Jan 13th Strumpshaw Fen, Buckenham Marshes and Ludham

Scarlet Elfcup

I had enough time for a quick walk around the woods before I had to start my shift this morning at Strumpshaw. A highlight for winter in this part of the reserve are the bright red cups of scarlet elfcup fungi growing on the decaying branches lying on the ground. The air in the woods was also smelling with the pungent scent of a fox. I saw lots of redwings and blackbirds, a couple of goldcrests, a kestrel and heard some bullfinches calling nearby.

Blackthorn blossom (very early this year)

Jay

Marsh Tit

Blue Tit

Blackbird

Robin

Kestrel

Mallards, teal, gadwall, shovelers, coots and greylags dominated my time at Reception Hide with a few marsh harriers soaring above the reedbeds behind them. No otters this time, not even a kingfisher. This peaceful scene of wildfowl and harriers was disturbed though, as the sound of guns blasting apart the silence.

Ducks outside Reception Hide

Greylags

Mallard

Shoveler

Marsh Harrier with Woodpigeons

It is the shooting season and as Strumpshaw is only leased to the RSPB, the landowners are allowed to shoot pheasants on the reserve. This is part of the lease contract. We can keep the land as a nature reserve, but only if they can shoot the gamebirds in the woods for a short time for 3 Wednesdays during January and February. It is ironic that a nature reserve established to protect birds have to allow a few to die in such a manner, but it is the only way we can keep Strumpshaw as it is. This does mean we have to close the reserve for a short while and watch all the birds flee from the gunfire, but at least it doesn't last very long. Amongst the fleeing birds, I notice a strange bird with a long bill fly past like a bat out of hell. It was a woodcock! I didn't see it in great detail, but it was defintely a woodcock.

Wigeon

When my shift was over, Dad arrived to pick me up. But we weren't going home, yet. We had a couple of places to go to first. At Buckenham Marshes, we walked down to the river bank and scanned the marshes with my scope for geese. Wigeon were in great numbers on the river behind us and their whistles and growls was our soundtrack as I scanned the hundred or so white-fronted geese. These geese were grazing away in the distance with some Canada geese. I also saw a flock of feral barnacle geese with the odd white individual amongst them.

Male Wigeon

Female Wigeon

Wigeon on the river

White-fronted Geese

Canada Geese

Barnacle Geese

Bewick's and Whooper Swans

After Buckenham, Dad took me to Ludham. I have been told that a field next to the small airfield here has been attracting a flock of Bewick's swans. As they were large and white, we easily spot them as we arrived to the area. According to the most recent count, there are a hundred Bewicks grazing on the field with about ten whooper swans. Being larger and longer necked than their smaller cousins, you could pick out the whoopers from the crowd with surprising ease. With both species together, it gave me a chance to check the more detailed differences with my scope, especially with their bills. You could hear the swans honking peacefully to one another as they continued to graze. They did not seem to care about the small aircraft landing and taking off from the runway behind them. In fact, it just made the scene more perfect some how.

Swans and planes!

Whooper Swans

Bewick's Swans

Whooper (left) and Bewick (right)