Back To Normal?

Sep 4th  Cley

It is September and migrant season has well and truly been happening while I have been stuck in Norwich. As I haven't been able to travel to the coast, I have been missing everything that has passed through so far. Red-backed shrikes, greenish warblers, pied flycatchers, wrynecks, I have missed them all. I want to at least see something before it disappears for warmer climes further south. So on Friday 4th, Dad took me out to Cley to see what we can find.

Since my last visit, two hides are now reopen to visitors, Bishop's and Babcock. The three central hides are still closed, but for the other two you need to wear a mask. From Bishop's Hide, there were avocets, ruff, wigeon, godwits, a green sandpiper, a kestrel and a marsh harrier. A good mix of migrants and the usual suspects, but nothing completely out of the unusual. From the shelter at the top of the East Bank, I watched a curlew sandpiper mingling with a flock of dunlin out on Arnold's Marsh, while behind them were large gathering of sandwich and common terns and then a hobby flew over and spooked them all up. There were migrants a plenty here.

A spot of sea watching didn't produce much other than gannets, the same tern species again, the usual gull species and a seal. Seeing a wheatear whilst walking along the beach was as good as it got when it came to migrants of interest. I also came across 3 devil's coach horse beetles, a rather ferocious beetle that raises its abdomen when threatened.  

Wheatear and Devil's Coach Horse Beetle

Sep 8th  Strumpshaw Fen

A second visit to Strumpshaw with Dad since lockdown. With Covid-19 spiking again, it has meant that my return as a volunteer is uncertain right now. However, the reserve feels like it is almost back to the way it was. Apart from a makeshift booth at the entrance of Reception Hide for one volunteer to man, the other two hides are reopen but with limited benches and you need to wear a mask and the one-way route system is abandoned for most of the reserve's paths. Only the Lackford Run was one-way only.

Otter, Grass Snake, Garganey and Great White Egret

 When we arrived, we were greeted by an otter and a passing kingfisher from Reception Hide's blind. We found a willow emerald damselfly at the new pond, we walked by at least 20 or so lizards and a few interesting solitary wasp species along Sandy Wall, bearded tits and Cetti's warblers were calling here and there, dark bush crickets were sitting atop of bramble leaves and signs of autumn were abundant throughout the reserve from fruit and seeds to fungi. The best place to be, however, was Tower Hide. There seemed to be more things here than anywhere else at Strumpshaw. Below the hide, a grass snake basks in the sun coiled atop of a patch of flattened dried reed. Many ducks in eclipse phased plumage were out on the pool in front of the hide, including a garganey, which you could ID with the white stripes sandwiching the eye. A couple of kingfishers flit by back and forth in a heated territorial dispute, a marsh harrier and a kestrel were busy hunting over the reserve's reed beds and a great white egret appeared after a while to sit atop of a shrub. 

Sep 15th Cley

Yesterday, I returned to Cley. This time I was with Mum, who celebrated a big birthday recently. I started the visit with a spot of sea watching near the beach car park, not that there was much to see as it was rather misty. A few gannets, cormorants, gulls and a seal were all I could work out through the strange grey murk on this hot sunny day. There were more beach goers on the beach than there were seabirds it seemed. From Bishop's Hide, there appeared to be fewer birds than there were earlier in the month. Avocets, wigeons and many of the other things I saw from last time were nowhere to be found on the pools and scrapes, though lapwings,a few godwits and a green sandpiper still remain and were now joined by a large gaggle of  Canada geese and there was a kestrel using the thatched roofs of the three central hides that still are unused as its vantage point.

Curlew Sandpiper

As we walked along the East Bank, I noticed that the curlew sandpiper was closer to the path this time, feeding along the edge of a meandering pool with some dunlin and redshanks. On the way back, someone pointed out a peregrine that was sitting on a bank on the far side of the marsh. Mum was hoping to see a marsh harrier, but she was bamboozled when she mistook a buzzard flying into the blinding sun as one. She was fairly disappointed when I corrected her.