'Big white birds' & Bees......

 

A trip along the North Norfolk coast with Jason Nichols (31st) began at Salthouse, where a Little Grebe and a duck Pochard were on the pond at Walsey Hills.

A scan from the road across Holkham Freshmarsh found a Great White Egret and nesting Spoonbills and Cormorants.

Brancaster Staithe found four species of terns; Arctic, Common, Little and Sandwich Tern, the first three taking advantage of the change in the tide making a food source available, not only for the terns but 4 Little Egrets and 60+ Black-headed Gulls.  2 Spoonbill flew over and a pair of Shelduck swam past with 10 goslings.  20+ Dark-bellied Brents Geese were also seen.

A stop off at Weybourne Cliffs on the way back along the coast found several insects of interest, despite the overcast and fairly cool weather.

Mating pair, of Soldier Beetles Cantharis rustica were found and a Tachinid Fly and a Robberfly go unidentified in the meantime.  However, a new species of Bee was found, a Common Mourning Bee Melecta albifrons (black form) along with very worn male Yellow-legged Mining Bee Andrena flavipes and a ‘more complete’ female, female Buffish Mining Bee A. nigroaenea and a very pollen-laden Buff-tailed Mining Bee A. humilis (thanks to Nick Owens with his help on the latter).