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Tuesday November 19

As both our weekly moth meets have finished for the season, we have decided to do more shorter birding outings to see us through the winter months. Weather permitting of course.

It's the seal pupping season at Winterton, so we have kept away at weekends to avoid the masses. We knew that the Desert Wheatear which had been seen in the seal colony had departed, the Snow Buntings were still present.

Plenty of sugar beet mountains waiting to be lorried along the field verges, a small group of a dozen Pink-feet the only geese seen. However, east of Causeway Farm, approaching Sea Palling, the group of twenty four Whooper Swans in a roadside field was a welcome sight. Many were sleeping. I took a few 'just in case' handheld shots past Pam's nose and we drove on. 


This was the only one in focus. I inspected the other photos to see if there were any Bewick's amongst them, but all were Whoopers, four of them this year's young.

We arrived at the beach car park to find the gates closed. Why? They usually keep the park open even if they shut the shop and loos. Maybe the coastguards didn't want to man it so that they pocket the money. There were seal wardens around and they didn't know why it was shut either. We parked at the end of the road for some sea watching. After half an hour or so of empty sea with a few gull fly-bys, we left ,hoping to get better photos of the swans. 

The flock of Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings in the hedge past Horsey Mill had disappeared, as had the swans. It's a regular resting place for them, many do move on. 

It's bitterly cold today. we had our first overnight ground frost of the winter last night. The forecast is for brisk northerly wind in the next few days with snow on high ground. Shetland has already had a covering - as seen on Penny Clarke's Blog.

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