12th-18th March 2012

Sunday 18th - took Tom and his friend Nick to football in Holt, and then we went on to Cley afterwards for a bit. Nice selection of things, including an adult and 2-cy Spoonbill and the very welcome sight of my first Wheatears of the year - four males on the Eye Field. Officially spring now! My second earliest ever in fact. In the evening, I had a walk around the village in the dark and heard Barn and Tawny Owls and, most notably, the sound of Common Frog calling from the skeggy pond in Ambush Wood.


Saturday 17th - now 10 Linnets on the common, a notable increase. 30 moths in the garden trap that night, 100% Orthosia.


Thursday 15th - sadly, the second dead Badger this week, this time by the A11 east of Wymondham.

Wednesday 14th - a fine Green Woodpecker on the lawn whilst I was eating my breakfast - hard to photo because it was moving its head so fast in and out of the ground; this was the best of about 20 attempts (through the window of course).

Breakfast bird

Tuesday 13th - Sweet Violet in flower along Hollow Lane, and Danish Scurvy-grass in flower along the A11. In the evening, following reports from other moth-ers around the county of large catches of Small Quaker, I looked at a normal light by the school football pitch at Fram and indeed discovered it was (relatively) crawling with moths - 9 Small and 3 Common Quakers, and my third ever Tortricoides alternella (all in the last few weeks!)


Monday 12th - belated WeBS count at Whitlingham in the morning was relatively unremarkable, and no migrants yet. A Sparrowhawk was seen to catch a Pied Wag by the Little Broad. Highlight on the Great Broad was a calling Water Rail by the edge of the bay, but I couldn't get it to respond to playback. Carrion Crow already on a nest on the island (not a Cormorant nest as I initially hoped!)