Seldom Visited

 Tuesday December 17

No more Tuesday moth-ing until the spring, where should we go whilst Sam cleans the house? We haven't been to Halvergate Marshes since February, that's what we decided to do. Ever hopeful, we called in at Thurne, only a short detour en route. There's always the chance of seeing Cranes in this area. Not today, nor anything else either.

We turn off the A47 at 'The Temple' - Buddhist I believe. A far cry from its previous life as the Pink Flamingo nightclub.The long, straight, approach road is also very undulating. Built on peat, there is a constant subsidence of the ground beneath the tarmac. At the end, there is a lane, Stone Lane I believe, which leads out to the middle of the marsh. As far as a small, muddy, parking area at the No Entry Authorised Vehicles only sign. I lunched here whilst watching out for anything flying. Starlings, distant Lapwings, a Grey Heron and Mute Swans plus a treetop Kestrel, perched with its wings open. Weird. 

On the way back to the road, I noticed a small group of cattle in a distant part of the marsh. A white blob looked promising. Three Cattle Egrets were feeding amongst the animals. There were definitely three, there may have been more. 

 


 


As we were leaving, five more flew in, how lucky are we to have this charismatic little heron is now a regular sighting. Still a joy - and always will be I think. 

For the first time ever, our last visit to the beach behind Yarmouth's Sea Life centre, did not yield any gulls at all. We tried again, and this time found one adult Mediterranean Gull on the edge of the water, avoiding the dog and its owners which were owning the beach.

Home via Winterton, Somerton and Horsey. We found a very large flock of Pinkfeet between Sea Palling and Horsey, the first this winter, and added three Marsh Harriers. Owing to the paucity of light, they could well have been going to roost. 

Two days ago, we trapped a moth new for our garden. Despite it being described as Common, it was also our first sighting of a Winter Moth anywhere. No-one traps much at this time of year and this species has passed by - until now.


 

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