House Sparrow is something of a mega at The Lodge. Personally, I have seen only one here in the last five years, so we needed to formulate a plan...The nearest colony is on Stratford Road which runs along the southern perimeter of the reserve, so I thought it would be possible to tick them from the south-western extremity of the reserve.
This lunchtime, I grabbed Bash and we executed the plan. Within a few minutes of our arrival, we both heard a distant bird. It also gave us a chance to explore a part of the reserve that is 'off-limits.' From our vantage point, we had great views of a stretch of water and a reedbed at Warren Villas NR, and it will probably be here that we'll get our Acro's - and possibly Cetti's - in the spring.
Walking back over the new heath, we both stopped in our tracks and before us was first one, then two of one of our key species - Raven.
Team BTO may struggle with that one...we hope!
And with my colleague Tony Payne unblocking Little Owl, our list moves on to 71.
Raven has been recorded in the Brecks in the last year or two, not a million miles from Thetford... but OK, it could be a tricky one for us to get!
ReplyDeleteYou just need Mandarin, Bittern, Goshawk, Yellow-legged Gull & Hawfinch now and we're sunk ;-)
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, I'll actually have to 'do the Lakes' today as your Bullfinch takes the Lodgers to within 4 of my own Lakes yearlist...