April 26th

Out on patch after work. Decided to stop on road overlooking MoD field as I was driving past. In one scan at least 60 Wheatears were present feeding close to the road! An obvious large arrival of the species. During my subsequent patch walk I saw many more leading to an eventual total of 105 Wheatear seen in the Corton parish. Additional birds were 5 on Corton clifftop, 15 on the field by Corton new sewage works and at least 25 feeding in the field behind Hopton railtrack. Interestingly the large concentrations appeared to be somewhat inland with for example only 5 seen on clifftop, I guess they had been filtering inland during the day. 2 Willow Warblers were nice as they showed well in a large sallow by Corton new sewage works pool, WW are quite scarce at Corton and the habitat preference shown above means that area is the best spot for them, none were along the railtrack for example. There has been an influx of WW into our area today too with Andrew noting 9 in the scores. A Lesser Whitethroat rattled away along Hopton railtrack bringing the lowestoft area yearlist onto a decent 160 having noted the Drake Garganey on Carlton marshes scrape a few days ago.