The Return

 Nov 22nd  Strumpshaw Fen

While the second lockdown was still going on, I haven't really been doing much other than video games and work. With the days getting shorter and my plant list being on hiatus due to a lack of new plants to add with it being winter, I just haven't had the same enthusiasm for nature as I did in the previous lockdown. So, Mum decided to drop me off at Strumpshaw for a walk to get me back into the mood. 

Earthstars

The latest lockdown meant that all the hides were once again closed off to the public. And with the river flooding the path to Tower Hide, turning it into a muddy mess as it does every winter, there weren't many routes left open to explore other than the circuit leading through the woodland trail and pass the pumphouse. To be fair, there wasn't much to see anyway. I saw more families out for a walk than wildlife sightings on this occasion. However, the real highlight was finding a few earthstars. I've never found this fungi on my own before, let alone at Strumpshaw, so I was extremely pleased with myself. I'm not an expert on fungi, but there was no denying that they were very beautiful to look at, resembling like fungal versions of flowers. I also found plenty of candlesnuff fungi as well as siskins, marsh tits, marsh harriers and a Chinese water deer.

Dec 2nd  Strumpshaw Fen

Today, I have returned to Strumpshaw not as a visitor but back as a volunteer. It was finally time to wear the RSPB uniform once again, the first time since March on the day the reserve closed due to lockdown. It has been a long time waiting and now I had to get back into the habit of getting up at the crack of dawn, using public transport (which I had been avoiding since that day in March) and the walk to the reserve from Brundall station. When I arrived, the moon was still bright in the sky as the sun was rising. A thin layer of mist and frost cloaked the landscape and it was a tad nippy as I made my first walk around the reserve as a volunteer in a while. The view outside the hides was rather flooded, while the hides themselves weren't quite open yet for me to enter (the Fen Hide officially reopened later that morning). There were pheasants everywhere and I had a few encounters with muntjac and Chinese water deer and I even startled a hare that ran pass me along the path to the pumphouse. I also saw pink-footed geese fly over, a snipe and some redwings.

Checking in for my induction into volunteering under Covid-19 restrictions, I was taught how to operate in the Reception Hide safely and even got back into refilling the bird feeders (no sign of Percy the persistent pheasant though). My role now was to make coffees for visitors and place them on a tray for my colleague, Tricia, to collect. I have to keep my distance, sanitise every time I make a coffee as well as wear a mask while I make them and before I leave, I have to sanitise everything I touched in the hide. It was utter madness! If a time travelling birdwatcher from the past was to see how this set up was like, they'd probably think we've all gone insane and I wouldn't blame them. But this is  how things are now. I was just happy to be back despite all this crazy nonsense behind the scenes.

Otter, Frosty Sunrise at Fen Hide and Pintail

While everything inside the hide was bonkers, everything outside it was a welcoming distraction. It felt like the wildlife was welcoming me back in style as a good chunk of my first shift back in the hide was dominated by the presence of an otter that was hunting out on the broad. It even caught a couple of fish during its long stay, feasting on one of them (possibly an eel) within the reedy islands. And the otter wasn't the only big highlight celebrating my return as I had 2 sightings of 2 separate bitterns fly out of the reedbeds and across the broad to land in a different section of reedbed and amongst the mallards and gadwall in front of the hide was a male pintail. The pintail was a bit scruffy in the plumage, but it still topped off a memorable day back at Strumpshaw as a volunteer.