A Few Surprises

 Feb 5th Strumpshaw Fen

I was on the hunt for plants. My mission for the year is to find as many plants at Strumpshaw and draw them, while also plotting out where about they are and how abundant they are. My plant ID knowledge is still not very good, but I wanted to try anyway. Cherry plum blossom and hazel catkins were out, giving us a hint that spring was around the corner. Snowdrops were now covering the woods as well as clumps of soft rush and I discovered probable male ferns. Walking along the river, I failed to see the barn owl in its box this week and the red-throated diver that had been spotted on the river in recent weeks. I did however, see buzzards, marsh harriers, a heron and 2 Chinese water deer.

At Reception Hide, a snipe was the real highlight of the day as I had to constantly find it for visitors as it moved about amongst the open area of cut reed stubble to the right of the hide. It was sometimes easier to spot when it was bobbing, but other times it made itself difficult to spot while it was sleeping. Other than the snipe, there were greylags, mute swans, a coot and marsh harriers.

Snipe (Feb 5th), Red-breasted Goose (Feb 10th),
Weasel (Feb 12th), Cranes,
Otter prints & Witch's Butter 

Feb 10th Cley

It was feeling warm at the coast today. I felt kind of overdressed in my coat as Mum and I visited Cley.

We started our visit at the hides where hundreds of unsettled lapwings took to the air, swirling around like a shaken snow globe accompanied by an almost deafening chorus of "pee-wit". There were also smaller numbers of avocets, godwits, ruff, redshank, teal, shoveler and shelducks.

After spending some time in the hides, I then split up with Mum and made my way to West Bank to look for some twite and a red-breasted goose. When I got there, the twite had gone and the goose had moved to North Scrape. So, I had to make my way there across the beach and to the blind that's overlooking the scrape in question. Before I got there, a kind man gave me an early peek at the goose through his scope from the beach. It stood out amongst the large gathering of brent geese on the scrape. I managed to get a few photos from the blind before it took off with the brent. I was so lucky! Also seen were several pintails, the odd curlew and a little egret.

Feb 12th Strumpshaw Fen

A chilly start, but warmed up to be a nice sunny, spring like day. I arrived around 7:45am and was greeted by the sight of an otter out the front of Reception Hide swimming away from me. I had to get round a flooded section of road to get to Strumpshaw this morning. So I was really worried that the reserve was also flooded. Though Fen Trail to Tower Hide was closed, the Fen Hide wasn't. The only flood issue here were a few puddles leading to the hide.

My morning pre-shift walk wasn't that interesting. Not even any new plants to draw. However, when I got back to Reception, I noticed a couple of men looking at something by the pond behind the feeder area. It turned out to be a weasel!! It poked its head out of a hole a few times before making a dash to a log pile nearby. In 2016, I tried to get a photo as part of a Strumpshaw challenge but failed. It wasn't until a year later when I managed to get a slightly blurry photograph of one. This time, I was much happier with the results. Weasels are tricky animals to get a photo of.

Also today was a snipe, 8 coot, 28 greylags, a Canada goose, 4 mute swans, a few marsh harriers and buzzards at Reception, a heron at Fen Hide and a great white egret on the way to the reserve.

Feb 19th Strumpshaw Fen

I managed to get a lift in to Strumpshaw this morning and once I got out of the car around 7:30am, I was greeted with the sound of bugling cranes! I could hear them as I went for a walk in the woods. I also found one clump of primroses in flower for me to draw up later. As I made my way to the pumphouse, I was able to see a barn owl in its box. When I reached the pumphouse itself, I noticed two large birds flying over the river heading towards Buckenham. Cranes!!! I wonder if they will nest at Strumpshaw again?

At Reception Hide, I got back after a sudden rain shower and didn't see much out of the ordinary other than swans, greylags, a pair of Canada geese, some coots, mallards, marsh harriers and buzzards. I went back into the woods to show two visitors the witch's butter and scarlet elfcap fungi and heard treecreepers, siskins and song thrushes. I also saw a great spotted woodpecker and reed buntings.

Feb 26th Strumpshaw Fen

Floods were on the road for a 3rd week in a row and two of the three hides were closed off due to the paths being underwater. After getting another lift in, there weren't many places to walk around this morning. All I could do was walk down Sandy Wall, along the river to pumphouse and into the woods.

I started my way down the Sandy Wall when a woman showed up behind me from nowhere, pointed out a barn owl flying over the meadow and then she left the same way she came from. So random. The owl, though, hung around a lot longer. It even perched on a post very close by to me beside the path. The bushes were obscuring my camera's view for a perfect shot and it seemed to be obscuring the owl's view of me also  as I managed to creep to within a few metres from it! I still failed to get a photo by the time it saw me and took off, sadly.

Heading up to the pumphouse, I couldn't believe my luck again as I saw two large birds flying over the woods. Cranes! Again! They were more distant this time, but were heading towards Buckenham just like the week before.

The rest of the morning wasn't quite as interesting. Staff were working outside the Reception Hide in the reedbeds and in the far channels at the other end of the broad was a strange machine that's like a floating digger, called a Truxor, which was digging up the reed edges. So it was rather empty on the broad besides a few coots and marsh harriers. I went to look for plants, but couldn't really find much.

March 4th Strumpshaw Fen

Misty start, but at least everything is back open again, so I decided to go to Tower Hide while the mud was still hardened up by the cold. It was still bad and it really wasn't worth it. However, I did get to hear two bitterns booming (well, one booming, the other grunting). This was possibly the earliest I've heard them do so in all the years I've volunteered here. I also heard the drumming of woodpeckers and saw great crested grebes on the river and one at Reception Hide.

There was more work going on outside reception as the Broads Authority were using the Truxor to dredge out the edges of reedbeds much closer to the hide. The broad was almost quiet of birds due to it. However, above them, the sky was full of birds of prey (about 20+ of them) including 2 red kites and many marsh harriers and buzzards. It was quite a spectacle.

As I wanted to check on a few things, I went for a short walk along Sandy Wall. First, I found one Clark's mining bee by the start of the path. Then I noticed a kestrel hovering above the path and dived down and perched on the path's wooden border, clearly catching something. And then I found what I wanted to find, coltsfoot in flower. They were in bud earlier due to the mist and as they react to the sun and that it was now sunny, a few of them had opened their yellow flowers in response.

Returning from my walk, I went to check on the content of the trays of what a school group had caught during their pond dipping session. The children were very excited when I picked up a newt from a tray and held it in my hand. They wanted to hold it too. I obliged and they were more than happy.

Truxor (March 4th), Waxwing,
Sanderlings, Bar-tailed Godwit
& Brambling (March 13th) & Great Crested Grebes (March 18th)

March 6th - 7th

I was preparing for work when a sudden pain emerged in the left side of my abdomen. It was a kidney stone! My second ever and my first in 6 years. It wasn't quite as bad as my first one, but still painful as hell. I managed to keep myself fully medicated with pain killers that I was able to keep myself away from the hospital until the next morning. After nine hours in hospital, waiting around for a scan and taking my first ever suppository to numb the pain (a weird experience, that), the small stone came out naturally on its own I was able to go to work on the 8th, though feeling rather bruised and in pain down there afterwards. 

March 11th Strumpshaw Fen

It was my 38th birthday and it was a dull, gloomy day for it. The best thing I could muster as a birthday highlight was hearing the boom of a bittern near Fen Hide and woodpeckers drumming in the woods. There was a large flock of siskins feeding on the cones of alder trees and daffodils were in flower. From Reception Hide, it was rather quiet, though I did see a great crested grebe, coots making nests, a sparrowhawk, marsh harriers, greylags, Canada geese, a shelduck, 2 gadwall, a few mute swans and mallards.

March 13th Titchwell

I had a week off from work to celebrate my birthday and as both my parents were both off on this particular Wednesday, we decided to visit Titchwell. When we got to the entrance, we discovered that there was a crowd along the drive into the reserve. We had to dodge the photographers to get in. But what were they snapping photos of? WAXWINGS!!

We parked the car and walked back to join them for a better look. There were 6 of them and sat in the trees right above our heads! They were beautiful and didn't seem that bothered by us, despite what an RSPB volunteer says as we got told to stand back from them, even though it was these birds that decided to perch above us. So, whatever. I got my photos and left.

Leaving the waxwings, the rest of the reserve had nothing else that could really top them. There were plenty of black-headed gulls, a few Mediterranean gulls, avocets, black-tailed godwits, redshanks, dunlin, brent geese (a large gaggle of them), teal, curlew, grey plovers, 3 pintails (2 males, one female), oystercatchers and pied wagtails on the pools and saltmarshes. Marsh harriers and a red kite in the air. And on the beach, the tide was really far out and Dad and I walked on this old peat bed full of un-rotted bits of trees covered in mussels. By the shore, bar-tailed godwits, sanderlings and turnstones.

We had a late picnic by the feeders when we got back, where a brambling showed up. Then I ended the visit by checking on the tawny owl that was still asleep beneath the same ivy covered tree as last time I visited in January.

March 18th Strumpshaw Fen

The bitterns were booming, the woodpeckers were drumming and the birds were singing. That included chiffchaffs and blackcaps, which I heard for the first time this year. It was a nice day and it felt like spring was here to stay. A lizard was sunning itself along Sandy Wall to prove how nice it was.

During my walk, there was a lot of bird and insect activity. Bearded tits were pinging, a green woodpecker perched on a tree in front of me along Sandy Wall, around 40+ fieldfares flew over my head and then over the river and meadow pipits were doing their parachute song flight displays in the meadows. There were many marsh harriers sky dancing also and nomad bees were investigating mining bee nest holes to lay their own eggs inside. Lesser celandines were in bloom in surprising numbers across the reserve (I thought they were buttercups) and I found a few sedges with tufts poking out.

At Reception, a pair of great crested grebes were displaying to each other. They'd face each other and mimic one another's movements from head flicks to back preening and eventually, they would press up breast to breast, standing upright on the water to give me a real show. Sometimes bits of weed was used. Coots were also building their nests and I saw brimstone butterflies flying around. 

It was a good day until I left for home when a pain in my left kidney started hurting. Another stone! This time, it was much smaller and not quite as painful as the one a couple of weeks earlier and I still went to work the next day. Thankfully, I still had plenty of meds from last time to help numb the pain and the stone disappeared by the end of my shift at work.

Chinese Water Deer, Muntjac,
Barn Owl, Tufted Sedge,
Snipe & Great Crested Grebes (March 25th)

 March 25th Strumpshaw Fen

Another good day. Bitterns were still booming, a barn owl was hunting by its nest box near the pumphouse, a red kite flew over my head, bearded tits were peeking out of the reeds at Fen Hide and I had two very close encounters with deer, one a muntjac and the other a Chinese water deer. These deer didn't seem to know I was there and came near me to within a few metres until they eventually saw me and ran. I also noticed that there were lesser pond sedges (at least I think they are) everywhere and I found some very pretty tufted sedge beside the toe dipping platform.

The grebes were displaying outside Reception Hide again as were marsh harriers and buzzards. There was also a little grebe, a snipe, 4 gadwall and I found my first forget-me-not of the year.

Ice & Storms

 Jan 8th Strumpshaw Fen

It has been three weeks since my last shift at Strumpshaw due to floods, Christmas and football. So I was glad to be back. However, it was a freezing cold return complete with sleet and hail. There wasn't too much around either to get excited about during my early morning walk.

The weather did not improve as the morning went on. At least it was a little warmer under the heaters inside Reception Hide. The highlights of the day were mostly outside the hide's door and by the feeders (which I filled up only to discover that they were half empty by the end of my shift, which suggest the birds were really hungry). This include a mixed flock of siskins and goldfinches with the odd redpoll amongst them. Also seen were pink-footed geese, marsh harriers and mute swans.

Redpoll (Jan 8th), Brent Goose,
Spotted Redshank, Brambling,
Sun Reflection On Beach & Snipe (Jan 14th)

Jan 14th Titchwell

The first big outing of 2024. My parents and I went to Titchwell and discovered and we discovered their 50th anniversary. I thought it would be fun idea to find 50 birds to celebrate. Amazingly, I managed to do so.

The highlights included a velvet scoter amongst a floating group of common scoter on the sea, bramblings on the feeders and a tawny owl hiding in a tree covered in ivy fast asleep. The other 46 were; brent, greylag and pink-footed geese, pintails, wigeon, a female goldeneye, tufted ducks, teal, mallards, coot, shovelers, gadwall, shelducks, a water pipit, bar-tailed godwits, dunlin, turnstones, common redshanks, a spotted redshank, curlews, linnets, herring, black-headed and great black-backed gulls, goldfinches, a snipe, reed buntings, red kite, marsh harrier, robins, dunnocks, blue, great and long-tailed tits, oystercatchers, grey plovers, little grebe, water rail, sanderlings, cormorant, moorhen, blackbird, magpie and carrion crow. A great day, though a very cold one!

Jan 15th Strumpshaw Fen

Another freezing cold day with ice and frost covering some parts of the reserve first thing. There must have been a high tide recently as the Fen and Tower hides were closed off due to flooding. My morning walk was reduced to just the woodland trail (which had many trees blown over due to Storm Henk) where I saw a treecreeper, found the first few snowdrops and spooked a large flock of bramblings, redwings, fieldfares and blackbirds. The rest of the morning was uninteresting except for a bittern making two appearances.

Jan 17th Cley

Yet another chilly day and as I had a week off from work, my parents (Dad also had a week off, while Mum had the day off) decided to go out in it to Cley. When we got there, Mum and I went to the three main hides and there were many birds out on Pat's Pool, including many wigeon, shovelers, teal, a pair of pintails, avocets, black-headed gulls, the odd shelduck and a couple of dunlin. The pool itself was a bit icy. From another hide, we managed to spot a couple of snipe hidden in the grass.

While at lunch at the visitor centre, a red kite and a buzzard flew by the windows. After lunch, Dad and I made our way to the sea via East Bank, seeing a kingfisher fly past me along the way. The highlight though was finding a grey seal on Arnold's Marsh. Never seen one there before. It seemed happy enough hunting for fish in the shallow water. Also seen were stonechats, a heron, a little egret, lapwings, wigeon and two buzzards.

Jan 18th Buckenham Marshes

I went to Buckenham with Dad and as we were travelling up to the reserve, it began to snow! A light dusting of it covered the already frozen reserve. It made birds like snipe stand out like a sore thumb, and there were a lot of them. Also in the snow were a few thousand wigeon, a few lapwings, some teal, a marsh harrier, the odd swan and quite a few Chinese water deer. We also saw a hare on the drive over. The snow then started to disappear by the time we returned to the car.

Snowdrops (Jan 15th), Dunlin &
Grey Seal (Jan 17th) Snow At Buckenham,
Wigeon & Their Footprints In The Snow

Jan 27th Norwich

Due to a very strong storm, I was advised to stay away from Strumpshaw on the 22nd. That meant I had no opportunity to go out to do much other than work. Thankfully, this weekend was the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch, an annual national census on the UK's garden birds. As I don't have a garden of my own, I went to my parent's house to do the hour long survey. My parents were out visiting one of my brothers, so I had the place to myself. I started the survey just after 9am and I counted 3 blackbirds, a robin, a dunnock, 2 blue tits, a great tit, 2 long-tailed tits and, a big surprise, a male blackcap, which visited twice!

Jan 29th Strumpshaw Fen

It was still dark on my arrival to Strumpshaw, but it was to be a spring-like day. A barn owl was flying over the reedbeds and the river. After an almost pointless and very muddy walk to Tower Hide (though I did see shelducks, marsh harriers, Canada geese, mallards, swans and a heron), I made my way to the pumphouse and found the owl again peek out of an owl box fast asleep. I also spooked up a few snipe and saw a couple of Chinese water deer in the meadows as I was walking along the river.

During my shift, there wasn't too much about other than a coot (which I haven't seen on this broad for quite some time), marsh harriers, more swans, a heron, a water rail, a female reed bunting, a few gadwall and some mallards and not too much else. As it was the last day of the Big Garden Birdwatch and no one has done an hour here yet, I decided to do the survey of the birds visiting the feeder area. During the hour, I recorded roughly 5 great tits, 8 blue tits, 3 marsh tits, a coal tits, 4 chaffinches, 3 dunnocks, 2 robins, a blackbird, a woodpigeon, a pheasant, a jay and a grey squirrel.

Goodbye 2023

 Dec 4th Strumpshaw Fen

After a week away from Strumpshaw due to heavy rain and flooding, I returned and the weather was still lousy, but at least it stopped raining by mid-morning. It was a dull, grey day, but at least the floods resided.

I was given a lift to the reserve and the rain was at its most persistent, so I spent a good hour at Fen Hide. The marsh harriers were emerging from their roost with one looking rather soaked perched on a bush. I also saw a great white egret and a few pink-footed geese flying over and heard bearded tits.

Otter & Heron Eating Eels (Dec 4th)
Grey Seals & Pup (Dec 10th)
Dawn Rainbow & Sunrise (Dec 18th)

The weather improved but was still gloomy by the time I started my shift. It was the wildlife that provided the light in this dull scene in the form of a heron and an otter. The heron had managed to catch an eel in an open area of cut reed to the right of the hide. It then dropped and lost it after a few attempts in swallowing it down. Some time later, an otter appeared on the scene and found the eel a short distance behind the heron and took it away to eat a little further near the far side of the same area.

The otter took quite some time munching on it before swimming off again. However, it didn't end there. Near the end of my shift, the heron caught another eel. A real monster of one, far bigger than the one eaten by the otter. It became an epic battle of life and death between predator and prey. The heron kept stabbing at it until it managed to get its bill stuck within the eel's body. Eventually, it freed itself and attempted to swallow it whole. But even then, it struggled to swallow due to the eel still putting up a fight and wrapping its tail around the bird's head and bill. It took about 4-5 attempts to finally get the eel down its gullet.

The broad's edges were fringed with sheets of ice where many ducks took shelter when the otter was around.. This included a pair of gadwall, a shoveler, a teal and seven swans. I also saw a great spotted woodpecker on the feeders.

Dec 10th Horsey Gap

This morning, Dad took me out to see the seals at Horsey. The most recent count in pup births here (from Dec 7th) this year so far was 3224 and 3608 adults on the beach. Not as many as there were at Blakeney Point, but at least I'm guaranteed in ticking another spectacle off my list. It is also a lot easier to get to than at Blakeney, so at least I didn't have to walk that far.

Every winter, thousands of grey seals arrive to this beach to give birth and to mate. The beach didn't seem that packed from the viewing area, but all I saw was just one small section. Along the coastline from Horsey to Winterton, these seals were practically everywhere. Amongst them were their pups of various ages (most still in their white coats) guarded by their mothers. 

Big bull seals were also on the beach and I witnessed a few matings, which seemed rather forceful with a lot of biting involved. Up on the dunes, a few females had given birth and raised their pups where the public were, away from the other seals. One mother and pup had forced the path beyond closed off completely, preventing us to go any further. It ended up being a shorter visit, but still a good one all the same.

Dec 11th Strumpshaw Fen

A much nicer day than last Monday, though Tower Hide was closed off due to flooding. So I went to Fen Hide and had an otter swim around in front of it for a short while and saw marsh harriers, a great white egret and heard bearded tits. At Reception Hide, I spotted a water rail, another great white egret, swans, a few mallards and marsh harriers and a great spotted woodpecker on the feeders.

Dec 18th Strumpshaw Fen

A fantastic dawn sky welcomed to Strumpshaw. Walking to the reserve, it was still dark but pink-footed geese and rooks and jackdaws were leaving their roosting sites by their thousands. By the time I got to the Sandy Wall, there was a little bit of a drizzle in the air, but that wasn't enough to dull the bright and colourful sunrise over the meadow trail. Behind me though, on the opposite side of the reserve, an enormous rainbow sitting atop of some glowing clouds stretched across the orange-pink sky. Colours were bleeding into one another. It was like looking into heaven. It was absolutely breathtaking!

Inside Fen Hide, I watched the rainbow fade away. The scene outside was rather empty without it. There was one surprise in the form of a green sandpiper which flew right in front of the hide, calling away with its loud piping voice. This bird should be in Africa by now, but as winter has been on the mild side, which could be why it hasn't really migrated south yet. Also seen today were pink-footed geese, marsh harriers, siskins, possible redpolls, a great white egret (flying briefly), a treecreeper, a great spotted woodpecker on the feeders, greylags, mute swans and heard bearded tits.

Dec 23rd Cley

My last visit to Cley of the year and the last outing before Christmas. It completes a whole year of monthly visits to the reserve. It was a short visit though as I had to get to Carrow Road in the afternoon.

Mum and I made our way to the central hides. We were a bit cautious as an enormous high tide had already made Strumpshaw almost completely underwater the day before and we wondered if the paths at Cley were the same. Thankfully it wasn't. However, though Pat's Pool was full of birds, it wasn't to be that memorable of a morning. A mass of gulls, godwits, lapwings, teal, shovelers, wigeon and a few shelducks, avocets and a turnstone were constantly spooked up into the air by a couple of marsh harriers, erupting like a snow globe. A large flyover of hundreds of pink-footed geese, an arrival of a smaller number of brent geese on the pool and a kingfisher were the other highlights of the morning before heading back to watch Norwich beat Huddersfield 2-0 beneath a bright red-orange sunset.

Dec 30th Welney

After spending Christmas at Hadleigh round my brother's place and seeing red kites fly over my head while escaping the tantrums between my nieces over toys for a few minutes and the remainder of the week going to work, it was time for one last outing for 2023. I met up with former Reception Hide partner, Tricia and we made our way to Welney in the hope of seeing the whooper swan roost, which is my final spectacle to tick off remaining.

Welney Swan Feed, Whooper Swan,
Cattle Egret, Pochard
& Scaup With Tufted Duck (Dec 30th)

We arrived around midday, so plenty of time to kill. Tree sparrows were our first target of the day. I managed to spot one amongst a flock of house sparrow visiting the feeders at the visitor centre, though it took some time later for Tricia to see one herself. In the area behind the feeders, a flooded pool had our first whooper swans of the day. Behind them, fields with sheep and around 12-14 cattle egrets following them.

Crossing the bridge over the road to the main hide, we discovered a talk was going on with a warden out in the water with a wheelbarrow of seed feeding the many pochards, mallards and the odd mute swan. Only a few whoopers though. Amongst the ducks, however, we did manage to spot a male scaup between dives and, away from the feeding frenzy, goldeneyes, wigeon, teal, a pintail, a spit of land full of lapwings, black-tailed godwits, a few dunlin and curlew and a spotted redshank.

We waited after dark for the whoopers to arrive in what I hoped in large numbers. Sadly, it was just a smaller number than expected (about under 100 or so) that came in to roost. Not the mass gathering I was hoping to see. It appears that the water was too deep for them this year, meaning they could not feed . Apparently they've been roosting elsewhere this winter. It left us feeling a little disappointed, but it was a good day nonetheless. Goodbye, 2023.

Submerged

 Nov 6th Strumpshaw Fen

I was in for a surprise when I neared Strumpshaw this morning. As I was making my way from Brundall station, I was just a few hundred yards or so from the reserve when I noticed a lot of water seeping across the road just before the car park entrance. Luckily, the raised centre of the road made it shallower than either side and I was able to walk through it, though a jeep did pressure me from behind while I was midway through. 

The reserve itself was just as bad. The pond behind the feeder area was up to the seat of the bench next to it, the broad outside Reception Hide was up to the hide's wall, both Fen and Tower hides were inaccessible as water covered the paths leading to them and there was a section of Sandy Wall where water was seeping under the wooden borders that were meant to keep the floods out. Even the sand cliff area (which is not even close to anywhere with water) was like a large pond. The only places left that were unaffected by the floods were the paths leading to the pumphouse, the path from pumphouse to the woods and the entire woodland trail.

My investigation of the flood took up most of my time during my pre-shift walk. I was more concerned about the path conditions than to look for wildlife. But once I was away from the floods, it felt more like a normal walk. I used my Merlin app to record the birds and it picked up a flock of crossbills and a few lesser redpolls. Not sure how accurate the app's ID was and I didn't really get to see them to confirm it. I also spooked a hare twice as I was walking back to the Reception Hide.

The view from Reception Hide was rather empty for the most part. It took most of the morning until about 20 mallards decided to show up. There was also marsh harriers, buzzards, a red kite and a great white egret flying over in the distance, but that was about as exciting as it got.

Flood (Nov 6th), Snow Bunting
& Curlew (Nov 11th), Rainbow (Nov 13th)
Whooper Swans & Starling Murmuration (Nov 20th)

Nov 11th Cley

It was a bit disappointing for this month's visit to Cley. Though there was a kestrel by the visitor centre, the reserve itself was very quiet. The pools produced mainly ducks in the form of teal, shovelers, wigeon and shelducks with a small number of dunlin, black-tailed godwits and gulls (mostly black-headed gulls), 2 avocets, the odd marsh harrier, a little egret, some mute swans, 4-6 brent geese and one pink-footed goose flying over. The best highlight was on the beach with 8-10 snow buntings on the shingled embankment. I also had close views of curlew and a couple of pintails can be seen from the East Bank.

Nov 13th Strumpshaw Fen

A really horrible morning, but improved by midday. I got soaked walking along the river looking for the red-throated diver that had been seen for the past week or so, but not today. On a positive note, at least the floods receded.

There were rainbows showing from Reception Hide, but other than marsh harriers, buzzards, a great white egret, a few mallards and 7 swans, that was about it. By the end of my shift, the rain had been replaced by very strong winds.

Nov 20th Strumpshaw Fen

It was a nice day for once and I brought my brand new bridge camera with me to try it out. I went for a walk with Liz Dack (a Strumpshaw regular) to the pumphouse and found a chiffchaff in one of the trees along the river. We also had fieldfares, redwings, a nuthatch, a treecreeper and some interesting fungi in the woods. At Reception, it was another quiet day, though I did see an otter, marsh harriers, a heron (briefly), some mallards, greylags and a couple of gadwall.

After my shift, I went to Tower Hide to check out a male goosander that had been reported during the morning. Once I navigated the mud and got to the hide, I could not find it. However, I was surprised to see that there were four whooper swans instead. I've never seen these birds actually on the reserve before. They usually just fly over. I also found a lizard basking in the November sun along Sandy Wall as well as a few common darters and red admirals which are also making the most of this unusually warm day for this time of year.

Returning back to the Reception Hide, I waited for dusk and for the starlings to arrive to roost. It took until around 3:30pm for them to really get going. A few visitors stayed on to watch the spectacle with me as the small number of starlings grew with every minute as they swirled around the broad. In the end, I estimated that 5-6 thousand birds and they were still arriving after the main group poured into the reedbeds in front of the hide. Sparrowhawks and marsh harriers flew in to try and grab one from the reeds for an easy meal as the light continued to fade.

This ended up being my last outing of the month as the weather turned awful and at Strumpshaw, there was a huge high tide and the river flooded again. This time, it was really bad. The reserve closed completely and I made the decision to skip my final shift of the month. It just wasn't worth it. It was raining anyway. Torrential rain. I doubt I'd see any birds at all. 

October Of Two Halves

 Oct 1st Holkham Hall & Wells Pools

I was hoping to see the rut of red and fallow deer at Holkham Hall to add to my displays and spectacles challenge. Sadly, though, it didn't seem to have started yet. There was no sign of the red deer and, though the fallow deer were out in large numbers in the open, they weren't doing very much. I did hear the odd grunt from a buck and saw some signs like antlers being rubbed against branches and the ground and the bucks were sniffing the does to check if they are in season, but there was no antler clashing at this point. It looks like it could be another week or two until things could get interesting.

Fallow Deer & Wilson's Phalarope (Oct 1st),
Manx Shearwater & Chicory (Oct 8th) &
Grey Heron & Great White Egret (Oct 9th)

Disappointed, I convinced my parents to take me to the other side of Wells to some pools where a rare American wader had been reported for the past few days. A Wilson's phalarope. A bird I last saw 10 years ago at Cley. This one was out on the eastern pool along a spit of land in front of a gathering of wigeon, godwits and other things. It was actually showing well 10 minutes before I arrived but had flew off to that spit and the only way for me to see it was through someone's scope for a couple of quick glances.

It was smaller than I remember. Especially when beside a wigeon. As a 1st winter individual, it was white with some grey. In summer, they are more colourful, but it is the female that displays to the males, the complete opposite to most other bird species. I was glad to see it, but it was too distant to photograph.

Oct 2nd Strumpshaw Fen

A dull and gloomy morning, but had plenty to see. I had an hour on my own inside Fen Hide before my shift and saw a bittern, a great white egret, snipe, a sparrowhawk, marsh harriers, a pair of swans with 5 juveniles, heard bearded tits and, at Sandy Wall, a water rail. I also encountered a green woodpecker a few times and a muntjac.

From Reception Hide, an otter, a kingfisher for most of my shift, a bittern in the distance, a stonechat, shovelers, gadwall and a cormorant. After coming back from the toilet, I discovered a red-legged partridge peering through the window above the desk. It was so close to the glass it seemed as it was breathing onto it and left what seemed to be condensation, but it was actually the powdery residue from its breast feathers.

Oct 8th Cley

My 10th visit of the year at Cley and I wanted to do a spot of sea watching more than anything else. I did pop into Bishop's Hide and though there were many birds on the scrapes, there wasn't anything that would cause too much excitement to me. A marsh harrier, avocets, godwits, dunlin ruff, many wigeon, teal, shovelers, gadwall, lapwings and a few common gulls amongst the many black-headed gulls, nothing rare and out of the ordinary.

We then made our way to the beach via the East Bank. I joined a group of sea watchers and set my scope up. The sea was relatively calm with light fog in the horizon. It was a really good session with many things flying over or floating on the waves. This included several Manx shearwaters gliding low over the sea on their long black and white wings with ease. There were also many gannets (adults and juveniles), common and sandwich terns, common scoters, brent geese, wigeon, razorbills, a Mediterranean gull, a red-throated diver, a grey seal and a short-eared owl (though my phone rang and distracted me from seeing it properly)!

After what was a great spot of sea watching, I backtracked down East Bank and saw some curlews, redshanks and heard bearded tits. But it was at the sluice gates near the shelter that distracted me the most as I not just saw a kingfisher dart down the ditch, there was also an otter swimming across the same channel of water for a few minutes while using the reed edges as cover.

Oct 9th Strumpshaw Fen

A warm day for October. I went to Tower Hide where a female red-crested pochard was seen yesterday. Not today though. Many shovelers, gadwall, mallards, wigeon and teal instead as well as a great white egret, a little egret, a heron, 5 cormorants, greylags and a little grebe. I also glimpsed a kingfisher on the way back, redwings on the way there earlier and heard pink-footed geese and bearded tits.

Reception Hide had most of the above including 3 wigeon, two marsh harriers, buzzards and the great white egret, little egret and heron entertained the most. When the heron flew in, it landed on the submerged stump in the water and before its feet made contact to the stump, it managed to catch a fish and ate it!

Oct 17th Westonbirt Arboretum

I was spending a week with my parents in Gloucestershire and though most of this week was mostly visiting zoos and meeting my younger brother and his fiancée, we did go to Westonbirt Arboretum which is a good place to see the best of the autumn colour. I've been here before in 2016, where I was impressed by the amount of colour and adding this natural wonder to my challenge list is a good enough reason to visit again. However, it has been a warm autumn so far and it seems to have caused a delay for the majority of the trees to change colour.

Japanese Maple (Oct17th), Flood at Strumpshaw,
Spider silk in sunrise, Upright Coral,
Earthstars (Oct 23rd) & Trumpet Lichen (Oct 30th)

It was a cool but pleasant day and though the colour displays were limited at this point, we still had some trees displaying yellows, reds, purples, etc. The arboretum has trees from all over the world and its most popular were the Japanese maples which has its own section of the site. It was more colourful here than anywhere else. And they came in many leaf shapes and sizes. This was perhaps the best part of my walk here and though I was disappointed that most of the trees were still green, I did learn a lot about the trees that I lacked before. It was like a zoo for trees and labels dangling on their branches or placed on their trunks, which really helped me learn which tree was which.

The remainder of my week off was fairly miserable as the weather changed to relentless downpours of rain that lasted for the remaining three days. On the third and final of these days, Storm Babet hit. It was Dad's birthday and we spent most of it driving across the country in poor visibility, constant backsplashes from lorries and navigated through a few floods in Suffolk, where we ended up for the night at my other brother's place. One of the worst journeys I've had in recent years.

Oct 23rd Strumpshaw Fen

It was a much nicer day on my return to Strumpshaw. However, the river had flooded and I had to close off the Fen Trail. I had to settle with an extra longer stay at Fen Hide with views of a great white egret, a marsh harrier and heard pinging bearded tits. I also had a quick fungi foray in the woods, finding an upright coral and three earthstars.

It was a busy day at Reception Hide as many families enjoying our spooky half term activities. It was also the day of the bittern as from outside the hide, I had several sightings of at least one or two flying between the reedbeds at the back of the broad. There was also two great white egrets having a disagreement with one another, a heron, skeins of pink-footed geese, swans, mallards, greylags, shovelers, an Egyptian goose flying by, bearded tits and marsh harriers.

Oct 28th Holkham Hall

It was time to try my luck again with the deer rut at Holkham Hall. This time I went with my Aunt Barbara, though she did accidentally sent us to Houghton Hall as she put the wrong postcode into the sat nav by mistake, taking us a little longer to get there than we had liked. 

This time, the rut was happening (in the thick mist), but there was no sign of any antler clashing that I really wanted to see. The red deer was nowhere in sight either. Only the fallow deer was showing in the open and a few of the bucks were making some noise grunting and hanging around the does very closely. An improvement from my last visit, but not as good as I hoped. A bit disappointing, but at least seeing a red kite fly over our heads made up for it.

Oct 30th Strumpshaw Fen

For the final walk at Strumpshaw before Halloween, I thought I would look for something different. I did a loop around the reserve via the woods and the pumphouse searching for lichen and mosses. I don't really know any of the names or that much about them, but it was an eye opener. A couple of species dominated, but there was a surprising variety if you look hard enough. My favourite was a trumpet lichen which has this otherworldly look to it with these strange trumpet-like structures poking out. I also saw a couple of fieldfares and a flock of bearded tits during my walk.

The rest of the morning was quite dull. There was not a duck on the broad and there was just a family of swans. If it wasn't for the marsh harriers flying close, a few buzzards, a passing kestrel and a glimpse of a bittern at the very end of the shift, it was almost a forgettable morning.

September Heat

Sep 4th Strumpshaw Fen

I forgot my camera! I left it at home by mistake. It was ok though as there wasn't much around of interest to photograph anyway.

It was a very misty morning that became a very hot one. I went for a walk through the woods and along the river, passing by the pumphouse. I was mainly continuing my tree search for my latest drawing project that I will further continue next year. There were a few new additions in the form of hornbeam and pine trees that I could only find at one corner of the woods, but this walk was mostly dominated with oaks, hazels, hawthorns, willows, ashes and a few rowans. I also heard siskins, the first of the autumn, and saw a kingfisher flying down river.

At Reception Hide, it was fairly quiet but very hot outside. It was like June again. The highlights include; a great white egret, a heron, swallows, house martins, shovelers, two wigeon, marsh harriers, mute swans and migrant and southern hawkers.

Sep 11th Strumpshaw Fen

A much cooler day than it has been, but it did get hotter by the afternoon. A heatwave had hit the UK for the past week with temperatures of around 30°C. September had been more of a scorcher than most of the summer.

Kingfisher

My morning walk wasn't that memorable at all besides a couple of lizards and a marsh harrier. My shift at Reception Hide was a little more interesting with a short otter appearance and my first kingfisher at Strumpshaw in quite a while, which perched on a few perches and hovering in the air a couple of times. I also watched two great white egrets and spotted a pygmy shrew which pooped out from a crack under the bench next to me inside the hide. There was also one more addition to my tree project, an aspen.

Sep 17th Cley

Not a very exciting visit to Cley. It was a dull, drizzly day, it became very autumnal as it should be for this time of year. The hides provided mostly ducks like shovelers, teal, some wigeon, shelducks and two female pintails as well as avocets, godwits and black-headed and lesser black-backed gulls.

The murky conditions seemed perfect for a spot of sea watching. So I joined a small group of three sea watchers in the shelter on the beach and scanned the waves with my scope. All I could find were a lot of gannets and razorbills with the odd red-throated diver and cormorants. No skuas though. They always seem to avoid me when I sea watch for some reason.

Sep 18th Strumpshaw Fen

A nicer day despite a thunderstorm apparently soaked the ground overnight (which I slept right through). I did a loop round the woods and pumphouse, seeing a kingfisher, many house martins, a willow emerald damselfly and a dark bush cricket along the river and lizards along Sandy Wall.

It was fairly quiet outside Reception Hide, though I did see a hobby or two, marsh harriers, a kestrel, plenty of ducks and a massive fly over of a hundred or so greylags passing through. Inside the hide provided the real highlight. A pygmy shrew was zipping beneath my feet under the benches. It used the gaps in the floor and wall as cover between scurries for crumbs. It was small, but lightning fast.

Pygmy Shrew

Sep 24th Minsmere

A rare visit to Minsmere as I decided my parents and I go see what's about for the first time since February. There had been a few interesting things here a week or two before, such as a buff-breasted sandpiper. There wasn't anything like that around this time, but there was a crowd forming on the boardwalk over the pond near the visitor centre. They were watching water voles. Though I did eventually found one myself, it was very well obscured in a patch of reeds. A couple of grass snakes swimming in the same pond were a little more obliging.

Grass Snake

Out on the scrapes, there was plenty of waders and wildfowl to see. Avocets, ruff, two common sandpipers, lapwing, black-tailed godwits, little egrets, herons, wigeon, shovelers, teal, gadwall, a common tern and an Arctic tern (with a deformed bill), great black-backed gulls, several Canada geese and a distant marsh harrier and kestrel in the horizon.

While my parents left me at the scrapes and did their own thing over at Bittern and Island Mere hides, I continued the loop round the scrapes and made my way back to the pond to see the water vole again. I was able to see one and later a second which came for a short scrap which it ended losing. Some apple in the water enticed the victor out of the reeds to provide me and the latest crowd a decent view of it. It is always a delight to watch these rare rodents.

Water Vole

Sep 25th Strumpshaw Fen

A rather unexciting visit to Tower Hide. Though there were many ducks around as well as three little grebes and a swan, there wasn't much else of note while the low morning sun blinded me. I also saw at least 10 lizards along Sandy Wall.

My latest shift at Reception Hide was far more interesting as it had many highlights. This included close views of an otter that swam in front of the hide. A bittern also made a brief appearance as it flew across the broad from the left to right. A hobby was swooping from high above, a few bearded tits flew into the reeds from the islands and a kingfisher made a short visit by the end of my shift.

Sun(flowers) & Tide

 Aug 4th Frogs Farm

Another week off work to kick off August and it was plagued with rain which ruined my plans of going to Minsmere on Wednesday 2nd (which actually turned into an ok day to my annoyance). We decided that, to end the week off, we were to head to Frogs Farm no matter the weather for a family outing to tick off one of my display challenges which is to see a sunflower field. My parents and I were joined by my brother, Frazer, his wife, Laura and my two nieces, Ava and Willow. 

Frogs Farm was a little farm in Suffolk that happens to have three sunflower mazes. It was a simple display to tick off my list, however, the mazes themselves were not so simple. Getting lost was one thing, the mud and the random rain showers was another. My boots were caked in mud, but at least the showers were short. It was worth it for the sunflowers and some family time at least.

Aug 6th Snettisham

Dad and I woke up very early to get to Snettisham in order to see the wader spectacular before the latest highest tide happened. This was to be the greatest spectacular on my list if I was to make it on time. We needed the early start to drive there and to make the long walk to the beach, which was rewarded with the sound of a turtle dove purring away in a bush on the way up.

Sunflowers (Aug 4th),
Knots, Murmurations
& Oystercatchers (Aug 6th)

Once we arrived to the beach, I was glad that we made it before the tide started to push the birds off the Wash. In fact, the tide took its time and we waited a few hours until it eventually forced the birds to fly over us. When we arrived, it didn't look like there was much about. However, as the tide slowly seeped slowly towards us, we noticed the main cast arriving in the distance. Fractured flocks of thousands of knot formed small ribbon-like murmurations in the horizon heading left to an area of salt marsh. Many, many oystercatchers were also gathering on the ever creeping shoreline and refused to leave the spot until the last minute.

The knot erupted into larger impressive murmurations every now and then with a few thousand deciding to fly over us and join the thousands that already had gathered at the pools behind us. It took until around half nine for the spectacle to really take form. The tide had finally reached the final section of exposed mud, pushing the waders into the remaining corner of the Wash. A mass exodus occurred as wave after wave of knot, oystercatcher and other waders such as dunlin, redshank and curlew rushed over the heads of the large crowds of birders that joined us with every passing minute. 

Once all of them had left the Wash, the action was now at the pools where the sky above these pools was nothing but a swirling mass of birds. There were also a flock of 30+ spoonbills on the pools alongside all of these waders. As we walked back for a later than planned breakfast at a café, we passed by a smaller gathering of knot, dunlin and ringed plovers and even a brent goose on the shoreline of the beach.

Aug 7th Strumpshaw Fen

I was trying to look for fen raft spiders at the sluice gates and marsh helleborines in the meadow trail, but failed on both. At Reception Hide, there was a great white egret, a heron, a hobby, many mallards, swallows and house martins. Also seen were 2 kestrels, red admirals, peacocks, holly blues, brimstones, small red-eyed damselflies and a hornet mimic hoverfly.

Hornet Mimic Hoverfly & Small Red-eyed Damselflies (Aug 7th),
Slime Mould & Willow Emerald Damselfly (Aug 14th), 
Wood Sandpiper & Greenshank (Aug 19th)

Aug 14th Strumpshaw Fen

I had a lift in due to a very heavy downpour and got to Strumpshaw early than usual at 7am. Once I reached the shelter that was Fen Hide, however, the rain stopped and was good enough for me to visit Tower Hide. There were plenty to see here including a great white egret, a common tern, a marsh harrier, bearded tits, teal, shovelers, gadwall and mallards. I also encountered a Chinese water deer with a fawn, willow emerald damselflies, gatekeepers and a slime mould during the walks to and from the hide. I thought I saw a fen raft spider at the sluice, but it turned out not to be.

There were some twitchers seeking a honey buzzard during my shift at Reception Hide, which had been seen for the past week. Eventually, they located it and I managed to see it, though very distant. It looked like a normal buzzard to me though. Apparently it was much lighter in colour and longer wings and the head is a much different shape. The twitchers seemed happy enough and soon disappeared.

We also saw a bittern that landed and poked out of the reed bed at the back of the broad, a heron, a kestrel, a sparrowhawk and I discovered a green woodpecker on the path outside.

The sun was now out and so were the dragonflies and damselflies. From small red eyed and willow emerald damselflies to migrant and southern hawkers. However, the best of the lot was seeing a lesser emperor for the first time. They are as big as a normal emperor dragonfly, but has a band of blue at the top of the abdomen and not the entire thing which helps to spot and identify it as it zoomed by. This is a species that had only been discovered in the UK in 1996 and seems to be on the increase. 

Aug 19th Cley

Mum and I made our way to Cley for my 8th visit this year. We started with lunch at the visitor centre, eating our bacon rolls as a small toad looked in from outside the window.

Though it didn't seem like it, there was actually plenty to see on the reserve. The pools had mostly godwits and ruff with several ringed plovers, a few turnstones, common and green sandpipers, the odd avocet and a curlew sandpiper, a marsh harrier, a sparrowhawk and a great white egret. I also had good views of a greenshank from Bishop's Hide.

I was told by a birder inside Bishop's Hide that a lot was being seen from the East Bank and on the sea. So, I made my way there next. I found a wood sandpiper creeping along the edge of the Serpentine and three spoonbills as I neared the shelter overlooking Arnold's Marsh where black terns were being reported. I couldn't spot any of these terns amongst the distant colony of sandwich and common terns, you really need a scope to pick them out, which I didn't bring.

I joined a group of sea watchers on the beach and apparently a flock of juvenile black tern flew across just off the shoreline as I joined them. I wasn't as confident in identifying them as they did. I've only seen one many years ago, so it isn't a species I'm as familiar with. I was more used to spotting the auks like the two razorbills I could see floating on the surface than these terns.

Heading back from the beach, my luck was in. The terns on Arnold's Marsh took to the air, spooked by something. Amongst them was an adult black tern. It was far smaller and darker in plumage. It was fairly easy to pick it out. A moment later, the culprit of what spooked them all up in the first place appeared. A young peregrine swooped over my head and tried to catch a teal or something on the marsh in front of me, but failed. It was incredible! It was an amazing way to end our visit on.

Aug 21st Strumpshaw Fen & Cromer

A nice, hot day, but the ground was wet with dew. I went to Tower Hide and saw teal, gadwall, shovelers, a great white egret, herons and marsh harriers. At Reception Hide, another great white egret, a little egret, a hobby, 2 Canada geese, willow emerald, small red-eyed and common emerald damselflies.

Common Emerald Damselflies, Speckled Wood,
Marsh Woundwort & Sunset (Aug 21st)

I then went to Cromer later that day to experience a sunset over the sea as part of my challenge. It seemed to be a good night for it and it started pretty well with sunlight streaking over the incoming tide as we watched from Cromer pier. However, up until 8pm, the sun sank behind a large cloud that was blocking the view, making us miss it sinking into the sea. It was a disappointing end, but I did technically watch a sunset over the sea, so it is enough to tick off my list.

Aug 28th Strumpshaw Fen

I wanted to do something different. I wanted to learn, find and draw the trees of Strumpshaw Fen as a taster of a project I want to do for next year. I've bought a decent sketchbook and I want to draw as many plants I can find at Strumpshaw month by month. As trees and shrubs are here all year round, I thought I'd start with them first. Trying to figure out what is on the reserve, where about I can find them and roughly how abundant they are here. I've already started drawing the species I know already over the weekend. 

I decided to begin my tree hunt along the Lackford Run. I'm an amateur at trees at best, I know my oaks, willows, rowans, ashes and birches, but to separate the turkey oaks from the English oaks, for example, is where I will struggle. I took pictures on my phone to identify them later. Most of them were crack willows, English oaks, hawthorns and elders. While searching the Lackford Run (and getting soaked by the dew covered plants in the process), I heard the loud bugling calls of a pair of cranes before seeing them fly off towards Buckenham around 8am. I expect this is the pair that hatched a chick here earlier this year.

Continuing my search down the Fen Trail, stopping at Tower Hide along the way, I found a lot of fruit trees. Not only did I find more elderberries and blackberries of elders and brambles, I also found crab apples, plums, dogwoods, guilder rose and one rowan tree brimming with red berries. From Tower Hide, other than a great white egret and the usual gathering of mallards, gadwall, teal and shovelers, there wasn't much of interest.

The Sandy Wall and in the woods on the way back to Reception Hide for my shift, produced spindles, alders, oaks, willows and a few Norway spruces, hollies and yews. During my shift, a small crowd of birders were scanning for the honey buzzard which was spotted around the same time the cranes took off. It didn't show itself while on my shift though. All I could see were marsh harriers, buzzards, a bittern, a great white egret and swallows.