Monday 24 January 2011

Grip this one back!

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. 

2 comments:

  1. 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!

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  2. You just need Mandarin, Bittern, Goshawk, Yellow-legged Gull & Hawfinch now and we're sunk ;-)

    More importantly, I'll actually have to 'do the Lakes' today as your Bullfinch takes the Lodgers to within 4 of my own Lakes yearlist...

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