April 3rd

An early fine start soon turned to rain which persisted until very early afternoon. I had to nip to North Walsham before 1pm and as I drove through East Ruston the last few raindrops were falling as the cloud gave way to blue skies. A Sparrowhawk was wasting no time as he spiralled upwards over Mown Fen. Approaching North Walsham, the thought of 'there ought to be Buzzards up today' coincided with the sighting of a large bird high over the south-east of the town, and a Common Buzzard is what it proved to be. The homeward journey was interrupted at Witton by two more, circling in the warm sunshine, and I saw another, precariously perched in a twiggy treetop, at East Ruston allotment as I stooped to see if anything was on the open water there. Aside from the Buzzard, a Chiffchaff was in song and an unseen Cettis Warbler gave a megaphonic blast from the denser waterside scrub.

I'd not walked Ossie this morning as we'd missed the early fine weather and I was hopeful for another fine spell later. Besides, it was my birthday, and it was nice to spend the morning with the family. Our walk was pretty uneventful, but a Grey Heron heading towards the coast was noteworthy. It may have been an outbound migrant, and as they are not all that regular in the parish, I focussed on it to watch it pass. I soon refocussed though, as also in view, but much more distant, was another Buzzard, circling high with a Carrion Crow, another Common for the day. Just to add the full stop and an underline to my earlier premonition, a mid afternoon trip into Stalham was interrupted as yet another Common Buzzard was watched circling low over Moat Farm Barns on the Happisburgh/Lessingham boundary.