More Woodpigeons than is usual appeared in fields just north of home on Sunday morning when in excess of 1,200 were 'guesstimated' on the dog walk. Also, largish flock of Golden Plover, c200 strong, appeared to be coming in to land in the vicinity of the lighthouse but a hopefully closer scrutiny of them would have to wait for another day as time would allow. A few Song Thrushes, Redwings, Chaffinches and Skylarks appeared to be on the move too, albeit locally perhaps. Redpolls were noted twice in the week, 3 birds overflying the garden giving their metallic 'chit-chit-chit' call on Monday with a single over the following morning. Either the Lesser or Common species, the calls are similar so these birds had to go down as either/or. The small party of Twite were still around too being seen by Bob in their usual haunt on Thursday.
Pink-footed Geese flying over in the week often gave the impression that they weren't actually going very far and I soon sussed that they were dropping down in fields west of the village. A party of c100 flying west on Wednesday had an adult White-fronted Goose amongst them, easily picked out by it's much browner colouration and white forehead blaze showing up easily in the sunshine. After the morning school run on Friday I detoured to the water tower in East Ruston with the intention of using the height there to look for exactly where the geese may be. Luckily they were in fields between my location and the road that runs west from Happisburgh and although rather distant, I was able to get a reasonable view looking down on them. Two 'Tundra' Bean Geese were easily picked out, their bright orange legs an excellent field mark in the good morning sunlight and the following day, when part of the flock was nearer to the top end of Grubb Street and more closely approachable, I had good views of 3 of them. From here, I took Ossie to stretch his legs along the cliffs bumping into Andy along the way. He couldn't find the Twite but had seen 2 Snow Buntings at the base of the cliffs which were still there as we walked past. Stopping at the Decca site for a quick scan over the sea Andy called "What's this!?" as a dark looking Falcon appeared. It was a Peregrine, the awkward angle of the light making it appear unusually almost dark grey as it soon disappeared south-eastwards inland from the cliffs.
Peregrines are an increasingly regular visitor to the county, birds particularly favouring Broadland and the north coast. This is a juvenile bird. © Arthur Grosset
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