Thursday 17 October 2019

Oct 16th Strumpshaw Fen

Pink-footed Geese
Autumn has fully taken hold now. The trees have changed their colour and their leaves and seeds are dropping to the ground, fungi are sprouting their fruiting bodies all over the place and the winter visiting birds are arriving in great numbers. Redwings, in particular, are pouring into the UK in their thousands. I could hear their high-pitched, single-noted 'tseeep' calls throughout the morning, even while it was still dark as I waited for my bus into Norwich to get to the station for my train. When I arrived to Strumpshaw, these calls were joined by the 'pink-wink-wink' of pink-footed geese that were flying over the reserve skein after skein. There was a moment when these calls became a loud cacophony like an eruption of noise as hundreds of these geese flew over at once from the direction of Cantley.




Buzzard
It seemed like it was going to be a nice day as I was making my way from Brundall station. However, there was a hint of pink in the early morning sky. Shepard's warning. And so, it was another Wet Wednesday to add to the list. The rain was drizzly but swept over the reserve like a blanket and made everything seem dull and gloomy. I was definitely not going to have the same luck as last week today, that's for sure. Though, saying that, I still managed to see a very brief otter popping out of the broad outside Reception Hide like some porpoise before losing track of it completely as it submerged itself again. I also saw a snipe, stonechat and 5-6 Chinese water deer from Fen Hide as well as marsh harriers, buzzards, wigeon, greylags and other common wildfowl. It was no where near as exciting as it was as that crazy Wednesday last week.

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