Slow Summer

 Aug 4th Strumpshaw Fen

I went straight to Tower Hide in the hope of finding one of my Strumpshaw 45 targets. For a couple of weeks up to this point, a couple of garganeys had been seen on and off here. This is the UK's only summer visiting duck, arriving from Africa with the males looking absolutely spectacular in their chocolate brown and grey plumage with a bold white stripe above their eyes. At this time of year though, that plumage has since faded as the birds enter their summer moult and are less obvious. They now appear as a brown duck with the stripe being very faint. Outside the Tower Hide, there were definitely a lot of brown ducks around, but only two were small enough to be garganeys. One gave me long enough to study and I could see the tell tale pale eye stripe. I finally could add this duck to not only my Strumpshaw challenge list, but also my overall bird list.

No otters, but I did glimpsed a kingfisher, bearded tits, a sparrowhawk, watched marsh harriers, common terns, swallows, house martins, herons, shovelers, gadwall and reed warblers. There were also many red admirals, peacocks, brown hawkers, emperor dragonflies, red-eyed damselflies, southern hawkers, common darters, banded demoiselles and many other insect species, but none of them were my Strumpshaw 45 target species.

Garganey (Aug 4th), Otter and Mute Swan (Aug 11th),
 Painted Lady (Aug 11th) and Avocet & Green Sandpipers (Aug 15th)

Aug 11th Strumpshaw Fen & Buckenham Marshes

Before this week's shift, I was on the hunt for willow emerald damselflies, which is another of my target species. The dipping pond near the entrance of the meadow trail is a good place to find them, but it took 2 attempts this morning before I had to head to Reception Hide for my shift until I finally found one. Sadly, I couldn't get a photo of it as it was obscured by the willow leaves it was perching on and when I went to the other platform to be much closer, I quickly lost it again. A green damselfly amongst green leaves is not really that obvious to spot.

Between attempts, I did pop into Fen Hide for a bit and saw a water rail, common terns, a heron and a marsh harrier. At Reception Hide, an otter was busy hunting in the broad for 30 minutes and even swam close to a pair of swans without them show any interest what so ever. Other than a heron, bearded tits, common terns and many mallards, there wasn't much else around.

After lunch, I decided to leave early and head to Buckenham Marshes. It turned out to be a very long walk in the hot sun with a plague of biting insects only to discover that the only hide there was closed! Not only that, but someone's unleashed dog squeezed under a gate and ran towards the only pool of interest that was full of waders. Thankfully and amazingly, the dog was eventually called back before the birds noticed or flew away. I didn't bring a scope, so everything on the pool was a bit too far away for me to get a clear view to spot any potential wood sandpipers or the like. There were starlings, lapwings, black-tailed godwits, ruff and a lot of geese, but before I could study the pool any further, the horseflies attacked and I legged it for the long walk back to Brundall station. While at the reserve, I also found several painted lady butterflies and a Chinese water deer.

Aug 15th Cley

I went out to Cley with Mum for a spot of birdwatching on this Sunday afternoon. Two of the three central hides were open and we spent most of our time in them. The pools were mostly dried up, but had many waders on them. Snipe, ruff, lapwing, black-tailed godwits, avocets, shelducks, teal, gadwall, redshanks, greylags, gulls, woodpigeons, 2 stock doves, pied wagtails, marsh harriers, swallows and several green sandpipers made it a very busy scene that for a while, we had the hide to ourselves to enjoy it.

I was really happy to add the green sandpipers to my list, but it was suddenly bested by a whimbrel that was flying over, alerting me to it with a series of notes. "Pipipipipipip!" This is a bird that resembles a curlew with a short bill and stripe above the eye. I don't see them very often and this was the first time I've seen one in flight nor one calling before. With whimbrel added to my list, it now takes my total to 142 birds species seen this year.

There was enough time for me to walk along the Eat Bank to the sea. Nothing new here for my list, but I did see many sandwich terns, curlews, little egrets, a heron, oystercatchers and plenty of snipe and other waders I've already seen earlier. All in all, it was a decent visit. The best in a while.

Aug 18th Strumpshaw Fen

A rather quiet, gloomy, slightly drizzly start to the day. However, it did improve as morning moved into afternoon. At Fen Hide, about 3 or so juvenile bearded tits were showing well for short amounts of time to pose on some reeds. Meanwhile, at Reception Hide, an otter appeared while I was filling up the shelves of the freezer with a fresh supply of ice cream. Many families were arriving and the coffee orders were coming in thick and fast. Between the coffee orders though, I did see little egrets, 2 common terns, marsh harriers, cormorants, a water rail, more bearded tits and a heron.

Bearded Tit & Otter (Aug 18th), Rainbow & Kingfisher (Aug 25th)

Aug 25th Strumpshaw Fen

Another quiet morning. There wasn't too much about at Fen Hide, so I made my way to the pumphouse. When I got there, however, the weather suddenly turned and it started to drizzle with rain. It wasn't even forecast to rain, but thankfully it wasn't too bad. It was on and off throughout the morning. Highlights include; a mother and fawn muntjac deer, kingfishers (including one that perched on the measuring post outside Reception Hide), a Chinese water deer, bearded tits, marsh harriers, herons and 2 snipe that flew over Fen Hide.

Aug 28th Catton Park

My 8th dawn chorus of the year wasn't the liveliest as expected for this time of year. I arrived at my local park just after 5:30am on a dull, cloudy morning, a few hours before a sudden heavy downpour occurred. This month's chorus included tawny owls, the odd calls of both great spotted and green woodpeckers, magpies, jays, carrion crows, jackdaws, woodpigeons, goldfinches, coal tits, robins, wrens, gulls and many chirruping crickets and grasshoppers that pretty much out sang the birds.