With temperatures continuing to rise, and previously frozen water bodies now thawing out, the first Tufted Ducks, Coot and Little Grebe for the year were found around the patch.
I also had a very curious encounter with a pair of Muntjac deer, when instead of running off into the woods as the female did, the male of the pair decided to front up to me and started to hit its front leg into the ground and then started to loudly bark at me! As I was only a few feet away I slowly backed off as it continued to bark doing so for a number of minutes even when I had long moved out of sight.
A phone call from my Dad informed me that he was watching a Firecrest in Felbrigg Park, so I quickly made my way up there and was treated to good views of it as it moved through the trees in the car park. Also whilst we were there a flock of Crossbills flew over and landed in the larches where we were able to watch them feeding and showed them to a couple of other visiting birders. They then flew back into the main wood and I estimated there were around 35 birds present.
