Jan 16th Strumpshaw Fen

Twilight light over the view at Reception Hide this morning

The darkness was refusing to disperse this morning as I arrived to Strumpshaw in a lingering twilight. As I made my way to Fen Hide (which is now free from last week's flood), a chorus of cawing from the Buckenham rook and jackdaw roost as their vast numbers were just leaving, spreading out across the Yare Valley sounding like a large amount of firecrackers going off in the distance that lasted for several minutes in the dim light. It was now 7:45am and I waited for an hour inside the Fen Hide. I could barely see anything within that hour. It was still this twilight glow until nearly 9am and there wasn't much to photograph, not that my camera could pick anything up anyway in these light conditions. Gulls and geese were travelling through the dull sky with the occasional marsh harrier just barely visible over the reeds, while a couple of chasing Chinese water deer scared a snipe out of hiding, though most things were hiding in the gloom today.

A little lighter at Fen Hide, but not by much

Marsh Harrier

Candlesnuff Fungus

I was getting bored waiting for daylight to make an impact. I did excited for a moment when I heard a kingfisher's high pitch whistle, but it was short lived as, unsurprisingly, I was unable to see it. I gave up and went for a short walk to the river and back. The light was improving gradually now and though I was able to see more clearly, the reserve still seemed lacking of birdlife. I ended up on a bit of a fungi foray. I don't know what half the ones that I found were, but I did recognise turkeytail and candlesnuff.



Turkeytail

Not sure

Ash keys (seeds)

Some conservation work disturbance...

It was time to start my shift and while the darkness had finally disappeared, the dullness remained and it was now drizzling with rain which continued doing so for the rest of the day. Conservation work was going on at the back of the far right channel of the broad, but surprisingly this did not disturb the ducks that much. They were more than happy sticking to the left half of the broad and right in front of the Reception Hide. It was the same usual familiar species again, however, there was one individual that was completely out of the ordinary, but I didn't notice it until Strumpshaw warden, Ben, pointed it out to me. It was a female Bahama pintail hybrid. It looked like your typical female duck, all brown and speckled, but with a pink base to the bill, a partially white cheek patch, green speculum (wing patch), a slight pointed tail and was slightly smaller than a mallard. This bird is more than likely to be an escapee from a collection than a visitor from the Bahamas, being a hybrid kind of proves that.

But the ducks don't care

Bahama Pintail hybrid

Teal

Mallards

Shoveler

This Gadwall was stealing food from this coot!

Coot

Mute Swan

Cobber the Black Swan

Sparrowhawk

When I thought the Bahama pintail was going to be the best thing I was going to see today, I had just packed my things and was about to leave for home at the end of my shift, when a male sparrowhawk swooped over the broad and landed on the perching tree. I had enough time to rummage for my camera and get it back out from my bag to take a few quick shots before it disappeared. Probably the best thing to brighten up this dull, grey day.