Coordinator: Ray Gribble
Reporters: Kathy Blake and Steve Chapman A group of 19 members and guests enjoyed a rewarding morning’s birding and mothing around Sparham Pools on Saturday morning. The weather was fine and bright, 18c with a light south westerly. Land-owner, Charles Sayer, had very kindly invited us to his house and grounds where he had set up two moth traps overnight, one in the walled garden and another in the woods. The wind felt cool at first which was probably a good thing, as when we opened the traps most of the moths were quite lethargic and this enabled close examination and identification. Charles astounded us with his knowledge of all the names of the moths, and I think most of us came away with some new names, especially the bigger ones.
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Leader – Emily Leonard
Reporter – Ray Gribble Species List – David Laurie Fourteen WVBS members assembled at How Hill car park for a 6 mile walk around the surrounding area on public footpaths. The weather was overcast with a cool northerly breeze. In her welcome speech Emily gave us some of the history of the site and pointed out that it was not a nature reserve, thus trying to manage our expectations of what to expect. It was totally unnecessary, as we recorded 66 species. The weather, however, had a damping effect on butterflies and dragonflies, dashing all hopes of Swallowtail butterfly which Emily had seen during the previous week. Leader: Nick Edwards
Reporter: David Laurie Photographs: Nick Edwards Bird List: Alan Hughes Firstly, a big thank you to Amy, our Pensthorpe guide who met 16 of us at 5:00am for our Dawn Chorus outing. It was a chilly, misty start (5°C) but with plenty of birds singing including Blackcap, Wren, Song Thrush and cawing Rooks. In the park, were there Cattle or Little Egrets in the mist at Moon Water? Consensus was there were both. We found Little Egrets later but the Cattle Egrets had gone elsewhere, presumably in search of their favourite cattle. Reporter: John Scoggins
Coordinator & Species List: David Gibbons On Sunday, 24 April the group met for its fourth outdoor meeting of the year at RSPB Lakenheath Fen. The day was led by David Gibbons. The days of hoping to see or hear Golden Oriole at the reserve are now sadly gone so instead we hoped for a successful haul of early spring migrants undeterred by the cold northerly winds which has beset the early part of the week. Leader: Sue Gale
Reporters: Sue Gale On another beautiful blue morning we assembled in the Forestry Commission car park at Santon Downham. The first half dozen to arrive were dispatched along the river bank with Steve Chapman in charge at 7.45. The earlier the better when it comes to the annual challenge of seeing a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (LSW). In fact, the rest of the group was only 20 minutes behind, and the first lot hadn’t yet seen the bird, although they had seen Mandarin ducks flying along the river. Soon after arrival Emily whispered that she thought she had seen it, and indeed she had! Many of us had reasonable but brief views in a fairly distant tree, of two birds, but they soon flew into the woods at the back. We waited for a while, and then decided to split up again, some of us waiting and hoping the birds would return, those who had seen enough leaving to look for Woodlark. |
Please feel free to read through our reports from our monthly outdoor meetings. Archives
March 2024
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