A Monday walk - which has now become a nice habit now I’m retired and Belinda doesn’t work on Mondays! After the weekend everywhere is so much quieter too and this suits us just fine.
We ventured along the coast from Covehithe village down to Benacre Broad in one direction and then Covehithe Broad in the other.
Benacre Broad was full of wildfowl with c900 Wigeon and smaller numbers of Teal and Gadwall but best of all were 6 Whooper Swans amongst the Mutes. A single female Marsh Harrier was also there.
Down at Covehithe Broad I had 3 Goldeneye, a few Pochard and c10 Little Grebes but little else of note until another final scan revealed a 1w female Scaup hanging around with a pair of Tufted Duck which made the walk worthwhile.
Near the church back in the village a verge was full of Orange Peel Fungus. The first I’ve seen this year.
With their continued march to seemingly all corners of the country it was only a matter of time before we got a group of Cattle Egrets locally. Thanks to Ben Potterton putting the news out on our local WhatsApp group I was able to take the short drive out to between Brockdish and Needham to see a group of 6 loosely associating with some cattle. A single Little Egret also joined them.
My first long walk following a little health scare was with Belinda along the Deben from Melton to Woodbridge and back. I was a bit out of breath at the end but onwards and upwards!
On the mud of the estuary I counted c75 Avocet, c300 Lapwings, c200 Black-tailed Godwits, 3 Grey Plover and a single Dunlin. Right at the start of the walk a Kingfisher was at close quarters by a footbridge over a dyke - before it saw me (!) and a Grey Wagtail flew over.
There was a rare plant in the town that I wanted to catch up with and when I got to the area near the Co-op in the town centre I found it had taken over the area! The species in question being Tall Nightshade.
