Nature Notes: the 2022 edition

[ErrolTheDragon]

Happy New Year to all nature lovers!
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Please join us to add your observations throughout the year. Urban or rural, there's always something going on throughout the year, even if it's a bit quiet right now.

I’m jealous of your otter sighting Errol. Norfolk has long been on my list of places I want to go. It sounds great, especially in autumn/winter but is a bit far from where I live.

Having said that, I found myself in Lincolnshire for a couple of days last week and did some birdwatching around the Wash. It was mind blowing - so many golden plover and lapwing and a constant stream of birds of prey harassing them all. I saw my first ever Merlin, a number of marsh harriers and multiple peregrines...all within about half an hour of birdwatching 🤯

We saw an otter in our local river a few years back - also when canoeing.

I haven't seen the local barn owls for a while, but I was walking the dogs at dusk the other day and heard one - that raspy, menacing, Ima-gonna-kill-summink squawk.

I wouldn't go on a boat after mid September, it was already quite chilly at night, though of course you can see a lot from the shore. We'd been there some years ago in the May half term holiday - very busy so I'd avoid unless you're tied to school hols, but it was fab for all the young birds - grebe 'humbugs' are my favourite.
The other thing different from the previous trip is that the water levels have risen a bit so that now pretty much none of the hire boats can get under Potter Heigham bridge to get to the quieter Hickling and Horsey meres. It's well worth hiring a little electric boat to access them.

The other thing we did on our last day before heading home was to visit Horsey Gap - DD hadn't seen the sea all year and had been told there was a chance of spotting a seal. There were about 50 on the beach plus more in the water - just part of what I believe is a very large colony.