Summary of Birding in Norfolk, Cambridge, Rutland etc 22 – 28th March 2013
Our eight-day holiday, mixing visiting friends with as much birding as we could fit in en route, took us first to the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust site at Welney summarised here which was, disappointingly, as flooded as it had been last year. With few birds on view the highlights were probably the Avocets.
Next we had our two-day guided birding tour of the Brecks led by Stuart White. On day one despite the snow blizzard we still managed to get some good birding done and the highlights were the Black Bellied Dipper on the River Thet and magnificent views of Otters. Nice additions to our year list were Woodlark and Marsh Tit and we also had a great view of a large flock of Redwing who were actually singing !
The second day the snow abated but it was still extremely cold. We were taken to some the same places we had been the previous day but this time we had views of two Black-Bellied Dippers not one – perhaps the first time two have been seen together in the UK! A great life tick was several views of Goshawk and we also added Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Fieldfare as year ticks. The close views of a dead Woodcock were very interesting if a bit morbid.