32 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



SOME WINTER NOTES 



I have already suggested that hard winters were and are 

 exceptional ; and my observations have led me to believe 

 that, notwithstanding that the drainage of the marshes and 

 other altered conditions have affected detrimentally many 

 species, a set-in of sharp wintry weather, especially if it 

 occurs in December, drives many common species hither in 

 unusual abundance, and some usually rare ones in unexpected 

 numbers ; among these may be cited mergansers, goosanders, 

 smews, and various geese and swans, besides "hard fowl," 

 e.g. tufted ducks, pochards, golden eyes, scaups, and occasion- 

 ally long-tailed ducks. Many of these would remain in the 

 lochs and firths of Northern Britain in milder seasons, and 

 even farther north; but driven out by sharp and protracted 

 frosts and snowstorms, they are compelled to venture south. 



In visiting Breydon at any season of the year, one must 

 always be prepared for surprises and disappointments. 

 Storms and other climatic influences regulate greatly the 

 movements of many species : one day Breydon may present 

 a miserably bare outlook, without a dunlin or a gull on its 

 surface/and the next, when the visitor refrains from going 

 because of expecting but a barren field, the flats may be 

 alive with migrant waders, or some flock of strange fowl may 

 have dropped in, and are feeding and resting there. The 

 great snowstorm which occurred at the close of 1906 and 

 the early days of 1907, and its effect on bird-life, will long 

 remain fresh in my memory. 



I am amused sometimes by the prognostications of those 

 who prophesy hard winters because of an abundance of 

 hawthorn berries, or of gulls flying inland, and the like. It 

 seems to me but natural that hawthorns, like apple trees, 

 should, after a year's rest and unfruitfulness, bear well the 

 following season, and that the birds should make short 

 journeys for a change of food, or to avoid a breeze that might 

 prove inconvenient to them. At the best, I can foresee 

 but a few days' probabilities ahead : one gets to a certain 

 extent weatherwise, like the old Breydoners, who spend much 

 of their lives in the open, and are led by experience to 

 prepare for eventualities. We may even suggest an intuitive 



