Yesterday we had two black swans - apparently at North Cave eariler in the week drop in for the first time in a while (pictured dozing above). Being from Australia originally it is quite difficult to string them as genuine vagrants! Also on the theme was this black rabbit - seen by the substation on D res a month ago as a youngster, it has managed to evade the buzzards and has reached a decent size now.
In terms of 'real' wildlife the woodsandpiper has been frequenting Watton all week, with visits from green sandpiper, common sandpiper, greenshank, several whimbrel and today a dunlin - adding up to be quite a respectable spring passage based on the last two years. Plenty of young ducklings about like the mallard family above, and some bizarre behaviour from the moorhen family at the wildlife centre. After seeing off the hedgehog above who had come to feed at the station, the family decided a new nest was necessary - 10 days after hatching young? The pond is drying gradually and their first nest is now high and dry - so a new one was built in the middle of the pond in around 3 hours, with all the week old chicks helping out! Not something I've seen before. Our oystercatchers have now hatched with two chicks present - the father repeatedly bringing worms in above. Both were very distressed by the marsh harrier over again above. The turtle dove arrived on Thursday in both south scrub and D woods - just the spotted flycatchers left to arrive now...
Finally thanks to Jeff Barker has sent us some rare shots of garden warbler without dense leaf cover in front, and of a sand martin taking a minute on the Res wall.
