23rd - 29th November

The wintry theme continued and the snow kept falling giving up to 3" settled by late Sunday morning. The wind shifted NE'ly where it remained, apart from a rather variable few hours on Wednesday. Some showers of sleet and snow featured at times throughout the week but although it didn't feel much like it, the air temperature must have risen slightly, as the week ended with some light rain.

For me, the week passed rather quietly and my notebook looks rather bare. Monday's weather was conducive to some good sea-watching and by all accounts good numbers of wildfowl were passing offshore. A friend, Robin, watched from Walcott for a while noting a good passage of Common Scoter, Wigeon and Eider but his sighting of 8 Velvet Scoter was the pick of the crop. My highlight, apart from a good view of a perched Tawny Owl in my headlights as I took the back roads to Stalham one night, was a flock of Pink-footed Geese just outside the parish in Lessingham which contained a bird bearing a numbered plastic collar. As I was in my car the flock wasn't too bothered about my prescence, and with the aid of a telescope the collar number was easily read. Submitting the details, a grey collar marked LNI, I soon received a reply detailing sightings since the bird was first caught and marked in Aberdeenshire in April 2006. It was next seen in April 2007, much further south in Scotland at Loch Leven, followed by an October 16th 2007 sighting back in Aberdeenshire at Loch of Strathbeg. It had moved south to Nether Terryvale to the west of Aberdeen by mid December 2007 and was not recorded any more until my sighting here. Any sightings detailing birds marked with collars or colour rings can be reported via the British Trust for Ornithology here.



A collar marked Pink-footed Goose. An excellent article about this scheme can be read on the website of the Lancashire based Fylde Bird Club from where this photo originates.