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SYWG walk round Church Marsh

Early Sunday morning, myself and Peter Armitage led a group from SYWG round Church Mash. Despite a murky morning we did manage views of many common species and our returning Warblers. Before we split into 2 groups, we were treated to the call of a Cuckoo announcing his arrival back at the fen, along with brief views of my first Whitethroat of the year. We then halved the group and headed off in opposite directions. My group recorded the expected common species and enjoyed reeling Grasshopper Warblers, brief views of Sedge and Reed Warbler and prolonged views of Blackcap. The lagoon was fairly quiet, and it turned out the real action was savoured by the other group who watched an Otter on the river and had a fly past Common Tern, annual here but right place right time necessary. It was nice to see so many enthusiastic people so early in the morning, thanks to those who turned up.

Elsewhere during the week, it has been more of the same at Coldham Hall Marshes and again back at Church Marsh last night. A Barn Owl was a nice extra at the latter site, and at the former a Harrier with a long hawk-like tail flew over into the dusk. This may well have been a Montys but I was unable to pin down the ID in the disappearing light.

Comments

  1. Ben Lewis1 May 2015 at 10:26

    Thanks for doing the walk Jim, glad it went well.
    We finally managed to pick up the black sacks from the riverbank today, please let me know if I missed any!

    I'm not sure if you noticed the report of hen harrier from cantley first thing on Thursday morning? Possibly same bird as you saw but obvs can't be sure. Matt saw it and said it had relatively short stubby wings so was happy it was a hen. However your bird could have been completely different, been hoping for a monty's and trying hard at Buckenham/Claxton myself, I'll keep trying too!

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