January 15th

On to a neighbouring parish this morning to walk Ossie near some marshes where there is the chance of raptors, Owls, Swans and Geese. I hadn't walked too far when a familiar dark 'V' seen by the naked eye and dropping behind a ridge turned out to be an adult female Hen Harrier. I watched her for several minutes hunting just inside the dunes before she moved on. A couple of Marsh Harriers soon put in an appearance and just before I left for home I watched six of them together as they circled against the grey skies south of my viewpoint. A flock of six Swans appeared, flying from inland before turning and heading back, but they weren't the hoped for 'wild' Swans, just a group of young Mutes, the brown patches of their retained immature feathering contrasting strongly against the bright whiteness of the emerging adult plumage.

Nipping down the Cart Gap Road on the way home a charming Weasel scurried across the lane before leaping onto the grassy bank and into the hedge no doubt on the hunt for a meal but there were no Pink-footed Geese, my hoped for quarry, on the partly harvested sugar beet field there. Again I stopped on the way to work at Wroxham Broad noting that the Pintail was still present on the ice and the Greylags were accompanied by a rather dodgy looking Barnacle Goose.