Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/143

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2nd.—Jackdaws going seawards (Patterson).

7th.—Mr. Pashley, to whom these annual notes are always indebted, to-day announced the advent of four magnificent Cranes on their spring migration, which halted near the Glaven, and remained all the forenoon of one day (7th) in the same spot, and that within two hundred yards of a gang of men on the marsh side of Wiverton bank. Mr. Pashley had a good view of them as they were flying eastwards, and they were next reported as visiting a piece of water near the sea at Weybourne, where their great size attracted attention. They were again watched for several hours, and subsequently seen at Runton, after which they took their departure. We have not had a visit from a Crane since April, 1888, but the number of occurrences is now brought up to seventeen, of which only two were in the autumn.

16th.—A Spoonbill on Breydon since the 8th (Patterson), which, like the Cranes, escaped.

2nd.—A Short-eared Owl's nest with five eggs (but said to have originally contained seven) discovered in a field of rushes not far from the sea in the vicinity of one of our Broads.

5th.—Only one Reeve seen on the Broads up to this date (M. Bird).

16th.—Six hundred Bar-tailed Godwits, in round numbers, and Grey Plovers, with a good many Knots, and fifty Whimbrel, on Breydon mud-flats (A. Patterson and Chambers), and a similar show of waders at Cley and Blakenny (H. Pashley) marked a strong May passage, hopeful for the return in autumn. Mr. Patterson believes that the smaller waders are in search of Corophium longicornis, a small crustacean which pushes its way out of the mud; but whatever they eat is difficult of detection afterwards. Simultaneously with the northward movement of waders, two Grebes, supposed to be Red-necked Grebes, were on Wroxham Broad (Capt. Sparrow), and Pied Flycatchers were in evidence at Cley, Holt, Northrepps, Sutton, and Framingham (S. Bligh).

18th.—Lady Lothian has a hybrid Guinea-fowl, the produce of an egg laid at Saxthorpe. It is a very large bird, with some white on the breast, and a good deal of slate-colour about the