My 10 Memories of the Decade

With the 2010's drawing to a close, I thought it would be a great time to look back at the past ten years. There are just so many to choose from and it was near impossible to decide just one for each year. But here is what I've decided. As I only started this blog at the end of December 2014, the only place some of these moments have been written are in my wildlife diaries. So it may be the first time you may have heard of these moments. I hope you enjoy!

2010:  I had just left college during 2010 and to celebrate, I decided to stay for a month with my Aunt Barbara, who at the time was living in Texas. I had never been to the USA before or since, so it was going to be one hell of an adventure. In October of 2010, Barbara took me on a tour around Texas. We went high, climbing Enchanted Rock (which was one of the tallest natural structure in Texas and was an extremely hot and tiring climb) and we went low, visiting the remarkable underground rock formations of the Inner Space Caverns. I encountered many great Texan wildlife from monarch butterflies to scissor- tailed flycatchers. I even spent one morning at a sewage works where I recorded 37 species of bird in a few short hours with a local group.

However, what really topped my Texan adventure was seeing over a million Mexican free-tailed bats leave their roost site, which was a busy motorway bridge. My aunt's neighbour, at the time, was a lovely lady who happened to be one of the main people who studies these bats at various roosts around the state. On my final week, she kindly took me and Barbara to this bridge not too many miles away from the state capital of Austin. With so much traffic going over and under the bridge, its incredible to imagine that anything would want to call this man-made structure home, let alone a million bats. But the signs of their existence were everywhere splatted and smeared along the road beneath it. Bat guano! There was certainly a distinctive smell lingering in the air from it. Then, as night fell, the bats left their roost in a seemingly endless stream heading out into the countryside. It was quite a sight and it was pretty hairy at times when they were dodging the traffic and an incoming freight train, but it kind of added to the magic in a strange and unforgettable way.

2011: This was the year I started volunteering at Strumpshaw Fen. Before I took on my usual Reception Hide shifts, I was here monitoring that year's marsh harrier breeding season. After one such survey session in June, I was walking back from Tower Hide, when I noticed a group of people with two standing atop of a bench, all looking at something in the water behind a cover of reeds. "What can you see?" I asked. "Otters!" came the reply. In seconds, I was up on that bench with them and I saw my very first otter accompanied with a cub! Since that day, I have had many encounters with these magical animals, but I will never forget how I saw my first. I also like to mention two other encounters, one with a stoat at Cley rolling bird eggs with its nose, and the other being a female hen harrier sitting on a pile of cut reeds right in front of Reception Hide at Strumpshaw one foggy December morning, staring right at me with its beautiful yellow eyes.

2012: During May of 2012, I travelled to the Cairngorms in Scotland with my parents. The mountains were snowy peaked still, providing some great scenery throughout our time here. Within a span of a week, we saw bottlenose dolphins in the Moray Firth, Slavonian grebes at Loch Ruthven, but no Nessie at Loch Ness. However, my moment of the year had to be seeing a couple of male capercaillies sticking their heads out of two different bushes with a group at Loch Garten and then travelling up to the top of the snow-covered Cairngorm mountain via a funicular railway, seeing ptarmigan through someone's scope, all in the span of one morning!

2013: This a tricky one. 2013 was a great year for butterflies. Before I even had a blog, I set myself a challenge to see as many species I could find in one year. I've since lost track how many I've exactly seen, but I can remember quite a few including highlights such as clouded yellow, marbled white, silver-studded blue, swallowtail, grayling, chalkhill blue, silver-washed fritillary and white-letter, purple and green hairstreak as well as many more common species.

2013 was also a great year for birds. There was a male red-footed falcon at Lakenheath in May and a wryneck at Strumpshaw in August. But it all kicked off in September when I set myself on another challenge, to see as many species within in one month. In the end, I managed to get a total of 93 species which included; osprey, curlew sandpiper, bittern, kingfisher, garganey and, best of all, a Wilson's phalarope (at Cley), which is an extremely rare American visiting wader.

2014: I had two big, memorable holidays in 2014. First, was a trip to Northumberland, which included a boat trip to the Farne Islands to see colonies of puffins and other seabirds (there was also an incident when someone slipped and broke their leg at one of the islands, in which we somehow got him aboard the boat before taking him back to the mainland). The other was a trip to southern Spain and Gibraltar with a Naturetrek group. It was September yet again and just like the previous year, I was doing another bird species count challenge, only this time, with the aid of this particular holiday, I was able to destroy 2013's record with 159 species. The holiday itself was pretty good, seeing the barbary apes at Gibraltar, large numbers of migrating vultures, eagles and other birds, flamingos, two-tailed pasha butterflies and a pod of long-finned pilot whales!

2015: This was the year my blog really kicked off and when I took you guys along for the ride as I shared my wildlife encounters with you. From badgers to fen orchids, long-eared bats to short-eared owls and bird's-nest fungi to water shrews, 2015 was quite an eventful year. I even appeared on set of Springwatch Unsprung at Minsmere as an audience member with my dad. So how do you single out a single memory from such a great year of wildlife watching? Well, with a boat trip down along the Cornish coastline seeing seals, gannets, Manx shearwaters and Risso's and common dolphins of course! We had two pods of common dolphins follow our catamaran as we sailed across the clear blue Cornish sea!

2016: On the year I turned 30, I celebrated by going on another Naturetrek holiday, this time to the Vercors (an alpine region of south-east France). I had an amazing time here. We saw so many species of butterfly and orchid (including ghost orchids and Apollo butterflies), as well as Alpine ibex, Alpine marmot and chamois. Besting them all, however, was an unforgettable night at a small fishing lake seeing beavers. We waited at this lake until dusk and a full moon rose over the mountains. Marsh frogs hopped around my feet, while nightjars and bats swooped above my head. Songs of golden orioles, nightingales and turtle doves could be heard. And then, out of nowhere, I spotted this floating shape right in front of me a few metres from the shore. It was a beaver! Me and this woman from the group had the best views of anyone that night. It was one of the best nights of my life!

2017: I had a lot of personal issues regarding money and my photo storage problem sprouting their heads in this year, it was kind of difficult to enjoy my wildlife watching outings. Thankfully, I did have some great encounters, especially with insects and spiders as I was doing a year-long invertebrate challenge, which included emperor moths, fen raft spiders, minotaur beetles and grizzled and dingy skippers. My highlight for 2017, though, has to be seeing my first ever golden and white-tailed eagles in Scotland. The latter was more memorable as I was about to go on a boat trip around the islands of the Firth of Larne (which included Mull) to see them. I had gotten the life jacket and waterproof gear I was provided on, when out of nowhere, a chorus of excited shouting was directed to me. "Eagle!" And low and behold, there was a white-tailed eagle flying like a barn door soaring in front of a nearby mountain behind the small fishing village we were in! That boat trip wasn't really needed now, but I went anyway, in which I experienced the force of a tidal whirlpool.

2018: Last year wasn't exactly a vintage year for me. I really didn't have too many outstanding memories that could match the previous years in this decade. I had great sightings such as king eider, purple heron, wryneck and lesser yellowlegs, but nothing that would live long in the memory. But, if there was one thing that I won't forget in a hurry is raising several emperor moth caterpillars into adult moths. It was a frantic summer of gathering bramble branches with fresh leaves and removing their poop and the branches that they've completely demolished of leaves as they got bigger and bigger in a short span of time. It was all worth it though, as most of them emerged as adults in the spring of 2019.

2019: It is very hard to pick a single impactful memory for 2019. If there was anything to remember this year by, it has to be orchids. My latest challenge has seen me find 19 out of the 23 species found in Norfolk. But which one is the pick of the bunch? Which was the one that will really made it hard not to forget? Well, I have three contenders. First was travelling to Suffolk to see the extremely rare military orchid on an open day. Second, was travelling north to the north Norfolk coast the next day to see the equally rare man orchid. And lastly, possibly the one I nearly missed completely if it wasn't for you guys, the extremely tiny creeping-ladies tresses! It was third time lucky when I went to see that one!

And there you have it. Ten very eventful years. Here's to the 2020's and to another new year! I hope it will be another decade of great wildlife encounters. With the effect of global warming becoming an even greater threat, who knows what the future will hold.

Dec 28th Cley & Dec 30th Wells and Holkham Hall

Dec 28th  Cley

On Saturday, before heading to Carrow Road for the game against Tottenham that evening, I had a morning out to Cley with Mum. Wasn't exactly the most exciting of visits, but after all the food guzzling fest that was Christmas, it was nice to be out for at least a couple of hours. Out on the reserve I saw several curlew, lapwings, pink-footed geese, marsh harriers, wigeon, teal, gadwall, shelducks, common gulls, black-headed gulls, herring gulls, little egrets, a redshank and a brief glimpse of a kingfisher.

Dec 30th  Wells and Holkham Hall

Rough-legged Buzzard (for real this time!)

A few weeks ago, I went with my friend David to see the rough-legged buzzard that had been hanging around this field outside Wells for quite a while. I thought I had taken a photo of it, but it had turned out to be just a common buzzard the whole time. Amazingly, it has remained in the same place since that visit. So I decided to go and try again. This time, I managed to convince my mum to take me. It was also a lot warmer than last time and there were more people looking for it, too. My chances in seeing it seemed promising. I actually arrived moments after it disappeared, but after a short wait, it was soon spotted again. It was on the other side of the field sitting on a bush covered in berries and it sat there for quite a while. In fact it stayed put for me to make my way round to a nearby car park and to a closer spot and was still there long after I had enough photos and left for the car.

Now that I have the bird's photo, I can confidently say that I've got the right buzzard this time. Rough-legged buzzards are much paler from head to breast, like someone spilt bleach onto a common buzzard's head and all the brown has faded to a pale shade of creamy-white. The differences is like night and day (at least until you add a pale morph of a common buzzard to the mix). How did my birding friends and I get it so wrong last time completely beats me. But I'm happy now that I've fixed this mistake with the photos I got today. That's one bird ticked off my list before 2020 and my bird challenge even started.

Black-necked Grebe

With success with the rough-legged buzzard, we moved on to Holkham Hall for lunch. I also had another bird I wanted to see here. A black-necked grebe had been reported a few times on the lake this month, including yesterday. Armed with my scope, binoculars and bridge camera and studied the furthest side of the lake thoroughly. Hundreds of gulls, tufted ducks, pochards, shovelers, teal, coot and moorhens, while on the far shore, a huge gaggle of greylag geese and a herd of fallow deer, plus a great white egret and a grey heron. No grebe in sight. Then people got a bit too close to the geese on the far side and everything erupted into the air (except the deer of course, they just stayed put), even the birds on the water. Thinking that the interruption had brought the grebe out from hiding, I was about to walk further along the lake, when Mum spotted it diving underwater near the right side of the lake's island. It has to be the closest view of a black-necked grebe I've ever had!

My Bird Challenge 2020

A couple of months ago, I wondered how many birds I've photographed throughout the years. I decided to print them out and stick them into a book, like a sticker album but with my own photos. The result was around 240 odd species. My camera is just a bridge camera and to get 240+ species from a bridge camera is quite impressive. However, there are still many empty spaces left. Though most of these are rare migrants, there are still enough birds on the list that I can potentially look for and photograph in the UK that might surprise some of you. So here's the list...

Scaup
Red-breasted Merganser
Black-throated Diver
Great Northern Diver
Slavonian Grebe
Little Auk
Iceland Gull
Black Tern
Arctic Skua
Pomarine Skua
Great Skua
Stone-curlew
Dotterel
Red-necked Phalarope
Woodcock (in the day)
Spotted Crake
Quail
Tawny Owl (in the day)
Long-eared Owl
Nightjar (in the day)
Rough-legged Buzzard
Hen Harrier
Montagu's Harrier
Goshawk
Merlin
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
Nightingale
Ring Ouzel
Savi's Warbler
Wood Warbler
Yellow-browed Warbler
Pied Flycatcher
Great Grey Shrike
Willow Tit
Raven
Tree pipit

As you can see, its quite a list of birds that I haven't photographed yet and I haven't even included any of the much scarcer migrants or birds that are only located to other parts of the UK many miles from Norfolk. Now some of them I have seen in the past, but eluded my camera and there are a few that I have photographed but the photos were a bit rubbish to add to my book. Also note that I'm not expecting to photograph them all in one year, this list is more of a wish list that I can try and fulfil beyond 2020. In fact, I'll be happy if I only succeed with just one or two of them by the time 2020 ends. It is quite a challenge though. Many of them are extremely difficult to find. They are either well camouflaged, really flighty and elusive, nocturnal or are often too far for my camera to really capture a decent shot of them. Seabirds are in particular going to be the worst ones for me.

So that's my challenge for 2020. Quite ambitious, I know. But as I said, I'll be happy if I only end up with ticking off a small handful of them. If you guys want to help me with some of them, let me know. A roosting tawny owl would be one of those I hope you guys can help me with. But if you hear about any of the other species on the list, write a comment below. With a job to juggle with and no licence to drive, this should be fairly interesting if I could see any of them at all.

My Norfolk Orchid Hunt Review

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a good one! Mine wasn't too bad, though I mostly got clothes, oh, and a new phone. As 2019 is now drawing to a close, I thought it would be great looking back at one of my challenge to find as many of the 23 species of orchid found in Norfolk. Here is how my orchid year went, through the series of videos I made along the way...

 

In the end, I managed to see 19 orchids in Norfolk and a bonus one from Suffolk in the form of the Military Orchid. I only failed to find four species out of the 23. Two of those were most likely locally extinct anyway, the bog and lizard orchids, however, the other two completely eluded me. One was the green-flowered helleborine, which despite visiting this one secret place a few times and searching thoroughly, I was unable to locate it.

 

The other was the autumn ladies-tresses, which I went to this small hamlet that was actually on the Lincolnshire/Cambridgeshire border than in Norfolk, but when I got there, the verges I was told they were in were mowed down on that day I visited. It was a long journey for nothing. It wasn't until a couple of months after the orchid season that I learned that autumn ladies tresses were found in the same area as where I saw the creeping ladies-tresses, just they flower a month later! If I get the chance next year, I might see if I can tick these two elusive species off, if anyone hear of anything, keep me posted. For now, I may have another challenge in the works in preparation for 2020, just and see. 

Dec 18th Strumpshaw Fen

Starlings leaving their roost

There was no real problem getting to Strumpshaw today. In fact, I managed to get there before the couple of thousand of roosting starlings decided to leave the reedbed in front of the Reception Hide. I had just managed to unpack my camera in time when they all took to the air at once. The mass exodus lasted mere seconds. A single whoosh over the hide and they where gone!

Fog

Moving on, and dodging Percy the persistently hungry pheasant's ambush in the woods (that's what I'm calling him now), I made my way to Fen Hide. Fog had shrouded over the reserve. Walking down Sandy Wall, you could hardly see parts of the adjacent meadow trail, but I did see something that caught my eye. With this thick cover of fog, the meadow trail was now perfect hunting conditions for barn owls. One had me transfixed for several minutes as it swooped silently low over the grazing fields, hovering at times and then plunging into the fog and grass. In this foggy scene, the owl was like a ghost. It was easy to lose sight of it. And just like a real ghost, with the aid of the gloomy light, my camera was struggling to capture it, always resulting as a fuzzy blur. I caught sight of the owl three times before I had lost it completely.

From Fen Hide, it was a bit of a waste of time as the fog became thicker and thicker until I was unable to see anything at all. With visibility so poor, I gave up and made my way back to do the feeders. From Reception Hide, sunshine was burning the fog away at a very rapid rate and I was able to see everything once again. That thick cover was completely gone by half ten this morning, but despite being able to see things properly now, didn't really mean too much. Today's shift in the hide was a bit uneventful. There were marsh harriers, buzzards, cormorants, 2 mute swans, a couple of coots, mallards, gadwall and teal, and not a lot else. My final shift of the decade came to an end with not a lot to get too excited about.

5 Years On!

Five years ago, I was reading an article in the BBC Wildlife Magazine that was promoting a blogging community project. Basically, they were asking anyone who had a nature blog to share it with them on their website. The blogs ranged from wildlife photographers, nature writers and amateur naturalists who were a bit of both. It was at that moment that I wanted to join and start up my own blog. This one! Five years on, I am still at it. Today happens to be the 5th anniversary of this blog and there has been plenty of ups and downs since I wrote my first post that was about robins. Here's pretty much how my rollercoaster of a blogging journey unfold year by year.

In my first year, it was all new and intriguing. I would write up my wildlife experiences and add a few photos in the format of my wildlife diaries  (which you can read about here https://seanspetmonster.blogspot.com/2015/02/my-wildlife-diary-story.html). A few photos soon became lots of photos per blog post as the year went on, further documenting my adventures. During 2015, these adventures included; an encounter with dolphins on a boat trip in Cornwall, seeing my first badgers, a water shrew, a white-winged black tern and a hoopoe, watching a starling murmuration in Norwich, and best of all, being in the audience of Springwatch Unsprung. Alongside my adventures, I also created my How To Draw series, where I did a step by step guide on how to draw various things.

2016 was a big year for me. It was my 30th birthday, my brother got married, my niece was born and Strumpshaw Fen celebrated its 40th anniversary under the RSPB. For the latter, a challenge was set up in which you had to find 40 species at the reserve throughout the year. I managed to spot and photograph all 40, except the weasel, which eluded me for a photo until the following year. To celebrate my birthday that year, I went on a wildlife holiday to France with Naturetrek, seeing many species of orchid, butterfly (including an Apollo butterfly), Alpine marmots, chamois, a marsh warbler and had an unforgettable night encountering a beaver. Back in the UK, I had more memorable encounters with an ermine, a glaucous gull, twite, hornet clearwing moths, a long-staying glossy ibis at Strumpshaw and I witnessed a greylag goose laying an egg!

With success with Strumpshaw's challenge, I decided to do my own challenge in 2017, which involved looking for a variety of interesting invertebrates, including fen raft spiders, emperor moths and grizzled skippers. I also came across a golden pheasant, a black-necked grebe, a red-flanked bluetail, black-winged stilts, a mole and a water vole. In August, I had a great week in Scotland, where I saw my first golden and white-tailed eagles and watched the Highland games at a small village near Loch Ness. However, 2017 wasn't all that great for me as my finances took a dive after the government took my PIP money away from me, leaving me needing a job and on top of that, my camera broke and I had to replace it with a new one.

My problems got worse in 2018 as I ended up deleting many of my photos off my blog by accident after I had ran out of storage space on Google Photos. I spent most of the year bringing them back after buying more storage space. But 2018 wasn't all bad. I saw a purple heron, a Coues's arctic redpoll, a flock of parrot crossbills, a lesser yellowlegs, a king eider, waxwings, a wryneck and spent a few days in London, which included a visit to Kew Gardens and the London Wetland Centre. For me though, 2018 will always be remembered for raising emperor moth caterpillars, which were given to me as a late birthday gift as eggs. It was a lot of fun, but they were quite demanding. It was all worth it though, as the following spring, many of them emerged as adults.

This year, I ran out of storage yet again with Google Photos and it made me rethink of a new strategy of what I do with my blog. Firstly, I deleted one album on Google Photos to free up some space, which is why many of my posts are missing photos (I haven't gotten round to replacing them yet). I now only show a few photos, at least up to three or four per post. But then I ran out of space a third time. I have sorted out the problem for now, but if this happens again, I'm not sure what I'll do. Another problem is that with both parents working and with no licence or car, birdwatching trips are getting few and far between outside of my Strumpshaw shifts. All this has left me quite depressed lately, though I now have a job to occupy me, despite the shifts being unpredictable and at random times. If there had been one positive thing to remember 2019 by, it has to be my Norfolk orchid hunt challenge, in which I found 19 out of 23, plus the military orchid in Suffolk.

So that has been the last five years of my blog. Can I make it another five years? Only time will tell. I hope you have enjoyed my blog even with all the problems I've had. BBC Wildlife Magazine has now since disbanded its blogger project (at least as far as I know). At the end of its first year, the magazine handed out awards for blogger of the year, and though I didn't initially win anything, they did highly recommended my blog among a few others. During the time of their project, I was seeing my viewing figures rise to fairly impressive figures, though each post I did rarely went over the hundred mark (with exceptions with my How To Draw series, which is still being regularly viewed to this day). Now that they disbanded the project, my viewing figures have nosedived to low figures per post, though I've seen a slow, but steady increase in recent weeks. So, if you enjoy my blog, spread the word. It really helps me out, not financially, but mentally. It gives me a reason to continue with what I'm doing. Thank you all for your support. Here's to another five years!

Dec 11th & 13th Strumpshaw Fen

Dec 11th

It had been a frustrating morning this week. Travelling to and from Strumpshaw was a nightmare, especially with the trains. First, I accidentally got on the wrong train (don't ask), leaving me to call Mum for a lift pretty early in the morning and getting to Strumpshaw just before 8am (sorry Mum!). Then, on the way home, these so called relatively new and state of the art modern trains left me waiting at Brundall station longer than expected as they had broken down and were cancelled. Bad news for me, as I had a shift at work to get ready for.

Marsh Harrier

When I did get to Strumpshaw, it wasn't the most exciting Wednesdays that I've had here. Fen Hide had at least 5+ marsh harriers hanging around in the bushes (including one with orange tags with the letters CC on them), Chinese water deer, a large influx of distant greylag geese, stonechats and pied wagtails. Meanwhile, at Reception Hide, it was pretty much just marsh harriers, a quick flyby of a sparrowhawk, a cormorant, 2 mute swans and the usual mallards and gadwalls. As there weren't too much to see, I spent most of my time talking about exotic, colourful birds from Costa Rica with my colleague Tricia, who had just returned from a two week birding holiday there. Hearing all the many exciting birds that she saw out there, while seeing very little in contrast outside the hide, it was enough to make you jealous.

Dec 13th

My Aunt Barbara has been asking me to show her a harrier roost for over a month now. I attempted to show her the roost at Strumpshaw last month, but it was a bit of a disaster as the Fen Hide was full and we were forced to walk to the Tower Hide through the mud and darkness, seeing very little harrier action. So tonight, I decided that we try again. Thankfully, the Fen Hide was empty this time around and we had a lot more daylight than previously to view the roost from beginning to end.

We got to the hide at 2:50pm. Chinese water deer were grazing out in the open and 2 mute swans were preparing for their bedtime. The marsh harriers were already beginning to gather with at least five soaring around in front of us. But as time ticked by and the light began to dwindle, we spot another and then another, until we had at least 15-20 harriers circling above the reed beds. They were joined by mobbing crows and a large invasion of jackdaws and rooks passing through as they pass by over the hide in a raucous of cawing as they head towards Buckenham. Hundreds of greylag geese then arrived in the horizon, making their way to the Tower Hide, making an equal amount of noise as the corvids did.

In the last rays of light, we continued to watch the sky now alive with harriers and crows. Tried as I might, I wasn't able to count beyond 20 harriers. There had been 50 of them recorded earlier this week. It was an impressive display. However, this display was suddenly outshined by another. Starlings were now starting to show up. A small flock of them at first, but it was rapidly growing in size and number. A few became a few thousand in a matter of minutes. The scene in front of us became a stage for the starlings to perform their swirling mass into various aerial patterns with a roaring sound accompanying it, a sound created by their wings flapping in unison. They remained circling the reserve until the visibility became so poor that we had to call it a night. We had came here for the harriers, but it were the starlings that really stole the show!

Dec 5th Wells & Titchwell

For any Norfolk bird watcher out there, you'd be completely surprised to know that I have never seen a rough-legged buzzard before. This is a winter visitor from Scandinavia and Norfolk happens to be a sort of hotspot. These buzzards are slightly bigger than your usual buzzard, has a slight paler appearance with some distinctive markings and has the ability of hovering like a kestrel. Despite all these features, many people still can't tell the difference. Common buzzards can come in paler forms too after all.

 So after hearing that a rough-legged buzzard had been seen pretty well and regularly at a site near Wells for the past few weeks, I have been dying to go see it. As I can't drive and with everyone I know being busy lately, it has been difficult for me to get to the bird. Day after day passes and every time I'm relieved to hear that the buzzard remained at the same place. Thankfully, today I was able to finally go look for it thanks to my friend David offering to take me there. He had already seen the bird before, so he knew exactly where to go.

We arrived at some ploughed fields with some pools in them just west of Wells. Not long after our arrival and started scanning the fields, two other birders turned up and joined us. I managed to catch a glimpse of the rough-legged buzzard soaring in the horizon before vanishing behind an embankment. We continued to wait around by a gate in the freezing cold, hoping that it would turn up again. There were plenty of other things to look at while we waited. These fields were teeming with birds. Lapwings, golden plover, wigeon, pink-footed geese, linnets, meadow pipits, a redshank, 5 whooper swans, marsh harriers, common buzzards, a red kite, kestrels. It was quite an impressive list for just a couple of fields.

Rough-legged Buzzard? Nope, just a Common Buzzard, sadly 

Eventually, our wait and perseverance in the chilly conditions paid off. My target bird appeared once again, soaring towards the main road, showing off a brief hover along the way. We walked a little down the road and found it sitting in a tree in a smaller field. We had the best, closest views that we could imagine. It may seem like a pale form of buzzard, but it was a truly wonderful looking bird. Here it was, my first ever rough-legged buzzard, at long last! At least I hope it is!


{Edit: Sadly, it turned out to be just a common buzzard. So, I still haven't yet photographed a rough-legged buzzard, but I did see it at least.}

After admiring it for several minutes, the bird moved on and so did we. Our next destination was Titchwell. I was hoping to see a woodcock by the car park, but if they were there, they were extremely difficult to spot. I really hope I can find one during daylight hours one day. In the mean time, we enjoyed our time at Titchwell adding grey plovers, knot, black and bar-tailed godwits, dunlin, shelducks, curlew, little egrets, brent geese, another red kite (our third from four that we end up seeing today), red-necked and great crested grebes and a possible puffin out at sea, and a peregrine falcon that whoosed over the top of my head as it chased waders like a military jet! What a fantastic, yet freezing day it has been!

Dec 4th Strumpshaw Fen

A very frosty start to this morning. Its been pretty chilly, so much so that the broad outside the Reception Hide was frozen over! I was glad that I was wearing an extra layer today.

Bewick's Swans

Leaving the hungry pheasant behind, I was making my way to Fen Hide when I heard some light honking above me. I looked up and there were two Bewick's swans flying towards the direction of Buckenham. They were fairly quiet when you compare them to other swan species, just a few faint honks. I managed to get just one decent photo of them before they disappeared behind a cover of tree branches. From this photo, I could see the fine details that distinguished them for what they are. A smaller body, a shorter neck and a beak that was more black than yellow.

Stoat

Fen Hide was pretty quiet, with only a couple of Chinese water deer, a heron and a buzzard to be seen while trying to resist the cold for as long as I could. I left the hide and decided to walk down to the river to see how many fieldfares that were feeding on the apples there I could find. However, I had only turned the corner to rejoin the Sandy Wall, when something darted across the path in front of me and into the undergrowth to one side. It was a stoat! And it was a surprisingly kind stoat as it gave me plenty of views and even posed a couple of times for the camera. If only the light down along the path was better as my camera was finding it hard to focus properly. At one point, it even carried something like a dead vole in its mouth. How I would have love a better photo of the moment than what I ended up getting!

Finally, after a few minutes being distracted by the stoat, I managed to reach the apple trees by the river. I sat on a frost covered bench for a short while and it wasn't long until the apples on the ground were attracting flocks of fieldfares and blackbirds. Lots of them. They squabbled over them, the fieldfares being the bossiest in this pecking order. Their rattly calls echoed in the cold air. A very welcoming wintery sight.

Female Goldeneye

Back at Reception Hide, the broad was starting to thaw and a pool was forming at the far end. There were ducks making the most of this freed up bit of water and amongst them was a female goldeneye. This is the first time I've seen a goldeneye at Strumpshaw. It was the only duck in the group that was diving completely beneath the surface in this icy cold water. However most of the time, they were hiding behind the reedy islands. Luckily, there were marsh harriers busy harassing them and scaring them back into view. I guess the marsh harriers were becoming desperate and fancied their chances on having duck on the menu. In the end, their attempts came to nothing as they were continuously returning into the air without anything to show for their efforts.

Nov 27th Strumpshaw Fen

The Wet Wednesdays are back! It has actually been a few weeks since it rained on a Wednesday. It has rained on every other day, but not a Wednesday, but not this week. I had to get a lift in to Strumpshaw this morning as the weather was that bad. I only had time to do the feeders before my shift began and thankfully, the ever hungry pheasant was waiting for me yet again.

Otter

For the most part, I was mainly watching the many mallards and the handful of gadwall float around the broad with the rain lashing down, while marsh harriers and buzzards attempt to continue their predatory role, though were mostly left to perch somewhere, hoping the rain to stop sometime soon. It was a rather dark and miserable scene. But then, the ducks began to rush away from the left side of the broad and an otter appeared! Suddenly, the scene in front of me came to life! The otter was busy hunting for at least 15-20 minutes and at the same time, a male sparrowhawk also arrived, perching on one of the dead trees to my left. The hide, which was virtually empty of visitors before the otter turned up, was now packed, as if the otter had summoned them. Eventually, the sparrowhawk and the otter disappeared and the hide emptied along with them. I was left with the ducks and rain once more.

Sparrowhawk

Nov 20th Strumpshaw Fen

Its getting colder. The sky is dark, dull and grey. There's a taste and smell of car exhaust pollution trapped in the early morning air as I made my way to Strumpshaw today, but once I arrived, the air was a little cleaner. I was greeted by the hungry male pheasant again, which followed me from the pond dipping pond to the Gnarly Oak as he recognizes me as the person who will later serve him food. Eventually, he realises that I had no food on me and gave up, leaving me to walk to the Fen Hide alone, spooking a muntjac deer in the process.

Chinese Water Deer

Fen Hide was a bit too quiet for my liking, with just a couple of Chinese water deer and a heron to be seen. I moved on to the river and sat on a bench adjacent to some apple trees where a flock of around 10-20 fieldfares feeding on the apples while remaining hidden from view. Their rattling chuckled calls were like they were mocking me as I was unable to photograph them. With my shift looming, I admitted defeat and left the bench. However, when I turned to walk back down the Sandy Wall, I noticed that there was something standing in the way. It was a Chinese water deer and it was staring right at me. Several meters of the path separated between us. Neither of us looked as if we were going to budge. For about a minute or two, we were stuck in an epic staring contest. Eventually, the deer gave in and retreated, not in a dash, but in a casual manner into the reeds.

Bahama Pintail Hybrid

When I returned to do the feeders and the hungry pheasant that followed me earlier was pleased. He ran towards me before I entered the gate leading into the courtyard to fetch the bird food. I came back to find him still waiting at the gate like some dog eagerly awaiting its owner. He got stuck into the birdseed while it was still in the pouring containers as I turned my back to unhook the feeders to fill them up. He must have been really hungry! My shift, in comparison, was a bit uneventful with mainly just mallards, a few gadwall, teal, coot, marsh harriers and a Bahama pintail hybrid to look at. At least it brightened up to become a nice day after that gloomy start.

Nov 16th Cley

I'm back at Cley today as I've heard that there has been an Isabelline wheatear that has been hanging around for most of this week. This is a scarce wheatear from Eastern Europe and it sure was attracting a crowd. From the visitor centre, you could see where the bird was from the amount of people watching it. You could see a crowd of them by a gate at the far end of the dunes east of the East Bank and many more people making their way there to replace others returning back that were clearly satisfied in seeing it. Shortly, I was going to join this on-foot traffic.



Snow Bunting

I made my way to the East Bank, trying to get to the bird as soon as possible. When I reached the beach at the end of the main path, I was momentarily stopped in my tracks as a flock of snow buntings flew from the mound of shingle to my right to right in front of me. Their mix of white and brown plumage blends so well with the shingle stones and pebbles that it would have made it tricky to spot them if it wasn't for their movements betraying them.

Following the trickle of twitchers making their way eastwards along the same shingle mound to join the main crowd, I was just a few yards from them and I could see the end of my walk to the bird in sight. But then, another distraction. An even larger flock of maybe 50 snow buntings flew over my head and landed right behind the crowd. None of them seem to have noticed or even given them as much as a glance their way before the flock took off again and out of sight.

Isabelline Wheatear

Finally, I had reached the crowd by the gate and was soon pointed into the direction of the bird I came to see. The Isabelline wheatear was standing still looking a bit sleepy amongst some grass before it decided to hop around a bit. This was a really charming little bird, as you expect from a relative of the robin. It looks no different to a normal female northern wheatear (the species you are more than likely to see in the UK) to me, though. I guess the real difference would be that the Isabelline wheatear is more paler than the latter.

Happy and satisfied with the amount of photos I took of it, I decided to make the return journey to meet up with Mum. On the way, snow buntings distracted me yet again and, as I reached the East Bank, I learned that the female long-tailed duck from two weeks ago was still diving around the same pool a few yards west of the bank. As I was watching the duck, Mum arrived and we continued the walk back together. However, there was an obstacle in our way. Another crowd had formed overlooking a dyke and we had to get pass them. On our approach, members of the crowd stopped us and instantly got us to join them with just one word. "Otter!" Mum and I only manged one quick glimpse of it swimming across the dyke, but it was more than enough to cap a great visit at Cley today.

Nov 13th Strumpshaw Fen

It is cold, but still a nice day. It was also a bit of a quiet day as there weren't an awful lot to see at Strumpshaw today. There were only a Chinese water deer, a heron, a couple of marsh harriers and the briefest view of a bearded tit from Fen Hide this morning. So I moved on towards the river and decided to sit on a bench and waited to see what turned up to feast on the apples on the ground and on the trees. After a few minutes, I had a few fieldfares, a reed bunting and some bullfinches make an appearance, but not really settling for long. From Reception Hide, there were almost 80 greylags, more marsh harriers, cormorants, mute swans, mallards, gadwall, teal, a couple of shovelers and the odd bearded tit.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Meanwhile, outside at the feeder area, the persistent pheasant was back pleased to see me arrive with the bird seed in hand as it ran up towards me. I placed plenty of seed not only in the feeders, but also in the cracks and holes of the stumps nearby. The birds seem to prefer the easier access and it attracted more than just the usual blue, great and marsh tits as the local jays and squirrels were having a field day. The peanuts I left in the stump were pretty much cleared out two hours later. All this food even attracted the attention of a great spotted woodpecker that came in and crept around the side of a tree but never actually came down while I was watching.

Nov 9th Titchwell

Little Bittern watching

It has been some time since I was last at Titchwell, hasn't it? With the reserve being a bit of a migrant magnet of late, I've been meaning to pay a visit and see what I could find. When Mum and I arrived to Titchwell this morning, we were greeted with big news that a little bittern had been sighted by Patsy's Reedbed along the East Trail earlier. So, I guess you can figure out where we went first? Unfortunately, when we got to the blind that overlooked the pool and the reed bed the little bittern was hiding in was, as expected, packed with twitchers. So many in fact, that we couldn't see past them and the narrow windows of this wooden blind. Not that the bird was there in the first place. No one had seen it since just after 9am, an hour before we showed up.

Giving up on the little bittern, we made the short walk to the end of the East Trail, seeing a flock of passing curlews, 3 flying snipe, marsh harriers, skeins of pink-footed geese, gadwall, shelducks and shovelers. Backtracking back towards the main path, we continued on to the Island Hide. Here, we looked out over the freshwater pool and saw that the centre was carpeted in a flock of hundreds of golden plovers. There were also ruffs, avocets, dunlin, brent geese, lapwings, teal and many gulls.

Sanderling

Mum decided that she didn't want to walk any further beyond the Parrinder hides, so I ended up going to the beach on my own. I wanted to try and photograph seabirds, though, with my camera, it was a bit of a stretch. With my track record, photographing distant birds flying over or on the everchanging sea is pretty difficult. I have recently decided to make a personal book involving the collection of my many photos throughout the years where I can log all the species I've ever photographed in the UK (and Europe). Think sticker album, but with my own photos. I want to fill in as many of the blank spaces with at least one passable photo of each species. Seabirds is one section in my book that will prove to be the worst to fill. Annoyingly, there weren't a lot about to spot today, just a few red-breasted mergansers that I quickly lost. At least there were many waders by the shore, such as sanderlings, oystercatchers, turnstones, godwits and curlews, but I have plenty of photos to choose from already of those.

Bank Vole

After lunch, I made a return to the East Trail to have another go at the little bittern. The crowds have thinned since this morning and I managed to get a seat by the wooden blind. I sat with the remainder of the twitchers, that hadn't quite given up yet, until the cold air started to get to me. The bird still hadn't appeared since I was last here and it never decided to show itself while I was sitting patiently either. I had to admit defeat. However, there was one highlight as I was making my return to the car for home. As I turned the corner from Fen Hide, I came across a woman pointing a small camera over the railing of the boardwalk. I peered down to where she was looking, and there, sitting atop of a bramble branch munching at something, was a bank vole! It was so small, yet so cute. The best way to end a slightly disappointing day of migrant watching at Titchwell. No rarity today, but the vole certainly cheered me up.

Nov 6th Strumpshaw Fen

I had some transport issues this morning with my train ending up being cancelled and replaced by a bus. It delayed my journey to Strumpshaw by almost an hour and made me feel rather peeved off. When I finally arrived to the reserve, my frown was soon turned upside down. As I am the one who usually fills the feeders up on a Wednesday, there's a male pheasant that seems to recognise me as the source of food and he's been starting to run up to me when I bring containers of seed and peanuts for the feeders. Today, as I prepared for my pre-shift walk, he followed me all the way down to the fingerpost at the end of the woodland trail. He clearly was anticipating his breakfast from me, but I don't fill the feeders up until after my walk, so I had no food for him. His persistent following, though, did make me chuckle loudly to myself.

Green Woodpecker

Once I had managed to escape from the hungry pheasant, I was then found myself followed by another bird. A yaffling chuckle announced the presence of a green woodpecker and I soon saw it perch onto the side of one of the tall dead trees along the Sandy Wall. I took a few photos and continued my way to Fen Hide, only to hear it directly behind or beside me somewhere hidden within foliage every few metres. When I arrived inside the hide, the calling ceased and I was unable to see it again. During my time in the Fen Hide, a kingfisher made a couple of visits, posing on most of the perches at its disposal. I also saw a stonechat, pink-footed geese, 2 snipe and heard bearded tits.

Kingfisher

Upright Coral Fungus

I returned to do the feeders. To my disappointment, there was no pheasant in sight to sneak a few beak-fuls of sunflower seed while I'm not looking. Clearly, he was not that hungry after all. After completing my chore with the feeders, I went on a mini fungi foray with two members of Strumpshaw's staff who wanted to show me a couple of interesting fungi. First was a group of death caps, which is one of the few toadstools that can kill you if you were to eat it, causing violent vomiting and liver and kidney failure, leading to a slow and painful death. Best avoid. Then I was shown a rather beautiful coral fungus (I've been informed that it is an Upright coral fungus) hidden beneath a dense bush surrounded with sulphur tuft. I've never seen one at Strumpshaw before.

Death Cap

My shift at Reception Hide wasn't quite as memorable, though I did see a stoat dash pass the front of the hide and had plenty of marsh harrier and buzzard action. Both these raptors are in great numbers over the reserve at the moment, and I'd imagine the raptor roosts here will be quite a spectacle as the sun goes down. There was also a kestrel that feasted on a rodent or something atop of one of the dead trees as well as seeing the usual ducks (though it was mostly mallards), mute swans and a gaggle of greylags.

Nov 3rd Cley

I've been missing out on this years migration action with many rare birds visiting the UK. I just haven't been able to travel as far as I have been these days. So today, Mum and I made our way to Cley to see if anything interesting was about. It was a bit of a drizzly day, but not enough to get wet in. We paid a visit to the central hides, though it was mostly teals, godwits and lapwings at Pat's Pool and gulls at Simmond's Scrape with the odd dunlin and spotted redshank.



Yellow-legged Gull

For me, the gulls were the most interesting birds out on the pools today. There were a great mixture of species amongst them. There were great black-backed, lesser black-backed, herring, common, black-headed and even a yellow-legged gull. Gulls are not exactly an easy group to identify or the most appreciated, but seeing all these species in one place together is pretty impressive in my eye. The yellow-legged in particular was an exciting find as it is likely visiting from somewhere in the Mediterranean of all places.






As I felt like I've been missing out with my birdwatching lately, I decided to leave Mum to head back to the visitor centre and go for the long walk around the reserve. I made my way to the beach car park via the path on the embankment on the west side of the reserve. A large gaggle of possible a hundred or so brent geese greeted me as they grazed by the fence bordering the car park and I could see a few distant barnacle geese in the next field up.



Guillemot

As I made my way to meet up with Mum at the top of the East Bank, I met a lot of sea watchers with their scopes. Autumn is a great time of year to for those who love to scan the sea for birds passing by and you never know what will turn up. Sea watching isn't my strongest point as a birder, but if it is big enough to spot or sitting on the water close to the shore, it makes the experience much easier. In a short session, I was able to spot a few gannets, a red-throated diver, a guillemot fishing not too far from the shoreline and a cormorant that caught an eel.

Female Long-tailed Duck

Further along the beach, I met another large group of people, this time looking in the opposite direction. A flock of about 40 snow buntings were a little bit hard to spot amongst the shingle just over the reserve's fence, but that wasn't what everyone in the group was looking at. What caught their eye was a female long-tailed duck ducking and diving in a pool on the far eastern corner of the main reserve before you reach the East Bank. Its probably only the second time I've seen one that's not bobbing about on the sea. Possibly the main highlight at Cley for me today.

Oct 27th Holkham Hall & Oct 30th Strumpshaw Fen

Oct 27th Holkham Hall

On Sunday, I went on a family outing to Holkham Hall with my parents, my sister-in-law and my 3 year old niece, Ava. We wanted to show her the deer rut. Thankfully, they were rutting this time but it was more noise than actual fighting. I took Ava's hand and we slowly crept closer to them, using the trees as cover. I taught her to be quiet as we approached them, only communicating in whispers. After a couple of minutes, she had had enough and wanted to get back to her mum, so I was left surrounded by fallow deer alone. During her short interaction with the deer, she seemed pretty fixated on them in short bursts. At least she seemed like she was interested. I reckon we'll make a naturalist out of her yet!

Oct 30th  Strumpshaw Fen

Kingfisher

The clocks have now changed back an hour and the Reception Hide's opening time has also changed from 9:30am to 10am. This meant I had plenty more free time to birdwatch before my shift at the hide began. Not that there was much about, however, as the reserve felt rather quiet this morning. I saw glimpses of pink-footed geese and a great spotted woodpecker, and at Fen Hide, bearded tits, a kingfisher, a Chinese water deer and many pheasants. While at Reception Hide, I sat and watched mallards and a pair of gadwall go about their day lazily sleeping or feeding while marsh harriers and buzzards soar above them with a little grebe making a late appearance during my final hour. It was not the most exciting of days, but at least we had plenty of people visiting (but no where near as busy as last week) and we made quite a sale with the RSPB pin badges. People really go crazy sometimes over these things as they attempt to collect them all. This morning, we managed to sell a total sum of around £45 worth of pin badges!

Blue Tit

Jay

Oct 23rd Strumpshaw Fen

Foggy scenes at Strumpshaw

Thick fog blanketed over Strumpshaw this morning. With the days being a lot shorter now, the sun was still rising when I arrived at the reserve. There was a spooky sense of feeling about the place, a feeling quite relevant with Halloween just a week away. There were even spider webs bejewelled in dew decorating everything. It wasn't to last, though, as from inside Fen Hide I was watching 4-6 Chinese water deer chase one another in the dense grey before the sun began to make an impact and forced the fog to disperse. From its demise, I was able to see more things including stonechats and water pipits. There was even a surprising appearance of two green sandpipers making a short circling flight around the front of the hide.

Chinese Water Deer 

After a peaceful start to the morning at Fen Hide, I returned to Reception Hide to utter chaos. It is half term and schools are closed, that is except for one. You see, Strumpshaw has turned into a makeshift school for wizards as there were activities for children to do such as wand making set throughout the woodland trail. What ensued was a hide full of excited children dressed in various costumes and the reserve became a busy, noisy place. The car park and overflow car park were quickly full. There was even a bit of drama when someone managed to get their car stuck in the mud and our wardens formed a rescue team to get it out!

Bearded Tit

On the bird front, it was fairly quiet at Reception Hide. However, there was one highlight when a couple of bearded tits showed themselves on the reeds to my left close to the hide. I also saw a sparrowhawk, marsh harriers and buzzards as well as the usual duck species.

Oct 16th Strumpshaw Fen

Pink-footed Geese

Autumn has fully taken hold now. The trees have changed their colour and their leaves and seeds are dropping to the ground, fungi are sprouting their fruiting bodies all over the place and the winter visiting birds are arriving in great numbers. Redwings, in particular, are pouring into the UK in their thousands. I could hear their high-pitched, single-noted 'tseeep' calls throughout the morning, even while it was still dark as I waited for my bus into Norwich to get to the station for my train. When I arrived to Strumpshaw, these calls were joined by the 'pink-wink-wink' of pink-footed geese that were flying over the reserve skein after skein. There was a moment when these calls became a loud cacophony like an eruption of noise as hundreds of these geese flew over at once from the direction of Cantley.

Buzzard

It seemed like it was going to be a nice day as I was making my way from Brundall station. However, there was a hint of pink in the early morning sky. Shepard's warning. And so, it was another Wet Wednesday to add to the list. The rain was drizzly but swept over the reserve like a blanket and made everything seem dull and gloomy. I was definitely not going to have the same luck as last week today, that's for sure. Though, saying that, I still managed to see a very brief otter popping out of the broad outside Reception Hide like some porpoise before losing track of it completely as it submerged itself again. I also saw a snipe, stonechat and 5-6 Chinese water deer from Fen Hide as well as marsh harriers, buzzards, wigeon, greylags and other common wildfowl. It was no where near as exciting as it was as that crazy Wednesday last week.

Oct 4th Holkham Hall & Oct 9th Strumpshaw Fen & Buckenham Marshes

Oct 4th  Holkham Hall

Fallow Deer

My parents took me out to Holkham Hall on Friday to see the red and fallow deer rut. Sadly, it felt like a wasted visit because the fallow weren't doing much in terms of adrenaline fuelled action and the reds were nowhere to be found.

It may have been an unrememberable trip, but the day turned out to be memorable in a different way. It was my first shift at my new job. Later that afternoon, my phone rang and I accepted the shift for 4 hours that evening. It was as expected; tiring, repetitive and physically draining. You don't need a gym if you have this job of mine, that's for sure.

Oct 9th  Strumpshaw Fen and Buckenham Marshes

Great White Egret

No rain on a Wednesday? Amazing! It was actually a nice day and I was lucky with not just the weather, but with the wildlife too. Name it and I've probably seen it today. From Fen Hide, I saw bearded tits, marsh harriers, two great white egrets, a little grebe, a sparrowhawk and a brief glimpse of a bittern. Then, at Reception Hide, an otter with two cubs, a kingfisher, another great white egret, more sparrowhawks and bearded tits, a peregrine falcon, a water rail and, right at the very end of my shift, a very distant osprey! You just could not make it up! It was clearly the best morning I've had at Strumpshaw by far this year.

Cattle Egret

After my shift, I went to Buckenham Marshes with my Reception Hide colleague, Tricia, to check out the cattle egret that was reported to us by one of our regulars. We've never seen one here in the Yare Valley before and of course we were more than willing see it. Finding the egret proved pretty easy. This small white heron was sitting beside a flooded pool partially hidden in some slightly tall grass not too far away from the only hide at this reserve. It didn't really move very much, just sitting there preening itself. It provided us all the time in the world to admire it and get a few photos. As well as the egret, we also saw a snipe, 2 Chinese water deer with fawns, a kestrel and hundreds of pink-footed geese.