March 30th Cley

Spoonbill

The sun is out and I'm by the seaside. I'm at Cley with my parents to check out what we can see from the hides. As we neared the three central hides, I could see a large white bird. A spoonbill! You could see it well from the Avocet Hide (the hide on the left side) as it sifted through the water at the edge of Whitewell Scrape with its large spoon-shaped bill. It did came up onto the bank for a short break to reveal that amazing bill for us. We were pretty lucky, as it eventually moved on away from these pools onto the other side of the reserve and out of sight. What a bird!

Avocet

The pools were full with mostly avocets and black-tailed godwits, filling the scene with a sense of spring as the godwits are adorn with their reddish breeding plumage and the avocets were calling their piping calls continuously. Redshanks, shelducks, lapwings, shovelers, teal, gadwall, little egrets, greylags, Canada geese and ruff were also seen out on the pools and surrounding areas as well as a snipe at the Whitewell Scrape and a little ringed plover at the back of Simmond's Scrape. Marsh harriers were patrolling the reed beds, while a red kite was seen high above Pat's Pool with its presence enough to spook the birds momentarily and forced them into the air.

Redshank

Snipe

I was scanning the fields behind Simmond's Scrape when I noticed a greylag with a white splodge at the base of its bill. Then I saw another, and another and another. At least eight in total. However, these weren't greylags. These were white-fronted geese, a winter visitor that's surely thinking of returning to their breeding grounds in Greenland and Arctic Russia. They were a bit distant to photograph and there was a dreadful heat haze distorting the sharpness of shots, but you can make out those bright white patches quite clearly. It was a pleasant surprise to see them here today.

[Edit: Sadly, I can't seem to upload the rest of these photos. My storage space on Google Photos appears to have ran out again. I will add the rest later if I can resolve this is issue. Many apologies!]

March 26th Strumpshaw Fen

I had to do a bit of a shuffle around this week. I had other plans for this Wednesday morning, so for one day only, I changed my shift for this Tuesday morning instead. I also had to catch a bus instead of a train at Norwich train station. It feels all topsy turvy today, but once I arrived at Strumpshaw this morning, it was business as usual.

Wren

My breath turned to visible vapour in the slightly chilly air as I went for my walk before my shift this morning. The birds were being rather photo friendly (at least most of them) this week. Chiffchaffs, goldcrests, marsh tits, wrens and long-tailed tits, five species that usually give me a run around to get their photo, but were much kinder to me today. Chiffchaffs, in particular, were in good voice and in good numbers today. You'd had to be deaf not to hear them calling their species' name over and over. I also heard my first blackcap of the year (though they were one of the few that were camera shy), saw a bullfinch and a Cetti's warbler by the river (again, camera shy) and I found a bum-barrel nest, a nest of a long-tailed tit.

Chiffchaff

Marsh Tit

Goldcrest

Long-tailed Tit

Long-tailed Tit nest

Almost got the bird in full view on the nest!

Shelduck

Filling up Strumpshaw's feeders

With my search for a job still going on, I've been asking Strumpshaw's staff if there were any things or tasks that I could do to build up some skills. Last week, I began by trying out the Reception Hide's till for the first time ever. I'm still learning the basics with that one. This week, I've been given a new assignment; bird feeder topper-upper. I was shown the ropes on what to do and where everything was kept. Its pretty much the same deal as the feeders in your garden, but we also sprinkle some peanuts and seeds inside the cracks and crannies of the surrounding area to please the visiting photographers who want that more natural foraging behaviour in their shots. After sorting out the feeders, we then gave the bird bath a clean and a refill.

Marsh Harrier

It was another rather quiet morning at the broad outside the Reception Hide this week. Greylags and coot were the main things out there, though not in great numbers this time, with a few mallards and even fewer gadwall amongst them. The marsh harriers were the main attraction though as many of them were performing elaborate sky dances. The males were more handsome than ever in their plumage of browns and greys with black wingtips as if they were dipped in ink. The brown females were joining in the dance with aerial chases to show their interest in their chosen potential partner. I also had a distant view of a bittern flying left along the far side of the reserve. Not a bad morning overall. Next week, it will be back to normal on a Wednesday.

A white Greylag

March 20th Strumpshaw Fen

Jay

The spell of stormy weather has finally lifted and its back to glorious sunshine again. In fact, spring has bounced back with a vengeance. Despite a lack of photos to show for it (because my subjects prefer to move as soon as I get the chance to point my camera at them), it has been quite a productive day. In the woods, the birds were singing and were pretty active, especially bullfinches. Over 200 or more redwings were flying over me this morning, a sign that these winter thrushes will be thinking about flying north for the Scandinavian summer. A pair of red-legged partridges saw me coming along Sandy Wall and continued further up the path while I was getting distracted by chiffchaffs, Cetti's warblers, more bullfinches and a jay doing its best impersonation of a buzzard. I also saw a Chinese water deer at the Fen Hide and a kingfisher flew over me along the river trail.

Song Thrush

Chinese Water Deer

Sweet Violet in purple...

…lilac...

...and white.

Pussy Willow Catkins?

Robin

Seven-spotted Ladybird

 The warm sunshine was beginning to draw out the insects. The tawny mining bee colony beside the usual bench at the start of Sandy Wall were now doing their annual act of mating and creating burrows before they disappear for another year as quickly as they appeared. Brimstones, peacocks and small tortoiseshells were flying all around the reserve in good numbers and looking fresh with brightly coloured wings. Inside the Reception Hide, there was a bit of a ladybird invasion. They were just everywhere! Outside the Reception Hide, on the other hand, was a bit boring. The broad was fairly empty besides a few greylags, coots and shovelers, while buzzards and marsh harriers were displaying ever higher in the sky than usual and more distant too. A water rail did keep things interesting as it continuously kept squealing close by, but never revealed itself the whole time I was there.  

Tawny Mining Bees (Female on left, male on right)

Greylag

Gadwall

Shoveler

Moorhen