A brisk NNW wind meant it felt much, much cooler than previous days and a slight misjudgement was made wearing shorts! At the pools at Thornham there was 1 Wood Sandpiper which was lovely to see them back on passage, as well as 4 Snipe out in the open and 1 Bar-tailed Godwit. There were 30 Whimbrel in the rough field between the corner of Thornham Pools and the obs. We had 10 Little Tern throughout the day and 1 Common Tern going east up the Broad Water. There were 2 Spoonbill on the Broad Water in the afternoon, one was very actively feeding up and down and it was amazing to see it actually catch a small fish! Whilst eating lunch we had a Hobby bomb over the obs and the Pines! This is the first one we’ve seen this year. The Swifts have finally returned in good number with 35 all feeding over the grazing marsh towards Holme Church, amazing birds!

Spoonbill with a fish!

The moth traps were unsurprisingly much less busy compared to yesterday with 45 individuals of 13 species. We had 3 Small Umber, 12 Muslin, 2 Black Headed Conch, 1 White Ermine, 1 Hedge Banded Grey, 18 Cinnabar, 1 Sharp Angled Peacock, 1 Northern Drab, 1 Yellow Belle, 1 Garden Pebble, 1 Water Carpet, 2 Common Groundling and 1 Common Quaker. Butterflies were a little less easy to see today and lower in number with the cooler temperatures, with Wall Brown dominating the numbers at 12. We also had Green Hairstreak, Peacock and Speckled Wood around the reserve.

Yellow Belle (top) – Garden Pebble (bottom)

We had our first Dragonfly of the year over the pond feasting on the insects buzzing around the pond surface, but it flew off before I could get my bins to check what it was, hopefully it’ll be back tomorrow. We did however have a nice Blue-tailed Damselfly which sat very nicely on some of the pond vegetation until I took a picture.

Blue-tailed Damselfly

It was also a great day for amphibians with 4 species recorded with Common Frog, Common Toad, Smooth Newt and Natterjack Toad all on the reserve!

Shannon Clifford – Assistant Warden

NORFOLK BIRD NEWS FROM RARE BIRD ALERT

Norfolk Temminck’s Stint Hickling Broad NWT 1/3ml ESE of visitor centre at Brendan’s Marsh at far end at 12.15pm 52.7393,1.5981. Park at c52.7422,1.5949

Norfolk Temminck’s Stint Titchwell RSPB on freshmarsh on bund in SW compartment c52.9672,0.6048

Norfolk Golden Oriole fem/1s.male flew west over Beeston Bump at 9.42am c52.9435,1.2244

Norfolk Wryneck Winterton Dunes NNR c52.7172,1.6976

Norfolk Temminck’s Stint Cley NWT still on Pat’s Pool from Teal Hide at 10.03am c52.9577,1.0545. Park at c52.9544,1.0567

Norfolk 5.Wood Sands Buckenham Marshes RSPB still on windpump pool at 8.22am 52.5880,1.4748. Park at 52.5981,1.4698

Norfolk Ring Ouzel Sidestrand in garden at 7.40am c52.9076,1.3582

Norfolk Hoopoe Upper Sheringham at All Saints Churchyard at 7.48am then flew to green by village hall c52.9313,1.1890

Norfolk Garganey Hickling Broad NWT still 1/3ml ESE of visitor centre at Brendan’s Marsh from mound +4.Wood Sands 52.7393,1.5981. Park at c52.7422,1.5949

Norfolk Garganey drk y’day Cantley beet factory still +Spotted Redshank 52.5692,1.5281. Sign in at security NR13 3SH then follow footpath SE along River Yare. Stay on permitted path, no other access