Oct 30th Sculthorpe Moor

Robin

It has been almost a year to the day since I last been to Sculthorpe Moor, just short by one day. It was Halloween when we were last here, so it was about time we paid this reserve a visit. This is a nice place for beginner birdwatchers and photographers alike to test and improve their skills as the staff put up feeders nearly everywhere, providing close views of many species of small woodland bird you can think of. The key species here are bullfinches and marsh tits, which you are almost guaranteed to see from the bird tables and feeders in front of some of the hides.

Greenfinch

 

We started our search for birds from the first hide, the Woodland Hide. This was a rather quiet place birdwise to begin with, but by the time we decided to move on, our bird list for today was slowly building nicely. Though we mainly saw coal tits, chaffinches, robins, blue tits, great tits, the odd greenfinch, a moorhen and a pheasant, the main highlight here was a treecreeper spiralling up a couple of trees. Unfortunately, it was moving to quick and was obscured by leaves and overhanging branches for me to get a photo of it.



Female Chaffinch

Coal Tit

Male Pheasant

Female Pheasant

Bullfinch (facing the wrong way!)

At the next hide, we spent over an hour or two watching the birds taking turns to feed from the food left out for them on the bird table. This second hide is the one that normally delivers on bullfinches. However, there was a volunteer out working in the reed beds and so I was only able to spot one of these shy finches today. Annoyingly, though, the only shot that I managed to capture before it disappeared was one with it's head turned away from me. Thankfully, there were plenty of other great birds to look at here, including a water rail, a little grebe, about 7 collard doves and there was even a mallard that came up onto the bird table at one point, a sight I've never seen before. There was also a bank vole and a brown rat scurrying around beneath the table, feeding on the dropped seed spilt by the hungry birds above.


Water Rail

Little Grebe

Collard Doves

Chaffinch

Robin

Pheasant

Mallards

Mallard on the bird table!

Dunnock

Brown Rat



Nuthatch

After lunch, the canopy hide was our next stop. As this hide is elevated high amongst the trees, and with a small bird platform full of birdseed to lure them over, it gave us a chance to see them even closer than before up at a height where they are more at home. Here, nuthatches, marsh tits, coal tits and many other common woodland bird were coming up towards us to pick up a quick something to eat. A large flock of goldfinches flocked to the two hanging feeders that were several metres high above the ground floor, while a great spotted woodpecker and a siskin were seen in and on the surrounding trees and bushes. From the opposite side of this hide, we also had a couple of mistle thrushes posing at the top of some bare branches.

Marsh Tit

Coal Tit

Great Tit

Blue Tit

Chaffinch

Goldfinch

Mistle Thrush

Red Kite

We then finally reached the furthest part of the reserve and entered one of the two hides that overlooked a pond. I rarely see anything from these hides during previous visits and it was looking like today was going to be just as uneventful. But as we were about to give up and head back, Mum spotted some kind of large bird of prey soaring high above the reserve. I studied it through my binoculars and noticed the tell tale features that made it out as a red kite! Red kites are truly establishing themselves in Norfolk recently and this part of the county is becoming a bit of a hotspot for them lately. What a perfect way to end a day at Sculthorpe, at least that was what I was thinking before leaving the hide. However, on the way back along the river, things got even better as, not one, but two red kites and a buzzard gave us a magnificent flying display over our heads, while a kestrel watched us from atop of a bare branched tree! Can it get any better than that?

Buzzard

Kestrel