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| View from Reception Hide at 7:30am this morning |
As I'm spending Christmas with family next week, today's shift at Strumpshaw was my last for 2018. Venus was still glowing high in the twilight sky as I arrived at the reserve just as Buckenham's rook roost started dispersing from their slumber for another day in an abrupt chorus of cawing. Rain was forecasted for today, but it appeared that they had it wrong as the journey from Norwich to Fen Hide was rather promising and pleasant.
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| Slight pink reflective sky. Shepherd's warning? |
A slight pink sky reflected on the surface of the pool outside the Fen Hide. A shepherd's warning? I ignored this foreboding sign and continued scanning the scene in front of me for an early Christmas present in the form of a scarce bird. A marsh harrier sat atop of a tree watching back at me and the many mallards bathing in the pink reflective water. Then, the mallards took off all at once suddenly. Otter?! No. False alarm. A short while later, I noticed a small brown bird land into the stubbled clearing at the back. Water pipit! Then a Chinese water deer showed up and at the same time two more water pipits were spotted along the edge of a reed bed. They were quite some distance away for my camera to get anything clearer than what you see here, but the white supercilium and pale breast can be made out if you look carefully. These were my Christmas presents that I was hoping for. I mean, it has been over 6 years since I've seen one here last after all.
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| (Very distant) Water Pipit |
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| Mallard |
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| Marsh Harrier |
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| Marsh Harrier with Carrion Crow |
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| Chinese Water Deer |
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| Grey Heron |
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| Bright sunshine over the river |
With plenty of time before I needed to return to the Reception Hide and my back behaving itself, I decided to make an extra walk to the river, down to the pump house and back through the woodland trail. The sun was shining brightly as it announced the start of a new day. However, as I approached the pump house, dark grey clouds appeared and choked the sunlight. The forecast and the shepherd's warning had come true. I was caught in a shower as I tried to hurry myself through the woods. But new landmarks distracted me along the way, such as a new platform and a den building area. I had forgotten that I hadn't taken this route since May and was surprised to see these family friendly areas for the first time. I also noticed small posts with Santa beards painted on them leading me back from this new den building area to Reception Hide, passing baubles hanging on trees, wooden reindeer and simple trivia about Christmas stuff. It was clear that I had stumbled upon a Christmas trail recently set up for young families to pass the time during this latest school holiday.
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| The Pump House |
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| Chinese Water Deer |
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| The new foot-dipping platform |
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| The new den building area |
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| The Christmas Trail |
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| Not sure how this is Christmas-y, but oh well! |
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| Goldfinches and Siskins |
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| Goldfinches |
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| A Christmas welcome inside Reception Hide |
The sun and the rain clouds battled it out for dominance of the sky for the rest of the morning. For most of it, it was looking as if the rain clouds were winning though with very little to show for it. But then, just before I had to leave, sun in the end won and those grey clouds became bright blue sky once more. Throughout this weather battle, however, I was marsh harrier and duck watching for yet another week with very little of anything else of interest to mention. At least they were much closer to the hide than they were last week when the broad froze over.
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| Male Gadwall |
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| Female Gadwall |
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| Shoveler |
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| Female Teal |
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