May 7th Cley

Purple Heron Watching!

You couldn't ask for a much nicer day for a Bank Holiday. The sun is out and there's not a single cloud in the sky. It is glorious! And as Dad has a day off, he has decided to take me out to Cley today where a purple heron has been attracting some attention in the last couple of days. When we arrived to the reserve, we did not need to ask for directions to the heron's whereabouts as there was a crowd gathering on top of the West Bank. It was clear that we needed to go there first. We joined the crowd and waited for it to show up, scanning it's last location where it popped it's head up about ten minutes before we showed up. Not everyone in the group had seen it and more people were turning up, replacing the ones that did. Among the newcomers was a familiar face in the form of Peter Walton, who I know from guided walks at Mousehold Heath.

Purple Heron!

After about an hour of waiting and scanning every section of the reed beds over and over, I was about to give up and head back for lunch. But then, Peter called out to me from further along the bank, pointing to a large bird flying over the reserve. It was definitely a heron, but was it a purple one? A guy next to me passed it as just a grey heron, shrouding some doubt on Peter's claim. However, another sided with the original ID and we watched the bird land in a completely different reed bed to the one we thought it was in originally. Peter and I led the group back along the bank to see if we could find it in it's new hiding spot. Thankfully, it wasn't long until we found the heron with it's head and neck stretching high above the reeds.

It was slightly distant to photograph and the shots were a bit distorted by heat haze, but I hope you can see it ok. This happens to be my first ever purple heron, a bird that is more common in mainland Europe than the UK, though they have bred in Southern England back in 2010. It has a more elegant appearance with a slender neck that is streaky buff-orange when comparing it to it's cousin, the grey heron. It is also much bigger. But is it really that purple? Not really. Well, maybe a little bit in the right light conditions.

Reed Bunting

Sedge Warbler

Avocet

After celebrating my first purple heron with lunch, we then visited the hides. First, we entered two of the three main central hides seeing marsh harriers, avocets, black-tailed godwits, shelducks, little ringed plovers, lapwings, a golden plover and a couple of common sandpipers. The views for most of these were distant and extremely hazy, so we didn't really stay inside these hides for very long. We decided to walk back and towards the East Bank. As we made our way out from these hides, a flock of bearded tits distracted us and we found ourselves surrounded by them, half hidden amongst the reeds.

Ducklings

Shelduck

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-headed Gull

Bearded Tit

Common Sandpiper

Once we reached the East Bank, we didn't make our way down towards the sea like I normally do with Mum. Instead, we walked along the Attenborough trail to the Babcock Hide. I've never attempted this walk before (I cheated the last time I went to this hide) and thankfully, I wasn't as tired as I thought I'd be. We had the hide to ourselves and it provided better and closer views of the birds that I had already seen from the previous two hides. Two of the purple heron's cousins were also here in the form of a grey heron and a great white egret. It was well worth the long walk to get here.

Grey Heron

Great White Egret

Avocet

Shelduck and Avocet

Black-tailed Godwits

Pied Wagtail

Lapwing

Oystercatcher

Greylag

Magpie