6th-8th April

6th April

A frustrating morning saw me on our nearby high point, raptor watching in what should have been ideal conditions, clear, breezy, warming southerlies. Nobody told the raptors though and it was a blank apart from a couple of resident Common Buzzards and Sparrowhawks, plus a migrant Sand Martin.  Even more frustrating was a falcon seen briefly which may have been a very early Hobby.

Moths are picking up nicely with record numbers for the garden 6th/7th of Clouded Drab (8), Small Quaker (10) and Common Quaker (32) plus our latest Dotted Border and earliest (by two weeks) Nut-tree Tussock. It’s a crazy spring!

8th

Cley was better than of late with a few Swallows and Sand Martins moving west in the beautiful breezy, sunny day, three Wheatears on the Eye Field, a few Sandwich Terns along the beach and plenty of Marsh Harrier activity. Water levels are high though, which may bode well for waders late spring. Both Peacock and Small Tortoiseshells were on the wing. The highlight of the day had to wait a day or two to be confirmed when a trip round a couple of websites confirmed the small finch that flew west past the centre after lunch was a Serin.  I thought it was, having seen a yellow rump and given its size but the short trilling flight call wasn't the mass of jingling I was used to from Portugal etc.
There was plenty of wasp activity round the ivy in the garden when I got home and fair numbers of moths in the trap, with another late Dotted Border and our first Red Chestnut, Engrailed and Twenty-plume moth of the year, plus our second Diurnea fagella – thanks to Jon Clifton for the i/d. No sign of the frog spawn hatching yet.

Diurnea fagella and Common Wasp

21st January

Chestnut

Two more Chestnuts in the moth trap when I opened it this morning, keeping the year ticking over.

Not too much to report from Cley except a young male Peregrine in the afternoon over Simmonds, apparently targetting Avocets, numbers of which seem to be reducing!  One pale-bellied Brent still and its nice to see Bearded Tits and hear three Cettis Warblers, while Water Rails continue to show, with two in front of Daukes (no camera!) and two along the East bank.

Besides more "Birding for Beginners"walks, NWT are talking about two moth evenings this summer as well as running a trap regularly Wednesday nights for Thursday mornings.  We did a bit there last year but a more organised effort is bound to pay dividends as well as adding to what visitors get to see.

Cley today

A pretty good day though the light was naff for photography, highlights being Kingfisher, 3 Water pipits and 7 Twite by the sluice along the west bank, 7 pale-bellied Brents shared between north scrape and Salthouse and a party of 6 Bewicks flying west along the coast.  Lots of Pinkfeet in the area as well, though mobile, plus a Cettis and Stonechat, so some insect feeders have made it through so far. The Marsh Harriers seem to be taking an interest in each other and a couple of Barn Owls showed along the grass banks off and on.  Waders were unexceptional but included a Knot on Pats Pool

Cley 31st December 2009

My usual volunteer day at Cley NWT helping people with i/d stuff etc on the reserve. Highlight was a large immature female Peregrine attacking the winter Avocet flock with enthusiasm but little apparent success. Only having the Lumix G1 with me I contented myself with some ducky/wader shots before heading back to the Centre out of the cold. Roll on summer!