N 52.46386°, E 00.66443°
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We were joined at 3.30am at our middle-of-nowhere spot by a couple in a car. It was a genuine surprise. They were in their late 20s, paid absolutely no attention to us and -though they were eating / drinking and smoking for a bit before seemingly going to sleep, were quiet. They stayed there for three hours.
We weren't troubled by them and concluded that they were very probably eastern Europeans, working the fields by day and living out of their car. Hardcore.
Come breakfast time, the random bit of muddy agricultural land right next to the truck teemed with birds - just as many fields in the area do. Over cereal bars and coffee I saw flocks of linnets, red-legged partridge, redshank, meadow pippet, pied wagtails, turnstones, black-headed gulls,a female hen harrier and a possible solitary redpoll.
After breaking camp we headed for the tiny lanes of the southern wash and continued with the big skies and sprawling agriculture theme. A nice lunch stop saw big flocks of brent geese and an amusing Environment Agency use of public funds.
An employee in a very new and spangly 4x4 pickup was reversing perilously along the top of a sea-defence bank being followed by a very expensive looking remote-control grass-cutting machine. Presumably the machine was introduced to improve health and safety.
At some stage in this masterful plan someone had apparently overlooked the fact that reversing a 4x4 pickup on a very narrow bank right next to a deep drainage channel whilst concentrating on remotely controlling an expensive robot was probably far more dangerous and almost certainly far more expensive than unleashing one bloke on a sit-on mower. The mind boggles.
All Washed out and in a bid to find a bit of shelter from the flatlands' breath-taking icy winds we decided to head to a very different habitat in the form of Thetford Forest.
Which sees us at the coordinates shown, a place I've used a couple of times before and where we've previously seen a rarity: a parrot crossbill.
No such luck to this point though. In spite of being right in the thick of the forest it's been a dull, grey late afternoon with no more than the occasional fleeting wood pigeon to break the monotony. On the plus side we were treated to a total of 8 F-15 Strike Eagles at little more than tree-top height coming in to land in procession at some nearby facility, one immediately after the other - almost stalling they were going so slowly.
We concluded the exercise they'd been on was probably cheaper and safer than the EA's current grass-cutting regime.
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