March 14th Strumpshaw Fen

Jay

What a lovely day it was today! The sun was out and as the morning went on, I was starting to regret wearing thermals. It felt like spring has arrived. The birds were definitely in the mood for it as they performed their dawn chorus. Wrens, song thrushes, long-tailed tits, blue tits, great tits, treecreepers, they were all filling the air with their voices. However, there was one bird that would surprise most of us with a performance that's very rarely heard. Jays are not the most tuneful of birds. When you normally hear one, they produce a harsh screechy call that is likened to nails on a chalkboard. But how many of you actually know that they can mimic other birds? This one can! In the two videos below, you can hear it impersonate a buzzard (video one) and a carrion crow (video 2) with perfect likeness. It did it several times and at first, I was fooled by it, but once I realised where the calls were coming from, I was utterly gobsmacked!

Blue Tit

Long-tailed Tit

Treecreeper

Reed Bunting

Blackthorn Blossom

At Fen Hide, I kept seeing waves of birds flying past high above the reserve. The subtle, high-pitched, single-noted 'tseep!' calls alerted me to the presence of redwings. Hundreds of them! Before heading to Reception Hide to start my shift, I must have seen over 200+ of these winter thrushes fly from the woodland trail to the direction of the river and beyond. Also during my pre-shift walk, I went to check the conditions of the river trail up as far as the sluices. It was still very muddy, but improving slightly. According to one of my visitors while back at Reception Hide, he said he saw me make the walk down to the river and apparently, he also saw a barn owl fly past behind me without me noticing! I am kicking myself for missing it, but it just demonstrates what amazingly silent fliers these birds are due to their specially designed wings and feathers that keep from producing any sound. I'm still annoyed though!



Marsh Harrier

The sky seemed full of raptors this morning. Everywhere you looked, buzzards and marsh harriers were busy displaying high up in the blue sky. Both species mingled together as they formed circles above every section of the reserve. The courtship season for both of these birds of prey is officially underway. While the buzzards demonstrated their soaring capabilities by circling higher and higher, the male marsh harriers took it one stage further by showing off their flying skills by becoming like aerial yo-yos. They fold their wings and stoop down before ascending back up again in spectacular displays. Occasionally, the females would join in with talon and wingtip touching duets. You couldn't help bet get mesmerised by it all.

Otter

Reception Hide was without doubt buzzing with visitors on a day like this and some of them couldn't tear themselves away from the action happening outside. Not only were they absorbed by the sky dancing harriers and buzzards, there was also a couple of otter appearances, too. Both sightings were of the same otter and on both occasions, the wildfowl alerted us to it by rushing away from the near left channel of the broad and then I managed to spot it behind a cover of reeds. This otter was not very easy to spot through this reed cover and by the time it reached the end of it and into the open, it suddenly dived and disappeared completely from sight on both occasions. I had no idea where it went after the second appearance.



Gadwall

Other highlights today included; tufted ducks, mating coots and greylags, a little grebe, a sparrowhawk being mobbed by a crow, a Chinese water deer at Fen Hide and, though I didn't see them myself, there were also reports of grass snakes and an ermine (a white stoat) with a brown head somewhere near the pump house! What an action packed day it has been at Strumpshaw today!

Tufted Ducks

Little Grebe

Greylag

Chinese Water Deer