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WHITLINGHAM: Thorpe & Town House

25th & 26th July 2011

Thorpe Marshes (25/07/11) - c50 Lapwing, Stock Doves, not much else.
Thorpe Green (25/07/11) - Black Swan (1)
Whitlingham C.P. (25/07/11) - Usual stuff, plus some juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls
Thorpe Marshes (26/07/11) - c60 Lapwing, Stock Doves, still not much else.

Its no wonder everybody sacks off inland birding over the summer with wonder hauls like this. On Tuesday after Adam & I had looked around Carey's Meadow and Thorpe Marshes we decided to go for lunch at the Town House, and despite the drizzle we sat outside so that we could scan the river and areas of scrub. This proved to be the most productive hours birding of the holiday so far, seeing a Sylvia warbler triumvirate (Blackcap, Whitethroat and Garden Warbler), a family of recently fledged Goldcrests and the icing on the cake, a Kingfisher.

Also a hearty congratulations to Whitlingham Country Park on receiving the Green Flag Award for the fifth year in a row (Broads Authority Press Release). However, when will the Broads Authority give up and stop calling Whitlingham "The Gateway To The Broads"?*

I'm off to learn Two-barred Crossbill calls in anticipation of an invasion. Come to think of it, I'd willing take Common Crossbill locally.

* The Norfolk Broads, in case you don't know, are a series of shallow lakes in East Norfolk that were excavated as peat diggings. When the Broads Authority started marketing Whitlingham they put signs up on the approach road saying "Gateway to the Broads". They had to remove the signs from the entrance as there was a lot of derision and complaints, mostly from places that are actually in or close to the broads. Acle has signs saying Gateway to the broads, and many people would consider Wroxham the broadland hub. Whitlingham, lovely as it is, isn't in the broads, and the great Broad and Little Broad aren't proper broads as they are flooded gravel diggings.

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