March 7th Strumpshaw Fen

Cobber the Black Swan

It was great to be back at Strumpshaw again after missing out last week due to the snow. Though, it would have been nice if it wasn't raining. Funny enough, it only started raining as I reached the entrance of the reserve and when I got inside Fen Hide, it became a heavy downpour. So it was just another wet Wednesday at Strumpshaw. There has been many of them so far this year. During my pre-shift walk, I ended up just sheltering from the worst of the rain, watching the swans, Chinese water deer and soggy-looking buzzards endure it.




Mute Swans with Cobber

Buzzard



Tufted Ducks

The weather did improve a little by the time I began my shift at Reception Hide, but it was to continue to rain throughout the morning. However, it wasn't all that bad. The wildfowl, in particular, were not put off in being wet. There were plenty of greylags, gadwall, a few teal, mallards and a shelduck about, but I was more pleased in seeing the return of the tufted ducks. It has been a while since I've seen them out on the broad here, about 7 of them. There was also a male pochard snoozing amongst the rather scrappy coots, which is amazingly the first record of pochard from Reception Hide this year (we've been keeping a monthly survey on bird species seen and heard from this hide).

Pochard

Greylags

Gadwall

Teal

Shelduck

Coots fighting!

Kingfisher

Today is my last shift as a 31 year old and I was hoping to see something special from Strumpshaw before my birthday on Sunday. Despite the miserable weather, there was actually 3 very brief highlights that fit the bill that I had in mind. Firstly, a kingfisher showed up and sat for a few quick, yet distant photos on stick by the reedy islands before vanishing in the blink of an eye. Then, my colleague spotted a bittern fly from the reed bed on the far side of the broad flying leftwards. I was quick enough to see it plunge into a different section reed bed. Lastly, I managed to catch a glimpse of a water rail dart out of a small clump of reeds adjacent to the hide from left to right over the broad and into the closest reed bed to us. None of them stayed long enough for me to get a good look at them, but it was better than nothing. And if that wasn't enough, the marsh harriers were around too.

Marsh Harrier

Buzzard