the scope on it and sure enough when it woke up and looked around it confirmed itself as thye fine male American Wigeon.

Georgia Day 8

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Georgia Day 7

Georgia Day 7

Georgia Day 6

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Georgia Day 5

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Georgia day 4

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