Movement !

A cold sunny day and with the wind in the west rather than south-southwest, there was some different bird activity today. Watching from Gore Point, Robert and I counted 83 Red-throated Divers westwards into the Wash, together with 188 Shelduck, 8 Great Crested Grebes, a Red-necked Grebe, a Goldeneye, an Eider, 2 Guillemots and 3 Red-breasted Mergansers between 08:00 and 10:30. The choppy water made observing birds on the sea difficult and we saw little of note.  A Pied Wagtail and about 60 Snow Buntings were on the beach. On the grazing marshes, a party of 15 Ruff on the north fields caught our attention and from the hides we saw they were joined by flocks of 4 and 17: any number is unusual but 36 is pretty exceptional. We watched a female Marsh Harrier fly out across The Wash but it was called back by a displaying male high over Gore Point, repeatedly uttering  its odd, peewit-like mew. Great views were had of a Tawny Owl as it left its roost at dusk and it brought the day's owl tally to three as one of the Barn Owls was active virtually all day and a Short-eared Owl was hunting the grazing marsh shortly after dawn. The Kingfisher was again on the village pools with unseen Bullfinches calling both here and in the forestry.

Invertebrate highlight of the day was the first Seven-spot Ladybird of the year basking in the sun on some Sea Buckthorn, whilst new plants in flower were Feverfew, Greater Periwinckle and Shepherd's Purse.