by chris c Sun Feb 18 2018, 00:15
Walked on some more farmland in the beautiful sunshine, but with a dire arctic blast coming from the west for a change, usually it is at its worst from the north or east.
Finally I found a flock of dozens of Fieldfares, with a few Redwings and Starlings. They were in a wheat field with some rape stubble still sticking up, and very mobile so hard to count.
Not as many Yellowhammers as I would have expected, but more on the walk back, by which time the Fieldfares had gone. I saw them, or another flock, in some different fields as I drove home.
Linnets were originally conspicous by their absence, but eventually I found a flock of a couple of dozen having a communal sing-song in some trees overhanging a big setaside patch with lots of weed/wildflower seed and pheasant feeders. No Buzzards or Skylarks which was a bit strange.
Common Gulls generally aren't here but last winter there were 8 - 9000 roosting at Minsmere and on the estuaries and spreading out over the fields for miles inland. This year back to the regular dozens to hundreds, and a couple of Kestrels walking about on the ground below them, probably looking for worms or insects.
Some big old poplars blew down in one of the storms and had been cut up and piled in what used to be the garden of a long deserted house. The Great Spotted Woodpecker was around, calling "chik!"
Today I walked along the estuary at Iken and watched hundreds of Dunlins and Redshanks doing their communal display flights low over the water and then retreating to the islands to roost, and a couple of hundred Avocets joined in. Strangely not many Black-Tailed Godwits and even fewer Curlews and Lapwings, but a few Shelduck, and the obligatory Teal. Oh and a Common Seal lying on one of the islands looking quizzical, we get both them and the greys.
In between, I went to Hen Reedbeds to see not very much, but a Marsh Harrier doing some desultory sky dancing, then on another common with a few assorted finches and tits in song.
As per usual I have been going about 6 - 8 hours between breakfast and my meal. Today's sausages and Brussels sprouts were not quite sufficient, I suspect soon I will have a prawn curry with the usual multicoloured peppers, chillies and garlic. Yesterday's chicken stir fry with the aforementioned peppers, chillies and garlic and olives and bacon hit the spot though. This living off stored energy thing ought to catch on.