Nov 8th Strumpshaw Fen

Carrion Crow

It was a gloomy, murky start as I arrived at Strumpshaw this morning. I hurried down to the Fen Hide as the rain worsened from drizzle to a moderate shower, scaring up a Chinese water deer and a water rail along the way. Even while inside the hide I was unable to escape the wet weather as it came in through the open flaps. Not to repeat what happened to my previous camera, I kept my new camera hidden away for the most part to avoid any moisture to enter it. There wasn't much to photograph anyway except a few mallards, a crow and a snipe. There was also a brief couple of kingfisher sightings, teasing me with glimpses before darting away like a flash of blue.

Mallard

Snipe

Blue Tit

Redwing

Thankfully, there were a few pauses in the drizzly downpours to use the camera outside. One bird in particular was hard not to notice. Throughout the morning, I was constantly hearing high pitched 'tseeep' calls in the woods just adjacent to the Reception Hide. These calls tell me that redwings are in the area and I could hear plenty of them. Redwings are small thrushes that migrate to the UK from Scandinavia for our milder winters. They frequent around plants with plenty of berries on them, including ivy that this individual was feeding on. You can easily tell them apart from the other thrushes with that pale eye stripe and the red patch under their wings that give them the bird its name.

Marsh Harriers

From Reception Hide, it was mostly marsh harriers and ducks that took our mind off the dull, wet weather conditions. We had four species of duck on show all mingling together today. Shovelers, teal, gadwall and mallards, with the majority of the males looking at their finest. Coots were also out in force and at times outnumbered the ducks. But the main stars this morning were the marsh harriers as at least four individuals were circling above the reed beds together, chasing one another in what is best described as an aerial dance. Some of them perched on various bushes and dead trees for visitors to get a better look at them. Of course, nothing beats seeing them in the air where they belong. 

Shovelers

Gadwall

Mallard

Coots