I've had quite a bit of holiday to use up recently but yesterday was my last holiday day of the year, and i decided to give
Surlingham a bash. I was planning to cycle around
Whitlingham then take the cycle route to
Surlingham, but a slow puncture made me change my plan.
I cycled around the Great Broad and stopped a few times, it was rather quiet but a Little Gull was with the other gulls in the conservation area and Tufted Duck numbers are starting to build. Scanning Thorpe Broad i could see a few
Pochard and lots of
BH Gull but again it looked quite. As i was on the bike i gave
Whitlingham Marsh a quick look, a Grey Wagtail by the viaduct was my first on the patch this year and a Chinese Water Deer was also something
new. Near the Sewage works i noticed my tyre
was rather flat so headed over the
Postwick Viaduct and dumped the bike at Laura's work on Thorpe Road. After lunch with Laura in the Coach and Horses i decided to walk the areas of my patch north of the river.
I started off in the
Roseary Cemetery, as with the days trend it was rather quiet and close up Green Woodpecker, was one of the few bird i saw. Lions Wood was awash with Grey Squirrels, Blackbird and Wood
Pigeon, but a Nuthatch broke the
monotony. Carey's Meadow was also very quiet, bar a Bullfinch i could hear but not locate. I had planned to get to Station Marsh about 3.30 then hang around for the Short-eared Owl seen the last few nights, but as it was only just after 2.30 so i first walked the whole site. A Great Black-backed Gull was a patch year tick and i found a few
Cetti's Warbler calling. Waiting by the cattle pen gulls streamed over along with
corvids. A few
other birders appeared then at 4.15 the Short-eared Owl appeared. It rise up from the edge of Thorpe Broad and then started to quarter the meadows, and times coming very close and circling over the broad. Sadly the light was to poor to get a photo of my newest patch bird.