Breckland Birder

Breckland Birder
Red Deer in Breckland, Norfolk Photo by Paul Newport

Thursday 15 March 2018

Deopham, Norfolk 14th March

Today was another very long day at work, starting at 0600 and finishing at 2000.  Much of the day was very spring-like although the wind was a fresh to strong southerly.
The beauty of my job is not only meeting some wonderful clients, but I also travel around some beautiful villages and towns in the wonderful county of Norfolk.
For my afternoon break today I visited Deopham, a beautiful village which was formerly dominated by a WW2 airfield.  This is the area I took my short break today.
Species seen on this visit was:

1 Buzzard
1 Kestrel
1 Peregrine 1415 and 1440hrs
Wood Pigeon
Fieldfare
Redwing
300+ Starlings
1 Meadow Pipit
Skylarks
Carrion Crow

The vast open country here was dominated by the song of a number of Skylarks high above arable habitat.  Crops and grassy headlands will undoubtedly provide these songsters with nest-sites.
At 1415 I saw a distant, dark ball low in the sky, this was a mini murmuration of a few hundred Starlings, I immediately thought raptor, and on cue a Peregrine appeared passing low over fields and was seen to perform a shallow stoop, disappearing out of sight, and scattering Pigeons and Crows. This distinctive Falcon reappeared at 1440, having presumably been unsuccessful in an earlier hunt.
Peregrines, along with the much smaller Merlin, are scarce winter visitors to my patch.

Upon my return to work just prior to 1600, I noticed a healthy flock of 300+ Linnets wandering over farmland at Wicklewood, a regular and common bird in this area in the winter months.

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