A windy day with variable cloud and a couple of much-needed showers! It was rather quiet today with 6 Common Terns and 20 Bar-tailed Godwits noted on the beach but very little moving offshore. Swifts were active over the grazing marshes again and a newly fledged family of Coal Tits was in the pines, with few warblers singing but Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler heard occasionally.
Insects were naturally fewer too in the strong winds, but in the traps a Buff Ermine, a Cinnabar, Small Elephant Hawk, Small Waved Umber, Muslin, Treble Lines, Fox Moth, Mottled Rustic, Smoky Wainscot, Swallow Prominent, White Colon and Silver Y were caught.
A Painted Lady was a true surprise near the west end of the reserve mid morning and a Wall Brown was also swept about, while a Four-spotted Chaser was around the pond again.
Norfolk News from RARE BIRD ALERT
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Norfolk Curlew Sand Cley NWT on Simmonds' Scrape
Norfolk 2.Common Cranes over Bintree at c9.45am
Holme Bird Observatory (Header)
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CORONAVIRUS UPDATE – NOA RESERVES REMAIN CLOSED AT PRESENT All NOA reserves remain closed at present, and following the lifting of some restrictions in England we would ask our members, visitors and volunteers to be patient while this situation continues. We are still some way from being able to provide a COVID secure environment for our staff and visitors, and any changes must be gradual, cautious and enable social distancing. Broadwater Road is currently closed, and the Beach Road Car Park is also closed. We would advise that parking and toilet facilities are not yet widely available. NWT Holme Dunes, Titchwell and Snettisham RSPB reserves also remain closed, and do not yet have a date for opening their car parks and other visitor facilities. Please also bear in mind that we are now in the middle of the breeding season. Birds which have been nesting undisturbed while visitors have stayed away need this situation to continue until their young have fledged. For similar reasons affecting land managers along the North Norfolk Coast AONB, their Re-opening the Norfolk Coast Working Group is asking people not to visit at this time until organisations have had a chance to put safety measures in place for social distancing and reopen provision such as toilets and car parks. Announcements will be made by individual organisations and businesses when this is the case, so please check before you travel, and don’t come at present. NOA hopes to offer some form of access at its reserves later this summer, but it could still be some weeks away and will remain limited while we find our ‘new normal’. Please bear with us, and we thank you again for your understanding and support
