Migration Season

 Oct 2nd Titchwell

Mum and I visited Titchwell before a storm hit in the afternoon as heavy rain and strong winds were forecasted. I wanted to boost my bird list that was stuck on 147 species. By the end of my visit, my list shot up by 4 with golden plover, grey plover, bar-tailed godwit and little stint. I was hoping for more, but I ended up missing out on a rose-coloured starling and a purple sandpiper.

With the autumn migration season well under way, it meant that the reserve had more waders and wildfowl than it had during my previous few visits. We had a great day finding many brent geese, dunlins, knot, ruff, black-tailed godwits, an avocet, curlew, linnets, teal, wigeon, greylags, redshanks, oystercatchers, lapwings, turnstones, marsh harriers, gadwall and heard bearded tits and Cetti's warblers. We also saw a red kite on the way up.

Knot (top left) & Grey Plover (Oct 2nd)
Guillemots and Razorbills (bottom left) & Red-throated Diver (Oct 10th)

Oct 6th Strumpshaw Fen

A lot of rain fell the night before this shift and there was apparently a flooded bridge on my route to Strumpshaw. I ended up getting a lift, but I was later told by my colleague that it had subsided. When I arrived to the reserve, I had no time for a walk, so I was ready to help out at the Reception Hide. However, it was almost a waste of time as the power was out and was almost told to abandon my shift for the day! Thankfully it didn't happen and I was able to do my shift as normal. It wasn't the best of days anyway as only 7 people visited us all morning and the best of the action was an otter surprising us as it appeared from the right very close corner of the broad right next to the hide before hugging the reed beds all the way to the far right channel. Also about on this rather dull, wet day were bearded tits, marsh harriers, herons and cormorants.

Oct 10th Cley

It was a pleasant Sunday and so my parents took me to Cley for the afternoon, We went straight to the beach car park for a spot of sea watching at the shelter there. Dad and I joined the large group of people and scopes that lined up along the beach from the shelter. They were using a lot of numbers and clock hand code messages to pin point the birds that were flying over the sea. I vaguely understood it, but my dad was left in the dark. He was happy just sitting and relaxing by the sea. For me though, I had my new scope out and was scanning every where back and forth. 

There was plenty around. Guillemots were everywhere in large groups across the sea. One group was close to the shore mixed in with the odd razorbill and a red-throated diver. Gannets and cormorants were fairly common too and there were flocks of little gulls flying over the waves. I also saw brent geese and a small flock of teal (I think). However, the main highlights today were a few red-breasted mergansers and manx shearwaters, which is a small black and white seabird that I could just about spot flying really low to the water before the sea bulged up to form a wave to hide it. This was a very successful sea watch and it took my species total to 154.

After a good session on the beach, I went to check out the hides with Mum. The 3 central hides were packed with photographers and birdwatchers alike, but the pools provided nothing new for my list. One pool was covered in waders and the other mostly in wildfowl. Lapwings, black-tailed godwits, dunlin, snipe, ruff (some with white display neck feathers), teal, avocets, many wigeon and some shovelers and shelducks were what we could see, but the scene didn't really excite me as much as the sea did earlier.

Oct 13th Strumpshaw Fen

A very good morning that had a misty start. Redwings dominated with hundreds upon hundreds flying over the reserve in flock after flock. At Fen Hide, I spooked a snipe and had good views of a water rail, stonechats, a great white egret, marsh harriers and many greylag and Canada geese. During my shift, a ring ouzel was reported. I went to look for it, but it was long gone. However, I did encounter a flock of bearded tits close to the Sandy Wall with a crowd watching them.

Misty scenes, Bearded Tits & Marsh Harrier (Oct 13th)
Stinkhorn Fungus & Redpoll (Oct 27th)

Oct 27th Strumpshaw Fen

I spent over a week without going out anywhere due to bad weather and my parents being away to take me out. For the first time in a quite a while, heavy rain prevented me from doing a shift at Strumpshaw. So, to make up for it, I decided to do this month's dawn chorus walk. As you know, I have been doing a dawn chorus once a month this year to experience the differences throughout the seasons. I actually started the walk from my flat at 5:30am, walking through the city to Norwich railway station. This was a very pointless part of the walk as it was very dark and very quiet other than a robin and some feral pigeons.

The walk really picked up once I arrived at Brundall station. It was nearing 7am and the sun was beginning to rise. Heading towards Strumpshaw, rooks and jackdaws were leaving their roost site at Buckenham, while robins, wrens, blackbirds and a Cetti's warbler provided some vocals, though they were more calls than full outbursts of song. Pheasants and red-legged partridges added their voices to the chorus as I made my way down the long country road sandwiched between two crop fields. At the reserve itself, it was pretty quiet. I saw marsh harriers and I heard the odd call of a bearded tit and water rail and there were long-tailed tits on my way to Fen Hide. I also saw pink-footed and greylag geese, stonechats, meadow pipits and I was face to face with a Chinese water deer.

After that, my shift was not the most memorable. Marsh harriers, buzzards, a heron and 2 mute swans were all that was to be seen from Reception Hide. Outside, on the other hand, was a lot more interesting. In the woods, I found a stinkhorn fungus and a few other fungi that I have no idea what they were. In the trees by the reserve entrance, I came across a mix flock of redpolls, siskins, redwings, goldfinches, great, blue, long-tailed and marsh tits, which really made my morning. It was actually the first time I've seen a redpoll at Strumpshaw. I knew they often arrive to the reserve each winter with the siskin, but every time I look for them, they elude me. I have seen them on the other side of the river at Wheatfen though, but never on Strumpshaw's side of the river, until now that is.