March 28th

With the clement weather continuing, I drove slowly past East Ruston Common this morning, window down listening for birdsong, noting the song of at least two Chiffchaffs. I did the same at Briggate where I could hear another. A Common Buzzard overhead, low down, was no doubt as local as I to this part of Norfolk. My good lady and I walked Ossie along the beach later in the morning but little appeared to be passing through, save for a couple of Cormorants and a few groups of Gulls, many of which were immature Commons. It was nice, however, to hear once again the buzzing calls of a Sand Martin as three of them were back prospecting the nesting burrows at the clifftop colony. A birding friend, Jim, who often visits the area, contacted me during the evening to say he had seen three Swallows along the cliffs here this afternoon and that two female Black Redstarts were once again flycatching close to the Beach Road pay & display. Incidentally, it was on this date in 1999 that a Great Spotted Cuckoo made it on to the Happisburgh list when one, which had originally been found at Waxham and was tracked northwards, was watched in the gardens along Rollesby Way and near the Decca site.