This morning I headed out to Blakeney freshmarsh to try again to find the twite that I missed on February 4th. It was a lovely morning as I followed the path from Blakeney harbour car park, and I was ahead of the Saturday crowds and so was almost alone on the marsh.
I got to the area where the small flock of twite had been seen in recent days and decided to just wait around and see what turned up. It was high tide so there was little on the water except shelduck, but there were sky larks singing and curlew calling. And then I noticed three or four small birds on the fence, with some others splashing about in some shallow water: The twite were having a morning wash and brush up! They would go down to the water and then fly up onto the fence and preen. Eight in all and a new species for the year. After about five minutes they flew off.
Since there were now a lot more people on the path I decided, after a while, that I was unlikely to see the twite again, and so headed back to the car, but not before having a look at the waders that were starting to appear on the exposed mud as the tide was going out; curlew, dunlin, redshank, oystercatcher and grey plover.
In the afternoon Brenda had some time off and so we both headed down to Lady Anne’s Drive – fast becoming our most visited spot! – where we had an enjoyable walk. Nothing new on the bird front until Brenda spotted a species I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to connect with in 2023 – a solitary Canada goose.
In the early evening, once it had got dark, I had the chance to play with my latest gadget – a somewhat impulsive purchase, but one which I think is going to give a lot of enjoyment and provide some really interesting photos and videos: A thermal imaging camera. Somewhat of an extravagance perhaps, but even on my first try out I was rather pleased with this video of pink-footed geese flying over our house on their way to roost.
It’ll be interesting to see what else we can ‘see’ with this technology!
New species for February 11th:
Birds: Canada goose, twite
TOTALS TO DATE:
Birds = 119
Moths = 3
Wildflowers = 15