Nov 14th Strumpshaw Fen

The River Yare at dawn

I was really looking forward for my morning walk at Strumpshaw today. There was a beautiful sky as the sun was rising while I was making my way to the reserve. When I got to Fen Hide, however, I was pretty disappointed in just seeing Cobber the black swan and two mallards mating, that I decided to make the long, potentially muddy trail to Tower Hide to try my luck there. Annoyingly, despite navigating down the not-so-bad muddy route, when I entered the hide, I saw... nothing! Apart from a marsh harrier flying in the distance, the pool in front of the hide was completely empty of ducks or waders. It felt like a complete waste of my time.


Cobber the Black Swan

Mallards

Great Tit

View from Tower Hide

Spindle Berries

Jay

View from Reception Hide

Walking back through the woods on my return journey to the Reception Hide, I did encounter a large mixed flock of siskins and goldfinches. A decent consolation for a disappointing pre-shift walk. At the Reception Hide, there was some improvement. For one, I actually saw more birds than I did earlier this morning. However, it was mostly the usual coots, moorhens, shovelers, gadwall, mallards, teal, buzzards and marsh harriers.

Gadwall

Shoveler

Moorhen



Marsh Harrier

Buzzard

Mute Swan

There was some drama though in the form of a swan fight. It started when two mute swans arrived onto the broad, which didn't please the parents of the two grown cygnets that were already there. The two parents puffed out their wings and charged at the two newcomers. The result led to a ten minute one-sided dispute over territory with the parents eventually seeing off the intruders. It was pretty intense and entertained the visitors watching it with me. When the peace returned and every visitor left the hide, and while I was eating my sandwiches, I noticed a bittern fly out of the reed bed on the far side of the broad making a brief appearance. Alas, I was too busy eating to grab the camera in time before it vanished into the reeds on the far left channel. A good ending to a subpar day.

Parent swan charging intruding swan