Ashwellthorpe Wood and Weybread GPs, 11 & 12 April 2017

A brief after-work visit to Ashwellthorpe Wood on 11th revealed the first Early Purple Orchids of the year out. There were c30 in flower but with plenty to come. Great Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker and Nuthatch were all active and 3 Common Buzzards also seen. The wood was alive with Dark-bordered Bee-flies, I saw well over 100! Just outside the village a nice early Common Whitethroat was singing in a roadside hedge.

Early Purple Orchid 

Today (12th) saw me spend an hour or two at Weybread GPs where I concentrated on Ocean Pit. Hirundines weren't obvious when I arrived but by the time I'd left I'd seen c8 Sand Martins, c30 Swallows and 2 House Martins as numbers built My earliest Common Tern for some years was sat on one of the buoys for the whole time I was there and 2 Kingfishers were at opposite ends of the pit. A pair of Little Egrets were along the Waveney, the first time I've seen more than a singleton and a Common Buzzard was over to the south. 10 Barnacle Geese (all paired) were amongst the Greylags and Canadas and I counted 7 Oystercatchers.

Common Tern

 Barnacle Geese