Heading down to the coast path between Wells and Stiffkey again this afternoon (a little earlier than yesterday) I was rewarded with better views of the pallid harrier, both on the ground and in flight, and was able to see some of the identifying features, such as the facial pattern, though the bird was still a long way off: Thank goodness for telescopes!
There was a Chinese water deer on the marsh and there seemed to be even more Brent geese on the than yesterday – several hundred at least. However none of the groups of geese seemed to hold a lone red-breasted goose.
Other birders that were around said that it had been seen a little further east, and so I walked on for half a mile or so, with a couple of others, and we were in luck. In amongst about 30 Brents was a rather splendid red-breasted goose.
Did I mention that this is my favourite goose species? (I think I did!) Too far away for a decent photo, but the bird was looking lovely through the ‘scope in the late afternoon sunshine.
Brenda writes: “After yesterday’s duck (forgive the pun) today’s seven moths seemed like a crowd – although it has to be said there were only three in the trap, all light brown apples. The rest were on the house wall or window frame, three Novembers and a new species for the year, a feathered thorn.
Today I had a meeting at Holkham in the afternoon and was going to have a walk by the lake afterwards, but forgot my walking boots. Since I therefore had to stick to the tracks, I headed past the hall and along the south end of the lake and was very pleased I did so because I was able to observe the relative sizes of four birds perched quite near each other – great white egret, grey heron, cormorant and little egret. I always enjoy seeing the resident barnacle geese at Holkham. Like the fallow deer they seem to have little fear of humans.”
New species for November 7th:
Birds: red-breasted goose
Moths: feathered thorn
TOTALS TO DATE:
Birds = 227
Moths = 256
Wildflowers = 290