Easter wildflowers, 20 April 2019

Yesterday was spent packing for our move so we thought we deserved a day out today!

I'd kindly been given directions to the weird and wonderful Purple Toothwort at Bowthorpe on the edge of Norwich so it was there we headed first. After finding the right place I spotted them from a distance and closer inspection revealed their true weirdness! A Lesser Whitethroat burst into song there too, my first of the year.

 Purple Toothwort

Next we headed for our main location for the day - Natural Surroundings at Glandford. But on the way up the Holt road we got a little distracted and ended up having a rather nice lunch in the cafe in Heydon!

Eventually we got to Natural Surroundings and spent a lovely couple of hours there just mooching about. Obviously we headed for my target sp here first and down by the River Glaven quickly found a few plants of Moschatel, also known as Town Hall Clock because of it having flowers on each face of the flower head. This is a plant I'd been wanting to see for a while so it was a nice moment. Around the place I also identified Stinking Hellebore, Water Avens, Bogbean and Bird Cherry amongst the more common species. Butterflies were represented by Green-veined Whites, Orange Tips, Speckled Wood, Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell.

Moschatel

Bird Cherry

Bogbean

Green-veined White

Orange Tip

Stinking Hellebore

Water Avens

Whitlingham and Thorpe Marshes, 18 April 2019

I began at Whitlingham for a little pre-Easter birding as I imagine this place will be rammed over the bank holiday weekend.

At the eastern end of Great Broad a lovely 4 Arctic Terns were fishing and with my main quarry already sorted I drove round to Bungalow Lane for a good walk around the whole of Thorpe Marshes. For my troubles a Grasshopper Warbler was reeling away in the middle of the marsh at the Bungalow Lane end and around the reserve I counted 7 Sedge Warblers, 6 Cetti's Warblers and 1 Willow Warbler plus the wintering group of 4 Goldeneye, 3 Common Buzzards and a displaying Sparrowhawk.

Back at Whitlingham in the late afternoon the Arctic Terns has been replaced by 6 Little Gulls (5 adults and 1 1st summer) and a few Common Terns.

At home in the evening I then invited myself over to my friend Ally's house at Shelton Green where she had 6 Morels growing in a secluded corner of her garden - a bonus fungi tick! 

Cetti's Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Little Gulls

Brimstone

 Comma

 Jay

Marsh Marigold

 Morels

Pictures from the garden, 18 April 2019

Following on from yesterday's blog entry I spent a little time trying to get some pics of our garden wildlife today and these are the results:

Song Thrush

Blackcap

Speckled Wood

 Muntjac

Notes from the garden, 17 April 2019

With our house move now just a couple of weeks away I've been making the most of the garden. This afternoon I had 3 butterfly yearticks in the form of Holly Blue, Speckled Wood and Green-veined White plus Brimstone and Small White. Our most pleasing garden residents are a pair of Song Thrushes who are busy feeding c4 young in a nest just across from our patio. A Swallow hawked over late afternoon and our regular Muntjac and it's half-grown young were showing well, even to Belinda's childminding children!

    Song Thrush nest site (right foreground in hedge)

Lazy Sunday afternoon, 14 April 2019

The afternoon began with a rather tense football match that Jus, Andy and I watched in the Greyhound in Diss before heading out into deepest Suffolk.

We made a couple of stops at tucked away meadows where Snakeshead Fritillaries where nicely out. Disappointingly Wild Tulip was curiously absent and Early Purple Orchids are only just starting to emerge. This is rather odd because 2019 is well behind 2018 despite the 'beast from the east' having hit in late winter 2018. Creeping Buttercups were just starting to come in to flower but there was very little to get excited about.

We opted to head to Christchurch Park in Ipswich where the stench of relegation was in the air! 8 Mandarins (7 drakes) were easily seen plus a tame Stock Dove and some more Snakeshead Fritillaries (of unknown origin). The impressive Golden Poplar was also just coming into leaf.

Snakeshead Fritillaries

Early Purple Orchids

Creeping Buttercup

Coot feeding chick

Mandarins

Don't ask!

Stock Dove 

    Golden Poplar

Weybread GPs, 11 April 2019

A quick lunchtime sojourn to Weybread today and I have to say it was one of the quietest visits I've ever made. I did manage to yeartick Common Tern and House Martin but there was little else to trouble the scorers. A good number of Blackcaps was good to note (including my first female of the year) plus a pair of Reed Buntings but that was really scraping the barrel!
At Winks Meadow I was was way too early for any orchids, just loads of Cowslips so I concentrated on taking some photos of flowering European Larch. Fans of Monty Python will know this is #1!

 European Larch

  

Hybrid duck goodness! 10 April 2019

I nipped down to Whitlingham again today but in the end had to visit it twice (with a couple of hours in the city in between) before I finally found the hybrid White-cheeked Pintail x Mallard by the slipway. It was third time lucky and in the end it almost became a personal vendetta!  The drake Wigeon was also still hanging about but apart from 3 Cetti's Warblers singing and a scattering of Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs it was very quiet indeed. The chiffys included the rather odd bird below which I strongly suspect may be a Siberian Chiffchaff. The call certainly seemed right.

On the way back I called in to Ashwellthorpe Wood where I was delighted to find a single Early Purple Orchid in flower. The season is underway...

White-cheeked Pintail x Mallard hybrid

putative Siberian Chiffchaff

  Early Purple Orchids

Weekend wild flowers, 6 & 7 April 2019

Despite the very grey and wet weather we managed to get out for a walk in Tyrrel's Wood close to home this afternoon. Mainly I wanted to check the progress of 'our' Early Purple Orchids which grow in just one spot in the wood. I was pleased to see some kind soul has roped the area off and put a sign up to prevent trampling because many are right on the edge of the path. There was one plant very nearly out but it was pleasing to note a lot more rosettes than last year so hopefully it'll be a good year for them. Also out in profusion were Early Dog Violets, Lesser Celandines, Dogs Mercury, Herb Robert and the first Bluebells. Avian highlights were 2 Nuthatches, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Chiffchaffs and Blackcap.  

Yesterday, while out we stumbled upon a nice patch of Summer Snowflakes.

Early Purple Orchids

Early Dog Violet

Herb Robert

     Summer Snowflake

Top Secret Mission, 6 April 2019

The boys and I headed out into the Norfolk wilds yesterday on our very own 'secret mission'. En-route a single Red Kite livened up a very grey afternoon and then we arrived at the site for our vigil. It took some while with just some tail views of a bird on the nest but after about an hour and a half in flew the other bird of the pair for a nest change over. A breeeding pair of Ravens in our home county! Last year they bred at this same location but that was the first breeding pair since 1859! We hung around for a bit gaining several views and hearing the young calling from within the nest. A Marsh Harrier flew over and a Siskin was singing but that was about it. Nonetheless it was mission accomplished.

With the light fading we then popped in to another site we know for Little Owl adding 22 Oystercatchers (a very good inland count), 2 Stock Doves and a calling Kingfisher.

Earlier in the day I'd spent a little while at Whitlingham failing to locate the hybrid Mallard x White-cheeked Pintail at the slipway but the drake Wigeon was there. 4 Grey Wagtails, c6 Swallows (my first of the year), c25 Sand Martins, 2 Cetti's Warbler and several singing Blackcaps. I spent a little time getting some gull 'portraits' to whie away the time before meeting the boys.

Raven

 Tree featuring Little Owl!

 

Wigeon

Lesser Black-backed Gulls

Common Gull

       Blackcap