Sep 20th Strumpshaw Fen

Bittern

It was a bit of a bittern fest at Strumpshaw this morning. When I arrived to the reserve just before 8pm today, I had a quick peek from the blind next to Reception Hide before setting off to Fen Hide. A man with a camera was busy clicking away at something. It turned out to be a bittern sitting out in full view half way up a section of reed bed at the back of the broad behind the reedy islands. It was quite distant, but I still managed to take a few photos of it as proof. It sat there preening itself and it seemed several other people saw it too since I left for my walk.

Green Woodpecker

While watching the bittern from the Reception Hide blind, a loud yaffling laugh of a green woodpecker stole my attention away from it for a moment. I soon found the bird perched on the side of the sparrowhawk tree to the far left of the hide. A rare sight for me as I don't often see green woodpeckers from Reception Hide that much. Then, as I made my way along Sandy Wall towards Fen Hide, I saw my second woodpecker of the morning. This time it was a great spotted woodpecker, which was busy prising grubs from within a tall dead tree beside the path.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Shaggy Inkcap



My second Bittern of the day (a bit distant though)

At Fen Hide, my second bittern of the day flew by, flying left to right over the reserve. And that wasn't all. A water rail made a brief appearance within the new reed growth next to a woodpigeon before slinking back into denser cover, 3 snipe circled the hide, while little egrets, a cormorant and a heron were fishing in the pool in front of us. I also managed to get a quick glimpse of a flock of ten or so bearded tits, a stock dove marsh harriers and a jay. It was proving to be a very productive morning.



Water Rail

Grey Heron

Little Egret

Cormorant

Gadwall

Jay

Kingfisher

Back at Reception Hide, a kingfisher made a couple of brief visits to the measuring post. The autumn light was highlighting it's electric blue back brilliantly. Then, shortly after the kingfisher's first visit, I saw a familiar large brown shape fly over the reedy islands. My third bittern sighting of the day! It plunged itself down into the reed bed to my right. I was able to spot it's head peeking out of the reeds, before it disappeared completely. There was no sign of it throughout the rest of the morning. I expect it was still skulking around this part of it's reedy underworld by the time I had to leave, perhaps making a quick secret peek to make sure I was gone.

My third Bittern of today!