282 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



1903 



May 6th. Two large flocks of ringed plovers on the mud- 

 flats ; one contained fully two hundred birds, 

 the other three hundred. I was so interested 

 watching them that a tremendous downfall of 

 rain overtook me, and forced me to row for 

 shelter, which, fortunately, was not far to 

 seek. 



July 6fh. Thrushes and blackbirds this season have built 

 in several town gardens, and made themselves 

 very much at home. I saw a blackbird's nest 

 built in a flower-pot, a most unusual proce- 

 dure ; the pot had fallen off a bedroom 

 window-sill and lodged in the fork of an 

 apple tree. Three young birds, becoming 

 well feathered, and more than comfortably 

 filling the rather small nest, paid very little 

 heed to my intrusion, having become fairly 

 confident with my friend's children, who daily 

 came to see them. 



1 8///. The Yarmouth rook is a depraved creature ; he 

 delights in carrion, and seeks it from choice 

 when cleaner food might be obtained. I saw 

 this evening the ribs of a deceased dog, bare 

 and clean picked, sticking out of a hole in a 

 sack which had been the poor animal's shroud. 

 The rooks had just vacated their foul meal as 

 I rowed up to see the " joint " on which they 

 were feasting. Query Did they find this 

 unclean thing by its scent, or were they so 

 familiar with bags containing carrion that 

 they knew what to find inside as soon as a 

 hole had been torn ? 



1904 



Jan. gth. On this date a paragraph appeared in the Field 

 relative to an avocet shot by a Yarmouth 

 gentleman at Aldeburgh, a few miles south of 

 this town. It is a most exceptional circum- 

 stance to find an avocet on the east coast in 

 winter. The bird has been preserved and is 

 now in the town. 



