27th February - 4th March 2012

Sunday 4th - We did our long-planned all-day sponsored litter-pick today, raising money for Tom's trip to Yellowstone. Tom and I started at about 7 a.m. at Winterton, covering the south dunes for a couple of hours before breaking for a seriously large "breakfast baguette" at the cafe, an excellent fusion of English and French cuisine (mostly English to be fair). We then carried on north to Horsey, meeting Trudy and Duncan here for lunch, before the final push north to Waxham. From 10 a.m. onwards it rained, and indeed was quite miserable towards the end. But a shedload of rubbish was collected. Because of the rain, it wasn't quite such a wildlife-fest, but we did flush a Jack Snipe from by the Natterjack pools, and then later three Short-eared Owls were disturbed from the dunes by Waxham Sands holiday camp. The only other noteworthy thing was the large amount of lichen on (especially) Winterton Dunes, photo below. I don't know exactly what it is, but a bit of googling suggests it might be "Reindeer Lichen" = Cladonia rangiferina or similar. Lots of it anyway!

Maybe Reindeer Lichen? Winterton Dunes

Saturday 3rd - spent a bit of time on Shotesham Common in the morning, with notable sightings being five Linnets, Reed Bunting, 2 Lesser Redpolls, Lesser Celandine in flower, Candle-snuff Fungus, Wavy Bitter-cress (6 stamens) and c50 small fish in the stream. Then took the kids skiing, followed by another trip into the Yare valley where we failed to find the American Wigeon again but did jam into the Great White Egret at last, which flew over and landed betwen Bawburgh and Marlingford. In the evening, the trap again produced Tortricodes alternella.

World's worst photo of Great White Egret, near Bawburgh

Thursday 1st - my first lunchtime walk to the Nunnery Lakes for a while. Nice to see a pair of displaying Curlews at last (although they'd been back for 1-2 weeks) and a pair of Oystercatchers, whilst a male Stonechat was a notable find. New flowers for the year were Groundsel, Daisy and Creeping Buttercup.

Of most interest was a fairly non-descript micro-moth that I saw a few of, including one I got very close views of on an oak bud along Shadwell track. It seemed somewhat familiar but I couldn't place it immediately, and had neither camera nor pot with me. I did do a sketch in my notebook though, but this didn't help me put a name to it subsequently. Logic suggests it was most likely Diurnea fagella but it didn't really look like that. Moral of the story - ALWAYS carry a pot!

Wednesday 29th - work trip to London allowed the year-ticking of Diplodocus, Blue Whale and Ring-necked Parakeet.

Tuesday 28th - a quick hunt in the Yare valley for the Great White Egret was to no avail (except for a momentarily hopeful Little Egret by the A47)

Monday 27th - Linnet on the common from the house, another sign of approaching spring