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Dancing on ice

A Water Rail, of course. My hoped for bird of the weekend, watched sliding around on an iced dyke at Buckenham Marshes today. Bitterly cold, lost all feeling in my hands after a while so the trip was cut a little shorter than planned. I did however manage to see a gaggle of 20+ White Fronted Geese and 15+ Barnacles, difficult to ascertain exact numbers due to the distance. Ducks were much closer though, Teal and Wigeon were feeding either side of the track.The noise was immense, it was like being in the middle of the flock. Plenty of Lapwing around, but no raptors.
I popped into Strumpshaw Fen on the way back home, and much of the action was around the visitor centre. A reported Northern Bullfinch could not be located, but I did pick out a couple of Lesser Redpoll in amongst the Siskin flocks. Marsh Tits also in good number and vocal.
Yesterday, I only had time for Surlingham. Other than the usual suspects it was a little quiet on the reserve, no doubt due to a frozen lagoon and visibilty was down to less than 50 metres. I could hear Thrushes on the move, and then a group of angry Blackbirds allowed me to watch a Tawny Owl at roost. An expected, but welcome, bird for the patch list.

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