First Outing

 Thursday March 27

After a morning of wintry showers, the skiy cleared and the sun shone. Where should we go? Keeping in mind the fuel price and availability situation brought about by the war in the Middle East -Trump doing a Putin - it was either Winterton or Cley. Cley won.

Blackthorn froth decorating the hedgerows, budding trees, catkins, daffodils and burgeoning Alexanders, it's definitely Spring, clocks go forward this coming weekend. 

First stop, Salthouse, a surprise to find one car only, it's a popular place. Probably due to the lack of birds and the cutting wind. A pair of Stonechats, well hidden in the long grass, was worth the visit. A lone Avocet kleeped overhead, landing out of sight.

We spent some time scanning the Eye Field for Wheatear, they've already arrived in the Outer Hebrides. In fine weather they tend to fly straight through. Moving on to park roadside near the Eye pool, we found three Ruff racing about looking for food. 

 

Eventually, they took off, before returning to land on the near edge of the pool. The far right bird is a male coming into summer plumage. All three could be males. 

 

Nearer to the coast road, a large flock of Brent Geese could be viewed through the fringe of tall reeds at the edge of the road. The only 'different' one I found was the Brent with a speckled white neck and head . It was very active, neck well stretched most of the time. I tried to get a photo but failed, too much vegetation marred the view. I think it's an aberration rather than a hybrid. It was doing its fair share of throwing its weight around at the others, no sign of it being bullied.