Center Parcs surprise

Editor Kevin Wilmot writes:

It's a source of constant amazement that any bird in its right mind would want to spend its days and nights anywhere near Center Parcs, but having just spent a weekend at the Elveden Forest Center Parcs near Thetford in Norfolk, I can report that the bird life there is thriving.

Despite constant traffic from hundreds of cycles and thousands of people (most of them lost), there are plenty of quieter areas where the bird life can offer some pleasant surprises. A Blackcap seemingly in every bush, plus Chiffchaffs, Jays, Coal, Great, Blue and Long-tailed Tits, Robins, Chaffinches... but the highlight was a glorious male Siskin perched unobtrusively towards the bottom of a lakeside tree. A very pleasant surprise during an otherwise children-dominated weekend.

Back to the office today and it's very quiet without Mike Weedon and Carol Debney who are both on holiday. Mike, ever the considerate one, has just called me with news of a summer-plumaged Black Tern on a local gravel pit. Thanks mate! Don't worry about me - I'll man the phones...