Almost The End!

 Nov 3rd Whitlingham Broad

On Halloween, I was attending a wedding. The following evening, I discovered that one of the guests on my table (I won't go into details of who) was tested positive for Covid-19! The next night, my parents and I went to get tested altogether. I had to wait for the results the next morning (Wednesday 3rd), which meant I could not go to Strumpshaw. Thankfully, the results came in early and that it was negative! 

As it was a bit pointless travelling to Strumpshaw at this point, I ended up going for a walk at Whitlingham Broad instead. The broad seemed empty of bird numbers and a lot of maintenance work was going on with the shrubs and trees. However, I did see a large mixed flock of siskins and goldfinches, great crested grebes in winter plumage, cormorants, Egyptian geese, a few coots, tufted ducks, gadwall, a heron and a large flock of greylags flying in. Seems like a good selection, but everything seemed to be very sparse.

The real highlight though, was finding a ring-necked parakeet in the trees of the island. Never seen one here before and I doubt it was alone. I caught a glimpse of it once, but heard it a few times, though it wasn't as vocal as you'd expect it to be.

Nov 6th Cley & West Runton

A day out with Dad and went to Cley. We did a circuit walk around the reserve, to East Bank, along the beach and then to the hides. It was very windy and a bit chilly, but at least it wasn't raining. I managed to find two new species for my bird list; pintail and snow bunting. The snow buntings were a real treat as a good sized flock of 10+ birds foraged the dune mounds, blending in with the shingle extremely well, only their movements giving them away. As for pintails, from the blind overlooking the pools closest to the beach, we found many drakes (possibly about 10-20) with the odd female being outnumbered hiding amongst them.

Snow Bunting, Grey Seal Pup, Pintail and my Short-toed Lark drawing

There were geese a plenty with large flocks and skeins of brent and pink-footed as well as smaller numbers of greylag, Canada and Egyptian too. Also seen during our visit were; marsh harriers (at least 4-5 in the sky at once at one point), a kestrel, wigeon, teal, shoveler, shelduck, lapwing, avocet, dunlin, curlew, guillemots, red-throated divers and a grey seal pup which was alone on the beach.

While walking along the beach, I had a phone call from my birding buddy, David, who rang me to let me know about a short-toed lark that was at West Runton. There was still enough daylight when we got back to the car, so we decided to go check it out. Once we finally found the spot by the West Runton beach car park, the light was fading fast. There was one other birdwatcher at the ploughed field where it was last seen, but he also had only just arrived and he gave off the impression that he has vague idea of what he's looking for, but not that confident in finding it himself. He was pretty much like me in that regard.

We scanned the field in the dim light for a few minutes. Then we saw some larks flying in and I managed to locate them on the ploughed soil. We looking for a rather pale looking lark. I found one that may have been the one, but the light was just terrible to get a photo of it. Every attempt was just a blurry mess. My dad and the other birder seemed to believe I found it, but it was ultimately my call to make. I have seen a short-toed lark in Spain in 2014, but that was in better light conditions and with a knowledgeable guide. Was this bird a rare migrant from Spain and Southern Europe or was this just a skylark? Do I add this bird to my list or not?

As I was pondering on my decision, suddenly the heavens opened and a sudden downpour soaked us in seconds. I had to rush my decision while also trying to protect my camera from getting wet. I wasn't 100% sure, I still think it was just a skylark, but as I was getting rather wet, I gave in and agreed that it was the scarce bird in question and made a dash for the car. It looked pale enough, but with the light being awful and with no photographic proof, there's no way anyone could correct me. So, as it stands, the lark has taken me to 157 species.

Nov 10th Strumpshaw Fen

A dull, murky and drizzly morning. It made for a not very interesting shift and with very few memorable highlights. There were up to 10 marsh harriers in the air at once at one point, a mixed flock of goldfinches and siskins, more mallards, shovelers and gadwall on the broad in quite a while and the odd heron and mute swan. That was pretty much it.

Nov 17th Strumpshaw Fen

It was a rather nice day and an unusually warm one for November. There wasn't much to report though. It started promisingly with a large mixed flock of goldfinches and siskins by Reception Hide on my arrival to the reserve and I heard bullfinches in the woods. Redwing and pink-footed geese flew over above, while marsh harriers were showing well from Fen Hide. Other than that, it was relatively quiet. I decided to check out Tower Hide, but that too seemed empty of wildlife. On the way back, I was mumbling to myself in disappointment in not seeing much at Strumpshaw lately, when suddenly, a fieldfare popped up in the tree next to me. My 158th bird!

The path to Tower Hide wasn't to bad, not too muddy. However, walking back from there, I discovered that the river was beginning to flood. A shallow stream had appeared across the path not too far away from the sluice gates that wasn't there before. Thankfully it was shallow enough to step over, but the path was later shut as a precaution.

I arrived in time to start my shift, but I wasn't at Reception Hide for long. A group of familiar faces appeared. They were all mostly former staff and volunteers having a little get together walk and invited me to join with them. We did a loop along the river to the pumphouse and through the woods. I found them another fieldfare, a flock of siskins, many common darter dragonflies that were still on the wing and we did a mini fungi hunt. Fungi isn't my strongest subject, but we found a few easy ones that I'm more familiar with such as birch polypore, turkeytail, candlesnuff and common inkcaps. In the end, it was just a nice way to catch up with old friends that I haven't seen since way before the first lockdown.

Nov 18th Catton Park

A short walk around my local park and I found a few interesting fungi. However, I don't know what they could be. I only knew the yellow stagshorn.

Candlesnuff (Nov 17th), Honey fungus?
Yellow Stagshorn, Some kind of wood growing puffball?
Bearded Tit (Nov 24th), My Fieldfare drawing (Nov 17th) 

Nov 24th Strumpshaw Fen

Another dull, murky and drizzly (at times) day, but it was full of surprises. At Fen Hide, I saw an otter swam by and 20-30 mins later another appeared with a cub bounding on the bank before swimming the same direction the previous otter went. By the river end of Sandy Wall, I came across a flock of bullfinches and a flock of around 10 bearded tits on the reeds at the edge of the path. Also seen today were siskins, marsh harriers, a Chinese water deer, about 30+ gadwall at Reception Hide with a few mallards, teal, shovelers, mute swans and herons. 

Nov 29th Catton Park

My 11th and penultimate dawn chorus of the year. My year-long monthly challenge is almost over! It wasn't the best one as it rained as walking to the park and rained again as I was about to leave. The chorus was mostly dominated by the early morning traffic, a helicopter and so many dog walkers that were already up and about as it was only just getting light at 7am, but there were a few robins, wrens and blackbirds calling, but not really singing that much. I heard a few redwings fly over, saw many gulls doing the same but were in more visible flocks. Magpies, carrion crows and long-tailed tits also made themselves known in the latter stage of what was a pretty muddy walk round the park. Not one to remember, but at least I only have one more month to experience a dawn chorus in.