8 May 2015
A visit to Sculthorpe Mill in search of Grey Wagtail proved a success. A lovely sunny start to the day and arrival before the pub opened and the hordes descended allowed Oli and I to watch a pair of Grey Wagtails gathering food and flying to their nest to feed the young (at a respectful distance). Being the only people there watching these most elegant of birds and seeing their private life felt quite a privilege - we didn't hang around in case they felt disturbed and then headed over to Sculthorpe Moor Community Nature Reserve.
At Sculthorpe we were looking for Water Voles and the recently sighted Water Shrews but both eluded us. We were however given a VIP preview of the new broad walk and hide - looks to be fantastic. So onto East bank at Cley en route to pick up books from Wildsounds. Too windy for the Bearded Tits which we had been told were showing well earlier in the week, but a
Lapwing obliged with an aerial flyby.
and a
Grey Heron on the Iron Road at Salthouse was busy fishing.
Plus the ever present
Avocets chasing everything
Sedge Warblers were being very un cooperative and every time one emerged we either were not ready or it was just too brief - always a bit of vegetation in the way. Nearby and one of Oli's friends had told him of a couple of local Nightingales, so we pitched up and spent a while listening to them sing in full sunshine mid afternoon - of course no chance of actually seeing them,
and finally back to Great Bircham and a walk round the village pond where there are two Little Grebes, but they always kept their distance so we resorted to some more familiar Norfolk Pond life !
Egyptain Goose
Coots having a scrap - three against one ? No wonder it was dive...dive ...dive !
and would any village pond be complete without one of these -
Greylag Goose
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