Perhaps the most interesting bird encounter today was when I was helping Brenda with some cleaning at our static caravan – I noticed a magpie fly down just outside, perhaps to pick up a scrap of something. It was immediately followed by a jay trying to snatch whatever it had picked up. They then continued to squabble in one of the nearby pine trees. Obviously something of a territorial rivalry going on there!
Later in the day, on my way to a rehearsal in King’s Lynn, I stopped briefly just south of Titchwell to look for Dotterel. These lovely waders traditionally visit some of the newly tilled fields as a stopping off point on their migration, before heading to their upland breeding sites. They are remarkably camouflaged: I remember the first time I saw them here a few years ago. Even when you had found exactly where they were sitting it was so easy to miss them! Today I didn’t find any needles in this particular haystack…but that’s the way it goes.
Brenda writes: “Two new species today, a moth and a flower. There were only two moths in total, a Hebrew character in the trap and a very beautiful moth called a streamer on the house wall. We need some warmer nights!
The new flower was in our front garden, on the edge of the drive. Spotted medick is a member of the pea family and more specifically has trefoil (three) leaves like clovers and so on. It is mat forming and propagates by sending out runners. It has tiny clover-like yellow flowers with distinctive black marks in the middle of the leaves, hence the name. I’m one up on Steve today; although I didn’t see it, I heard my first cuckoo!”
New species for April 28th:
Moths: streamer
Flowers: spotted medick
TOTALS TO DATE:
Birds = 170
Moths = 20
Wildflowers = 67