Happy new year everyone! I would have loved to start the year without being ill, though. A nasty fever came over me during the weekend with Sunday being the worst of it. I'm a lot better than I was, but now an annoying cough has taken over from the fever. I'd take that over the fever any day. So, where better to start the new year than at Strumpshaw in the rain! It was raining on and off all day.
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| Chinese Water Deer |
A chorus of calling bullfinches welcomed me to Strumpshaw as I made my way to Fen Hide before the next shower occurred. From the Fen Hide, I saw 4 Chinese water deer were grazing in close proximity of each other, a line of pink-footed geese streamed passed the hide up in the rainclouds, a few mute swans (which were pursued by Cobber the black swan) and some marsh harriers doing their usual patrols. On the way back, siskins distracted me with their distinctive wheezy twittering calls from some alder trees.
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| Mute Swan |
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| Cobber the Black Swan |
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| Pink-footed Geese |
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| Siskin |
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| Reception Hide today |
Christmas is over and the decorations were coming down inside the Reception Hide. A steady stream of visitors were arriving in, despite the showers. The ducks didn't mind the rain either. Mallards and gadwalls were in reasonable numbers out on the broad with a small number of shoveler and teal sprinkled amongst them. Meanwhile, marsh harriers and buzzards dominated the sky above and I even noticed that one of the harriers had orange wing tags (The Hawk and Owl Trust ran out of code combinations with their green tags, so are now starting again with orange tags).
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| Coot |
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| Gadwall |
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| Teal |
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| Shoveler |
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| Marsh Harrier |
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| Black-bellied Dipper |
When my first shift of 2019 was over, my colleague, Tricia, told me that she was thinking of going to see the black-bellied dipper afterwards, which had been reported near North Walsham for the last few days. I decided to tag along. We made our way to the dipper's last known location at Ebridge. We stood in the rain for a short while staring at a dipper-less stream. The other birders were leaving us one by one until it was just the two of us. It wasn't until a passing dog walker telling us about seeing loads of twitchers on the bridge at Briggate that we learnt why this bird wasn't here. It was at Briggate! We were at the wrong part of the stream!
A short car ride later and we were in luck and in the right place. Tricia had never seen a dipper until now and had visited dipper hotspots only to return empty handed. So she was quite pleased that her first dipper was here in Norfolk. Me, on the other hand, I have seen dippers a few times now. This is now my second dipper that I've seen in Norfolk, both of which happen to be the scarce visiting black-bellied subspecies. This individual was demonstrating everything that a dipper does best from plunging itself underwater to hunt for worms and other aquatic juicy morsels that it could find to bobbing uncontrollably (though this one didn't do it quite so frequently for some reason). 2019 is only 2 days old, but I've already got my first scarcity. Not bad!
A short car ride later and we were in luck and in the right place. Tricia had never seen a dipper until now and had visited dipper hotspots only to return empty handed. So she was quite pleased that her first dipper was here in Norfolk. Me, on the other hand, I have seen dippers a few times now. This is now my second dipper that I've seen in Norfolk, both of which happen to be the scarce visiting black-bellied subspecies. This individual was demonstrating everything that a dipper does best from plunging itself underwater to hunt for worms and other aquatic juicy morsels that it could find to bobbing uncontrollably (though this one didn't do it quite so frequently for some reason). 2019 is only 2 days old, but I've already got my first scarcity. Not bad!
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