Jan 15th & 17th Strumpshaw Fen & Titchwell

Jan 15th  Strumpshaw Fen

Scarlet Elfcup

The first wet Wednesday of the year. It was pouring with rain and I had to ask for a lift into Strumpshaw this morning, meaning I didn't really had time for a walk before my shift. I had only enough time to fill up the bird feeders, though, on this occasion it was missing a certain persistent feathered character waiting for me there. The Reception Hide was fairly quiet with just the usual suspects of marsh harriers, mallards, gadwall, teal and greylags (but no coot, which is very unusual), so I decided to make a short walk in the woods while the rain eased off a bit. During this walk, I found very little except a few scarlet elfcup fungi and my pheasant friend, who was still waiting for me as if I was doing my usual Wednesday routine, despite it being a few hours late than normal. He was pleased to see me as I walked by and started to follow me as I led him to the bird feeder area so he could get his share of the bird seed. Other than that, it was a rather uneventful day.

Jan 17th Titchwell

Just to remind you, this year I have challenged myself to photograph birds that I haven't gotten a decent photo of yet. This includes nocturnal birds such as the tawny owl and the woodcock, two of the most difficult birds to look for in broad daylight. I've asked around for any reliable roosting sites for either of them. For the owl, I was told to visit the church yard at North Elmham and find the tallest tree one apparently roosts at during the day. I went to try my luck on Sunday and came back seeing nothing. I even checked the trees of a site across the road of a chapel ruin and still found nothing.

Today, I went to Titchwell for my other nocturnal target. I have known for years that to see a woodcock, I need to scan the woodland surrounding the visitor centre, but they have always eluded me. I have been hearing rumours that there has been one individual snoozing in the same spot somewhere along the boardwalk for the past two weeks. In fact, it was seen in the same spot just yesterday. However, as expected, when I went to look for it during my visit, it had to not be there when I was around. Typical! Same result as with every visit. Everyone sees it but me!

Red-breasted Merganser

For other birds that I have yet gotten a photo of, I had to search the sea. I have plenty of seabirds on my list, especially things like divers and skuas, but I'm also missing red-breasted mergansers to my bird photo collection. There were a few of these saw-billed ducks bobbing about on the waves, but as you'd expect, they were a bit of a distance away. My best attempt of a photo was a distant shot of them, a bit blurry, but I think you can just about make them out enough to tell what they are.




Other birds seen today were; marsh harrier, brent geese, teal, wigeon, shovelers, mute swans, greylags, knot, lapwing, avocets, spotted redshank, common redshanks, oystercatchers, little grebe, little egrets, curlews, shelducks, great crested grebe, cormorants, turnstone and hundreds of pink-footed geese in a field on the way home.