After months of regular floods preventing access to my local patch the recent drier spell means the flood water has receded.
I had a really good year in 2012 with regular Otter sightings but since October access to the river has been difficult and so Otter sightings have been few and far between.
I am managing to do do my early morning walk a bit more regularly now, and after 2 previous visits this week I was rewarded this morning with an Otter just upstream from the bypass bridge.
It was a pretty good morning for birds as well:
The Mandarin Duck that has been a regular at the Mill was missing this morning but was seen later up stream between Church End and Box End, associating with a pair of Mallards.
There was a Little Grebe just up stream from the Mill bridge, a regular this week.
A scan of Box End Park returned c50 Lapwings, 22 Canada Geese, 1 Greylag Goose, 5 Egyptian Geese and 10 Cormorants.
Along the Back Channel a pair of Bullfinches and 3 Reed Buntings were seen. A Reed Bunting was singing yesterday morning, first I have heard this year.
Back at the Mill a flock of c50 Goldfinches and a couple of drumming Great Spotted Woodpeckers was a great end to my morning walk.
We're off to Kersey in Suffolk for a few days on Monday....I'm hoping for an Otter on the river there (but not as much as I'm hoping for a family to swim past me on the estuary here one day!)
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