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| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
Valentine's Day at Strumpshaw Fen. And, it is actually a nice day for once, at least for the morning. There is a light wind, but nothing strong enough to cause the birds into hiding. In fact, the birds are in full voice, especially in the woods. Siskins, treecreepers, long-tailed tits, goldcrests, bullfinches and buzzards created a cacophony of noise at one section of the woodland trail and gave fleeting glimpses as they flit, soared and creeped around me on and above the trees. However, nothing beats the loud percussion of the great spotted woodpeckers drumming that had me searching a while to locate them. Occasionally, one would cause a commotion and chase off an intruding rival through the trees, providing a brief glimpse before once again being obscured by branches and towering trunks. I try to replicate the drumming with sticks to call him over, but my makeshift drumsticks kept snapping and the woodpeckers took no notice.
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| Siskin |
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| Jay |
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| Snowdrops |
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| Chinese Water Deer |
Chinese water deer seemed to be everywhere during my morning walk. I saw two out on the meadows, three from Fen Hide and another further up in an area of open reed stubble beside a section of the Sandy Wall. The ones that weren't seen from the Fen Hide froze on the spot and gave me a stare with those beady eyes attached to their teddy bear-like faces once they saw me pointing my camera at them before running away to safety. At least one of them had long sabretooth-like tusks, indicating that this was a male. During the winter months, these tusks would be used for fighting as their mating season intensifies. Today, though, this male seemed to be more interested in eating than on the two females grazing close by on the stubble sections on the opposite side of the pool in front of the Fen Hide.
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| Greylags |
At Reception Hide, greylags dominated the broad outside. There must have been about 100 of them or so on the broad until a helicopter flying over the reserve scared most of them away. While they were present, the geese created many disagreements amongst themselves, which often led to an aggressive chase fight. During one scuffle between two of these geese led to a chase over the marshy pools of reed stubble in front of the hide where, for a second week running, a snipe was busy probing the mud for food. The snipe's brilliant camouflage is extremely useful when hiding predators, but when it comes to a goose fleeing from a fight oblivious to the snipe's presence and heading right at it, the poor snipe stood no chance. The goose made a flappy jump out of the way of it's rival's bill aiming at it's rear and belly flopped right on top of the snipe! Startled by the goose, the snipe immediately ran for cover, but it returned to the same spot shortly afterwards and continued what it was doing as if nothing ever happened. Valentine's Day is a romantic day for couples, but for the rest of us, it can be hell!
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| Greylag |
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| A white Greylag |
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| A Canada x Greylag Goose Hybrid |
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| Snipe |
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| Shoveler |
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| Gadwall |
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| Teal |
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| Coot |
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| Cormorant |
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| Marsh Harrier |
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