Sunday Again

 Sundy October 12

With two mornings moth-ing a week, two days of gardeners helping out, and various other appointments, the weekend is often the only time when a whole day's birding is possible. Sunday is quieter than Saturday, both on the roads and the coast.

Much of the day appeared through a thick sea fret. The sun broke through at midday, but didn't shine  for long. The fret did enhance the cobwebs festooned on the bushes along the bank at Snettisham.

 


Not the most artistic of creations. Too many dropped stitches and inconsistent pattern-following!  Droopy underpants came to mind.  Each web is a marvel produced by a hungry spider, only obvious to us by the fret adhering to the gossamer threads.

We saw hundreds of ducks today, Wigeon, Mallard and Teal are back in force. Geese less so. Only one Brent, a field full of Pinkfeet behind North Point Pools and 40 Canada Geese at Snettisham. 

A hiighloght was a flock of at least nine Mistle Thrushes. A field en route to Snettisham has been left to seed. The thrushes were constantly rising from the field to perch on overhead wires before repeating their actions. Always against the light and never perching for long. It's a busy road and Pam was understandably antsy about stopping for long. This is the best I managed.

 


I had been hoping to go and see the Red-tailed/Turkestan Shrike in Suffolk, until I learnt that it involved a walk, however short. Not a life tick, I saw one in Cyprus back in the 80s. A quick twitch on the way to the airport and home - in the opposite direction. Also memorable for the nearby field full of goats noisily proving that a vegetarian diet causes flatulence.

Moths

Another Clifden's this week, our fourth, and the first of the lovely, green,  Autumn moth, Merveille du Jour. The Brick, is always good to see, we first twitched one of these on Scilly, many years ago, before we started trapping.

 

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