Lowestoft Life - 22nd - 26th January 2025

It has all been about the weather and I am still reluctant to drag my bones out when the sky is leaden and wind is blowing but after helping out Antony with some garden work down at the Outlaws in Wrentham on Wednesday there was time for a drive around the lanes and a short walk on the Sotterely estate with Hawfinches in mind.  

Acleris schalleriana in the Wrentham garden

We lucked out but it was still despite the clinging drizzle and we did find a vocal flock of Redwings and a few Chaffinches and Linnets.  Coal Tits, Nuthatches and both Woodpeckers were found but it was the glowing Bullfinches that made the walk worthwhile.

Back at home I began the creation of a new bog garden alongside the two small back garden ponds, sacrificing a patch of rank grass to hopefully provide my carnivorous plants a summer home.  I will start planting it in the spring but in the meantime the moss can get a foothold.

With the weather on Sunday looking to turn grim again we decided to head up into The Broads for a few hours while the sky was at least still attempting to stay blue.  The tide was fully out at Breydon Water and the Wigeon were huddled along the banks but the waders were scattered on the drive by and mere dots.  Acle Straight was good though with floppy flocks of flappy Lapwings comingled with Starlings and the odd Ruff while certain fields held probing Curlews and Irish Dancing Gulls.

A Great White Egret stood alongside a ditch with various Grey Herons and Little Egrets in likewise poses and a large flock of Pink-feet gleamed in the rapidly diminishing sunshine.  You could see the greyness creeping in from the west and the breeze was also picking up.  Towards the northern end of the Straight there were Common Buzzards dotted every few hundred yards along the telephone wires and as usual there were several Kestrels and Marsh Harriers too.  It is amazing what you can see from a moving vehicle at a steady speed.

Road signs suggested that getting to St Benets Abbey was not possible with road closed signs from both entry points but in reality the closure was closer to the Ludham end and you could still get to the track down to the end.  I think that the signs had put many people off as there were only a handful of diehard photographers down there waiting for the Short-eared Owls. The temperature had dropped and the wind was biting as I got myself ready and in the field behind me there were six Cattle Egrets following around the two bullocks grazing there.  Just like Little Egret over 30 years ago, it is so good to now just bump into this enigmatic species.

Cattle Egrets

I headed down to the Abbey ruins and looked back towards the car. A guy with his camera was in the bushes obviously hoping for an Owl encounter but he had a dog with him off the lead and inevitably it pushed through and flushed a roosting Short-eared Owl from the grass to be followed by the camera much in the way of someone using a hound to flush game for a different type of shooting.  It seems that every time I come down here I encounter some behaviour that makes me cringe.

After a brief fly round the Owl went back into the grass out of reach.  It had been a calm night and I suspect good feeding was had and with the worsening conditions it just needed to rest up and stay dry.

Two Cranes were way out on the levels off towards Thurne and a vast flock of Pinkies grazed way over the back while Kestrels, Marsh Harriers and Buzzards played in the wind and watched patiently from the scattered bushes.  There were no big Lapwing flocks and not one duck or wild swan but it was good to hear the first singing Skylark of the year along with a calling Meadow and Water Pipits.  A Red Kite circled over the distant tree line before the increasing cold drove me back to the car where a couple of Stonechats and chacking Fieldfares were seen.

Kestrel

Common Cranes and Thurne

and the sun was obscured once again

From here we wiggled through towards Ingham and after a drive around the lanes of Lessingham and Eccles managed to find two Swan flocks – the first of 12 Bewick’s, six Mutes and a Whooper and the other with just 22 Whoopers.  None where particularly close but it was good to catch up with them.  It was now grey and bitterly cold and windy and lunch at Waxham was taken in the car and I did not even go up onto the dunes this time!

It was time to call it a day and head homewards conveniently passing seven Tundra Bean Geese in a field with dozens of Egyptian Geese where the Martham road meets the A149 before taking a drive along the Great Yarmouth seafront.  It was surprisingly busy but I could not find any Med Gulls.  At the southern end we came across a huge memorial column with Britannia perched up on top.  It is called the Norfolk Naval Pillar and unsurprisingly is dedicated to Admiral Nelson and his naval victories.  Britannia looks inland and north-west towards his birth place in Burnham Thorpe. It was originally situated on the sandy South Denes but now sits incongruously with the industrial sprawl at this end of the town.  I am not quite sure how I have never noticed it before – it is 144 feet high!  It has some tired interpretation that needs a good clean but surely this monument to the county born Nelson should at least be signposted from the sea front as something to go and see. 

South again into the gloom and a brief stop at the Links Road car park garnered me the desired Med Gull with a fine adult with the Black-heads and Herring Gulls hunkering down and facing into the car shaking wind.  The storm hit properly about an hour later.