May 6th Mousehold Heath & May 8th Strumpshaw Fen

May 6th   Mousehold Heath

A day after International Dawn Chorus Day, I was up early for a second day in a row. There was a dawn chorus walk at Mousehold. The birds were already singing as we began the walk at 4:15am. I was on point in listening out for each species, while Will was plotting their rough whereabouts on a map. It was an enjoyable walk in which we heard a great selection of birds. We ended up hearing; blackbirds, robins, wrens, treecreepers, blackcaps, goldcrests, chaffinches, greenfinches, goldfinches, song thrushes, mistle thrush (a sound I haven't heard here for a while), woodpigeons, chiffchaffs, blue tits, great tits, long-tailed tits, whitethroats, herring and lesser black-backed gulls, dunnock, house sparrows, great spotted woodpeckers (call only) and we saw a buzzard twice and a Canada goose.

May 8th    Strumpshaw Fen

What a horrible day! Another wet Wednesday, though it has felt like it has been a while since the last one. It has been raining non-stop all morning. I was given a lift to Strumpshaw today to avoid getting soaked. Though, I still got wet from just going to the Sandy Wall to count the cattle to make sure they are doing ok.

One thing I noticed when I arrived this morning is that between the toilets and the Reception Hide is a lot more open than it was before. This is because the old fence that marked the courtyard where Strumpshaw's staff work behind the scenes is now gone. A new fence has been built further to the left from where the old fence was. It feels like the office area is now in a fort closed off to the public's eye. The bee orchids that were once protected by the old fence are now exposed to where everyone can trod on them. Thankfully, there are chicken wire cages marking them out. So please watch where you're walking when you visit the reserve from now on!




Redshank

I had to leave Reception Hide to do some mandatory training half way through my shift, not that I was missing too much anyway. When I came back, I continued to watch the rain as well as a swarm of swallows swirling over the broad with the odd swift, house martin and sand martin, skimming across the water in a mesmerising display. A kingfisher would also keep flashing by in brief flybys, though I kept missing it. Marsh harriers occasionally soared close to the hide and we also had a redshank that stopped over by the front of the hide for some time. It is nice to see a redshank at this hide as they usually hang around by the Tower Hide or at Buckenham.