Notes on birds/wildlife from a nature enthusiast & photographer (copyright Peter Ransome)
Monday, 21 April 2014
Nightingale at Corton & Meteor storm
Receiving tweets about a Nightingale at Corton today Sunday 21st April, hastened my efforts to check around the Corton area, something I was going to do anyway in the hope of locating some newly arrived migrants. Parking by the old Sewage works, I met Rob Wil and he kindly drove me to the parking space opposite the Corton allotments (ie. northern end of the village and opposite the first house south of the Corton Old Sewage works) We were kindly invited in by the gardeners and we initially heard the Nightingale singing from the eastern most hedge of a house bordering the western part of the allotments. It then fell silent when a cat walked into the bushes. We were joined by a birder from Belton and we next heard it by the roadside bushes and Rob Wil did rely well to pick it out as it hopped to the bottom of the hedge by a fence post (located by looking beneath the white ball fence post top of the house over the road! It then it hopped up onto the bare branches of a small tree/ bush in full view for a couple of minutes. It perched looking to the right sporting the rich chestnut upper parts and pale underparts with reddish brown tail. It then flicked down into the bush and out of sight. My first ever seen Nightingale in the Lizard area (I'd heard previous ones along Gunton Cliff, and twice at Fisher Row, once by the tea gardens (found I think by the late Brian Brown) and once in the vegetation just before the "Bowl clearing"- where the tea gardens path starts (found by myself) but this is the first time I had ever seen one in Lowestoft or indeed anywhere else in the Lizard area!
A Swallow also flew over. We moved back to the roadside and viewing from the eastern end i.e.. the other side of the coast road, we heard the Nightingale singing in the bush it then moved through the bush and was partially obscured but it was just about ready to hop out in full view again before a car went past and it flicked down and out of sight deep in the vegetation. Walking over to Corton old Sewage works I heard a high pitched "psit" and was delighted to see the yellow belly of a Yellow Wagtail (my first of the year) fly over and head north. Walking up to Broadland Sands around 80+ Sand Martin were seen flying around the cliffs and I heard the 8 note whistle of a close calling Whimbrel I looked around everywhere and couldn't see it. My assumption that it was flying low north over the beach (which I couldn't see) were confirmed when I met Craig he said he'd seen it flying over the beach by Radar Lodge. I thanked & congratulated him for finding the NightingaleBy Corton old Sewage Works field (more coastal erosion had occurred and 2 Oystercatchers were seen in the field. Corton New SW revealed very little save for a couple of each of Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell plus 4 Speckled Wood butterflies and a female Sparrowhawk dashing through low through the wood area just north of the complex. A trip into town in the afternoon, I spied another female Sparrowhawk seen perched on the fence just south of Denmark road in Lowestoft and west of the railway station in the early afternoon. From 12 to 12.20am, I went out into the garden from 12 midnight to 12.20am in the early hours of Tuesday 22nd April and saw around 15 meteors whizzing across the night sky. The best one suddenly appeared like a white light dot and then whizzed across the sky for 2 seconds and then abruptly disappeared.
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