A Day in The Brecks

30th January 2018

I arrived at Santon Downham on a bright sunny morning and thought I would start the day by looking for the Otters. One had been seen early morning but a vigil by 3-4 people failed to achieve any sightings from 8.30am - 1pm, which just goes to show how lucky I was on my last visit. The fact that one had been attacked by a dog probably didn't help. However, by way of compensation I did manage to photograph this Grey Wagtail along the same stretch of river.

On the way back to St Helen's car park a fellow photographer was watching 3-4 Parrot Crossbills feeding at the top of a Scots Pine. They were really too far away for a decent photograph, but the beautiful light made some record shots possible.

I then set off for Lynford Arboretum where the plan was to see if any Hawfinches were coming into roost around the paddock. As I was waiting for the birds to show I walked up the side of one of the sections of woodland and came across a rather showy Marsh Tit which posed nicely for some shots. Why can't all birds be like that?

But back to the business in hand and eventually up to six Hawfinches arrived and sat in the extremely high trees along the west side of the paddock, before dropping down into the shorter trees. They were quite hard to photograph as they were more or less vertically above me, but positively glowed in the late afternoon sun. That will do nicely!!