March 9th Sculthorpe Moor

Its almost my birthday and I wanted to go out and see something special to celebrate it. Sculthorpe was one of THE places to go recently with a Coues's arctic redpoll and a lesser spotted woodpecker being reported there in the last week or so. Strong winds battered us on our arrival to this rather popular reserve. A lot of people were here to see the redpoll which was visiting a pair of feeders in a clearing surrounded by the main boardwalk. We waited for a couple of minutes, but nothing seemed to be showing up. A large crowd of twitchers was blocking one route with their scopes and themselves. I decided to give it a miss and check later on the way back.

Brambling

We entered our first hide and were surprised to see that it wasn't as busy inside as I was expected. I guess the attraction of bramblings, greenfinches, long-tailed tits, great tits, blue tits, coal tits, chaffinches, 2 mallards and a great spotted woodpecker being lured by the feeders here wasn't quite as alluring as a scarce redpoll. I didn't mind one bit. A handful of people came and went as they joined my mum and I enjoying these common but always delightful birds together. The woodpecker in particular was great to see, though frustrated me and my camera as it partially hid itself behind a feeder and a flailing holly branch obscuring my view of it as it bunched up and down in the wind.

Chaffinch

Chaffinch and Greenfinch

Long-tailed Tit





Great Spotted Woodpecker

Bullfinch, Brambling and 2 Chaffinches

The next hide, the Whitley Hide, was almost packed and we were lucky to find a couple of seats. Apparently, we had just missed the family of otters that have been making regular visits to this hide in recent weeks. At least there were plenty of bullfinches and more bramblings as well as reed buntings and collard doves to see on the two bird tables. Meanwhile, soaring above the reserve, red kites and buzzards were on patrol. Though I had missed the otters, there were still other great things on offer. But then, just as we were about to move on, a warden entered the hide and told us all to leave. We were being evacuated off the reserve because a tree had fallen because of the wind. I had never been evacuated from a nature reserve before, but it was understandable. As we made our way back en masse with everyone else, we got stuck by the crowd of twitchers watching the redpolls. They refused to move and we were forced to step off the boardwalk to get round them. Rare bird or not, if there's an evacuation going on, MOVE!

Bullfinch

Reed Bunting

Brambling

Collard Dove

Red Kite

Redpolls

Peregrine

As we were leaving, on the TV screen in the visitor centre streaming live footage of the peregrine nestbox on the spire of Norwich Cathedral, I noticed that one of the peregrines had made an appearance. This was the female, and she was busy preparing a place to lay her eggs. I was actually at the cathedral yesterday and I managed to take these photos of her sitting on the box. I'm not sure how well the Norwich peregrines did last year and if any of the chicks fledged successfully, but it seems like the pair are starting again this year. You can watch them on the Hawk and Owl Trust website http://upp.hawkandowl.org/norwich-peregrines/norwich-cathedral-peregrine-live-web-cam-2018/.