Today I once again got Brenda to drop me off at Burnham Overy Staithe so that I could walk back to Holkham. Writing this I decided to look up what Overy meant, and it turns out that it’s “over the river” – literally the village that’s on the other side of the river from the remaining “Burnhams” – of which there are several.
One of the reasons I like this walk is the variety of habitats. The bushes by the bank on the first part of the walk gave me good views of house sparrows – so often ignored or taken for granted, but now residing in the UK in far fewer numbers that 20 years ago (though they are now making a bit of a comeback).
Today the dune habitat gave me the highlight of the walk, a couple of wheatear. Wonderful birds!
Entering the pinewoods beyond the dunes I had a bit of a butterfly bonanza.
Finally, toward the end of my walk I got good views of a wren and a kestrel.
Brenda writes: “After yesterday’s wind and rain I was somewhat surprised to find 74 moths in the trap this morning! Admittedly most of them were…you’ve guessed it!…large yellow underwings (56), but there were 9 other species, including another canary-shouldered thorn.”
No new species for September 13th:
TOTALS TO DATE:
Birds = 217
Moths = 223
Wildflowers = 279