A WANDER ROUND THE LOWER WAVENEY SWT RESERVES

   A cold and frosty Saturday morning saw me at Carlton Marshes reserve just before sunrise equipped with thermals, woolly hat and gloves to go and look at the flooded Peto's Marsh caused the previous weekend by a high tidal serge. This marsh lies on the unprotected side of the new flood defence wall that has been built during the past few months to prevent large areas of the lower Waveney valley from flooding. It is owned by a Dutch concern at the moment and used mainly for agriculture but if it continues to flood on a regular basis then it will not be any good for this and hopefully the owners would consider selling and allow the area to become a wildlife haven during the colder months for ducks, geese and wildfowl and during the summer would make ideal breeding habitat for such species as Snipe, Redshank and Lapwing. Anyway back to my visit and on my way down to Peto's marsh I couldn't resist taking a picture of a Heron perched on a fence post surveying the frosty marshland, not the best picture of a Heron that I have ever taken but I thought it looked good in the surroundings as you can see above. Looking over Peto's marsh you get an idea of the extent of the flooding even though the water levels have lowered by about 3 feet since last weekend and I've also included a couple of shots of various geese that flew over me on their way to the marsh.

   Getting back to the car I moved on to Oulton marshes which turned out to be fairly quiet although I did note several signs of Otter activity on my walk round including tracks and spraint. There were a few Wigeon feeding on the marsh but the only pictures I took were of a pair of Stonechats flitting along the fence line which I managed to get before the snow flurries started and I returned home for a bacon roll and a hot coffee.

   The bad weather soon cleared out in the afternoon and I drove down to North Cove and Castle marshes reserves. North Cove was full of the usual suspects but there was no sign of any Redpoll or Siskins but its always nice to see the commoner stuff as well. It was late afternoon before I made my way onto the river wall at Castle marshes where I could see substantial numbers of Mute swans feeding on the marsh but my attention was grabbed by a Barn Owl perched on a post nearby. I approached slowly and was treated to the sight of the bird hunting along the wall and near marshes where it repeatedly came to perch on fence and gate posts and was oblivious to the clicks of my camera shutter in the growing gloom. On the way back to the car a short glimpse of a Chinese water deer provided the last highlight of a rewarding series of smaller walks during the day.