Finally some butterflies!

On Sunday 3oth March, I had a look around St. Bartholomew's Churchyard at Corton and heard 2 Chiff- Chaffs and saw 1 in the north bushes. Whilst there I saw a Coal Tit carrying nest material in its bill, it flew towards towards the Church. I walked over to Corton OSW, where I heard 2 Chiff- Chaffs and saw one in the trees walking down to the complex. At the static carvan park northern edge I saw a butterfly fly up and on further investigation it proved to be a very wary Peacock butterfly. Only my second butterfly see this year, I was getting concerned as I had seen very few so far. Back around the OSW complex and southern edge by the Tamarisk bushes, 2 butterflies were flying with each other, 1 a Peacock butterfly, the other a fine Comma butterfly that kept alighting on the path, eventually I managed to creep up and with my 180mm macro lens get a few reasonable pics. Finally a Large White butterfly flew by. I then checked Ness Point, Hamilton Road, and the Net posts and the only birds of note seen was a Kittiwake flying north over the sea and 3 Linnets at the Netposts, sadly the northerly winds has seemed to have stopped any further bird migration.

Garden visitors

On Saturday 29th March, I saw a hovering Dark-bordered Bee Fly which settled on the ground in our back garden near our conservatory and I managed to get a pic, I also noticed Whitby our black cat look up at something in the south- west corner of the back garden flitting around in our Apple tree and it was a fine Chiff- Chaff, he didn't chase after it & alerted me to its presence, so thanks Whitby.

Oval birding

Directly after work, on Wednesday 26th March, I just had time to check out the Oval and part of the North Denes, at the Oval, I was dismayed to see a further rectangular area of grass is being converted into a practice court by the north- east corner. Around half way along the northern wall, a lovely ashy-grey female Black Redstart flew into the practice part perched on the fence and then flew over to the rollers, meanwhile by the north-east corner a fine male Black Redstart flew in and settled on the grass, it also flew to the rollers area. As I walked over to the rollers, a fine female Wheatear flew up at 5.45pm and perched on a nearby rail.

Redwings heading back to Scandinavia

This evening, on Tuesday 25th March, as I went out into the front garden at 8.15pm and then 8.50pm, I heared a total of 8 low flying Redwings calling "pssst" in total flying north east heading back to Scandinavia for the spring.

Gunton Beach LEO

On Tuesday 25th March at about 4.10pm I received a call from Nick B who had just found what he suspected was a LEO on Gunton Warren, I met him at 5.20pm after work at Link's Road together with Rob H they had just seen the Owl again and it had been confirmed as a LEO as originally suspected. Rob said the bird had flown from Warren House Wood copse to the the smaller stand of Holm Oaks further north, Rob had to leave but I followed Nick on the path slowly winding upwards along the bank heading north. As we walked up the path, I saw the fantastic Long- eared Owl, a dark long- winged Owl, fly to the south- east edge of the Holm Oak copse and then disappear within the foliage and then a short 10 seconds later I saw it fly northwards over the copse for a few seconds where it dipped down and lost to view. This would be about 5.30pm. It wasn't seen again until Chris D saw it fly from scrub just north of the copse at 6.57pm (which totally tallies where I last saw it flying too). I also saw Andrew E, Rene B. and Chris D.

Garden Chiff- Chaff (thanks Whitby!)

On Monday 24th March, directly after work at about 5.40pm, thanks to Whitby, our lovely black cat who looked up at (but didn't go after) a Chiff- Chaff, alerted me to the fact there was something of interest, the aforementioned Chiff-Chaff, in the south- west corner of the garden feeding in a bush in the corner for a couple of minutes before it flew west.

Corton Wagtails & Muntjac

After the net Posts I had decided to check out Corton in the hope of finding my own White Wags in the field just south of the OSW, I met Rob Wil, who said there was a flock of 11 Wagtails with at least 2 White wagtails. My hunch had been proved correct, scanning Rob and I saw 2 fine smart adult male White wagtails, with typical pale grey backsharply demarcated black cap, and white flanks (not grey smudged) after Rob had left I also saw a female White Wagtail (black cap merged into pale grey back and again white flanks (no grey smudging) and a third adult male White Wagtail, totalling 4 White Wagtails in all, the flock had grown to 13! Walking back to the Churchyard, some tinkling 3 Goldfinches, with one of their number briefly posing for the camera, as did a female Muntjac Deer nonchalantly feeding in the north- east corner of the churchyard which enabhled me to get more Muntjac pics and finally in the north- west corner of the churchyard I heard and then saw a Chiff-Chaff singing and moving through the top of a tree in the hedgerow. [The pic of the Male Muntjac was taken at the Lowestoft Net Posts Bramble patch earlier in the day, I couldn't fit it onto the previous post!]

A quintet of Black Redstarts

On Sunday 23rd May, after a long drive back from Wales the previous day having had to divert via just south of Birmingham due to motorway closures on both the M4 and M25 my journey was extended by an extra hour, so I was a little later up than planned but Andrew's tweet about Brs at the Net Posts had me heading down there and having to park on the road due to all the spaces being taken in the layby I walked over and it took a while before I connected with the BRs, I first saw a pair of Muntjac Deer near the big bramble bush. It was disappointing the Council has cleared the weedy area (which was supposed to be a 'ecologically senstive area', I met Phil D. and Kevin B. and then suddenly the Black Redstarts appeared a female and a 1st year male and an adult male (although probably 2nd year as it still showed a yellow gape lie running a lirttle way back from the bill- see sixth pic attached to this post). They spent time busy feeding on the ground the perching on the Net posts. I also spotted a young female Stonechat that obligingly perched on a post. Satisfied, I walked to Ness Point while on the ledge just south of the compass were 18 Turnstones and on the defence rocks were up to 6 of the shyer Purple Sandpipers. I took some shots but then my battery ran out and both spare batteries I had were inexplicably flat too (I thought I had charged them up!), either that or the camera had packed up. I walked back to the Net Posts and joined Paul and Jane F. and typically the birds showed closer giving Ferguson views although I couldn't take any shots. After a pleasant chat with Paul & Jane and spending some time with the Redstarts, we also saw the second adult male Black redstart totally the original 4 Black Redstarts. I went home, discovered all the batteries were flat and managed to retrieve another fully charged battery and with the power back up, I headed back to the Net Posts. It was here where walking around the Bramble bush, I saw the male Muntjac deer staring at me and I got a few shots. I saw Rob H and the redstarts moved to the northern fenced off area and again the Redstarts showed reasonably well and the sun came out. After Rob H had left and Tony B turned up, I moved back to the southern fenced off area, where incredibly found a 3rd adult male, together with the 1st year male that had reappeared as had the female Black Redstart, both Tony and I saw an unprecedented 5 Black Redstarts.

Missed butterflies & back to Kenfig: American Wigeon finally seen

On Friday 21st March, whilst I was travelling over to wales, Jenny saw one of the visiting cats Tabby MCFee unfortunately catch a Peacock buttefly, she managed to rescue it and it flew off, amazingly apparently unharmed & then later she saw a lime yellow Brimstone quickly fly through the garden on the same day. Saturday 22nd March, having been over to Wales, I called into Kenfig NNR in the hope of finally seeing the long staying American Wigeon that i had missed last time as I only had bins and no scope. Unfortunately it was the same scenario this time, so I drove into the car park and headed for Kenfig Pool where it seems history might repeat itself as again scanning from the south- east part of the lake I couldn't see it. However, this time I discovered a path, a public footpath running east along the lake, I kept scanning until I finally saw a group of ducks in the north- west corner and one of them was the excellent 1st winter American Wigeon. He was with a Coot and the cream white forehead and the mucky greenish flash flaring out behind the eye was distinctive and the salmon pink flanks, the pale bluish bill had a dark black tip. On the underparts it appeared to white near the extreme rear flank and blackish tail. Oncve you got your eye in the bird it was very distinctive but it kept hiding behind the Coot, after I had made a phone call it reappeared from behind the Coot and swam alittle closer, great to see this bird again, the last one I had seen was at Spurn. As I walked back to the car, I heard 3 Chiff- chaffs calling, one Chiff- Chaff seen moving near the top of a bush and the second Chiff- Chaff flew frm one tree over the path I was heading back onto another tree. An enjoyable visit.

Deceased partridge

At Ness Point on Thursday 13th and Saturday 15th March there was a dead Red- legged Partridge on the wide ledge just south of the compass. 8 Turnstone also seen on each visit and on the 15th March a Kittiwake flew south by the old Coastguards Look out.

A dozen Purple Sandpipers!

On Sunday 9th March, there was a kettle of 3 Buzzards soaring low over our garden at 1.24pm. Later on at Ness Point, I saw 8 Purple Sandpipers feeding by the rocks by the compass, they were joined by a further 3 Purple Sandpipers. 8 then flew north, quickly joined by the rest but there were 4 in flight not 3 so a definite 12 Purple Sandpipers seen.

Minsmere Black Adder

On Friday 7th March, after having seen the uniformly excellent Buster James Band at the Legends of Rock, Vauxhall Holiday Park at Great Yarmouth at the unusual time of lunchtime 12.40pm. I didn't manage to arrive at Minsmere unmtil 2.15pm, having navigated reception, I took my optical gear and 3 cameras and lugged all this to the area underneath the Sand Martin cliff, on the south side/ right side of the bank. I was on the search for Adders specifically a Black Adder, no not Rowan Atkinson or Edmund Black Adder from the classic BBC comedy series but the reptile, Adder! I was immediately successful as no sooner had I started checking I mmediately located one at 2.20pm, a black Snake sunning itself with flattened body high up on the bank in a sunny spot but were there 2 Snakes because the Snake looked about 2.5 to 3 foot long? Eventually, this melaistic Adder moved and proved it was just 1 Snake it was the excellent black Adder, as the Snake moved the head was finally seen. Certainly the largest Adder I have ever seen measuring an estimated 80cm or 0.8 metres or in old imperial 2 and half foot long! I first heard and then briefly saw a Chiff- Chaff, my first of the year. I also heard the rasping call of an unseen Brambling. On the drive out, I checled a field and saw 2 Mistle Thrushes in the field and a lovely calling Curlew flew in and settled in the field too.

More Bee Orchids found

On Tuesday 4th March, I found another 3 Bee Orchid rosettes spring up in the Burrage Centre garden, when I was caging them later, I checked the other Orchids and 1 was a double plant so from 12, 1o 15 then 16 rosettes!

Ness Point wander

On Sunday 2nd March, in the afternoon, as I was leaving I saw a butterfly fly across the forecourt over the road, it was a probable Peacock flying west. I went to Ness Point and saw just north of there 2 Purple Sandpipers flying north just north of the Point, checking the ledge by the caravan park, not much there but 2 Oystercatchers flew in. walking back to the Point by the north-east tip where the sea defence rocks jut out eastwards towards the sea, were 3 Purple Sandpipers asleep and a busy feeding Turnstone, the 2 Purple Sandpipers woke up when the Turnstone fed amongst them.