New Year, New Bird

 Jan 3rd Cley

My first outing of 2022 and it was a trip to Cley with my parents. This year, I wanted to photograph as many birds I've haven't got a decent photo of yet and there happened to be one at Cley. An Iceland gull had been hanging around the reserve for most of the winter, but I've yet to find it. This pale brown-white juvenile gull is part of a species that's not only new for me to photograph, but also for me in general. Iceland gulls have been eluding me for years and I was really hoping to scratch it off my bucket list once and for all.

This winter visitor, the size of a herring gull but paler, was apparently seen somewhere on the beach. I was tipped off that it was near the East Bank side of the reserve, so that's where I started my search first. Once I reached the shelter at the far end of the East Bank and after a quick scan, I managed to spot the gull feeding on a dead seal pup on the shingled ridge along the beach from afar. A few minutes later and I was able to not only reach the bird, but to get extremely close to it without spooking it. The gull was so focused on feeding that it wasn't interested in us at all and I got many photos. It may only be a gull, but I was so happy to have seen one at long last. Though I was a tad sad for the dead seal.

Iceland Gull (Jan 3rd), Shag (Jan 9th)
Frosty scene & Bittern (Jan 12th)

A view from East Bank and a visit to the central hides revealed wigeon, teal, shovelers, shelducks, marsh harriers, curlews, redshanks, dunlins, lapwings, brent geese, pink-footed geese, black-headed gulls, black-tailed godwits, avocets, ruff, herring gulls, linnets and heard a skylark. Not a bad haul to start my 2022 bird list with.

Jan 5th Strumpshaw Fen

The first shift at Strumpshaw 2022 and it was definitely eventful. It was very frosty and I managed to slip over on the way to the reserve. Then on arrival, I discovered that half the reserve was flooded. I couldn't even get to Fen Hide let alone to Tower Hide With both hides out of the question, I was forced to walk to the pumphouse and the woods. Not the best of walks as it was a bit muddy. The woods were far more productive than anywhere else with siskins, redwings and a muntjac deer.

At Reception Hide, it was fairly windy and cold and, for the most part, empty with bird life besides a few gadwall, marsh harriers and 2 mute swans. But then an otter appeared and made things more exciting for half an hour. It spent most of the time hunting, diving and pouncing in the broad until it swam out of sight down the far left channel. Also seen today: a great spotted woodpecker, 4 shelducks, a kestrel, buzzards, a heron, a song thrush and marsh tits.

Jan 9th Whitlingham Broad

I heard that a shag was hanging around Whitlingham Broad recently. Kind of an odd bird to be seen this close to Norwich as this smaller cousin of the cormorant is normally a sea bird. I was very curious so I went to have a look.

From the car park, I walked counter-clockwise around the Great Broad and it didn't take long until I found the bird I was looking for. It was sitting on the floating nesting platform with a cormorant and 3 juvenile gulls. Thanks to the cormorant being there, I was able make the comparisons. The shag is slightly shorter, has a rounder head and looks smaller overall (shorter bill, etc). I was really surprised that I was able to identify it so easily and find it so quickly.

Also seen were; large numbers of tufted ducks and coots, gadwall, moorhens, greylags, Egyptian geese, mallards, a feral barnacle goose, a grey heron, calling buzzards, shovelers, common gulls and black-headed gulls.

Jan 12th Strumpshaw Fen, Buckenham Marshes, Martham, Ludham & Hickling Broad/Stubbs Mill

This was to be a long day and I almost missed part of it due to my phone failing to wake me up! Thankfully and gratefully, Mum gave me a lift to Strumpshaw early enough that I still had time for my morning walk there before my shift started. Though I did hear some bearded tits, all I saw was a beautiful frosty landscape.

During my shift at Reception Hide, there were plenty of ducks on the broad, mostly mallards, gadwall, shovelers and a few teal, greylags and 3 coots. The real highlight though was a bittern flying from the reed bed on my near left to land in full view in the reed islands and later showed itself properly in the open in the strimmed section of the islands before flying off.

At the end of my shift, I began an afternoon bird tour with my Reception Hide colleague, Tricia. Starting at Buckenham for the Taiga bean geese, but failed to find any. We did, however drove past a hare along the way here.

Next up was a field in Martham. Here, we found a couple of cattle egrets following some cows and sheep that were grazing in this field. They were fairly close and were fully invested in what the livestock were disturbing than on us being on the other side of the fence.

Cattle Egret, Whooper & Bewick's Swans
Cranes & Sunset (Jan 12th)

A short drive later, we arrived to Ludham airfield in which a large gathering of swans were grazing. They mostly Bewick's (possibly 50+) with about 10 much larger whooper swans. Always a treat to see these beautiful winter swans while small aircraft flew by them all.

After seeing a second hare by the roadside while back on the road, we reached our final stop on our tour. We arrived at Hickling Broad in time before the main event could begin. Tricia wanted us to experience the raptor roost at Stubb's Mill together. There was a bit of a long, muddy walk to the mill, but had some good views of the flooded pools full of wildfowl along the way. Once we got to the viewing platform, we found a spot amongst the many others armed with scopes, binoculars and cameras and waited for the sun to set.

While the sky glowed into reds and golds behind us, we watched the marsh harriers come into roost in the field in front of us that was gradually fading into darkness with every passing minute. There was possibly 30+ harriers, but I wasn't really counting. I was busy scanning for a much rarer cousin, a hen harrier. With the last bit of light, I managed to glimpse the light grey of a male with it's jet black wingtips just visible before the bird vanished within some reeds. Unfortunately, the light was too poor and the sighting was so brief that I was unable to get that photo for my bucket list.

Not only did we see the hen harrier and the many marsh harriers, we also had 9 cranes fly over towards their roost site and we heard a tawny owl hoot. It was a great end to a great day of bird watching. My only regret was not getting that photo of the hen harrier like I was hoping for.

Jan 13th Catton Park

Walking round my local park, I heard drumming great spotted woodpeckers, a nuthatch and stock doves in the woods. I then found a buzzard in a tree that then dived down in front of a shrub and caught a vole before landing in a different tree to feast on it. A moment later, 4 fieldfare surprised me by flying over my head to land in the same tree the buzzard was in previously. The low sun was right in my eyes to see them properly and they flew off before I could move into a better position. This was the first time I've seen fieldfares at this park.

Jan 19th Strumpshaw Fen

A fairly quiet morning at Strumpshaw. Fen Hide produced only a few marsh harriers and 3-4 Chinese water deer, while at Reception Hide had 10 coots (first time in a long while), a few gadwall, mallards and greylags. The feeders outside attracted a great spotted woodpecker and 2 collared doves, which is a surprising rarity at the reserve as I don't see them here that often. When I got back into Norwich, I could see a peregrine falcon on the top of the spire of the cathedral as I waited for a bus home.

Jan 21st Sculthorpe Moor

I went with Dad to check out the new changes at Sculthorpe. There's a new path route into the reserve and one of two new hides open with the other to be open later this year. There was a bit of work going on during our visit, promising some exciting further changes to this fairly young reserve. The new changes that were available now were a mix bag. The new path was a far better way in than the country road that was the main way in before. The new hide, on the other hand, still needs some work. The windows were too small for my liking and the view seemed to be still in development.

The real interesting stuff were on the main, original area of the reserve. From the blind overlooking some feeders produced a bank vole, siskins, bramblings and the first of many bullfinches of the day. The Woodland Hide was also very productive with 2 muntjac deer, a great spotted woodpecker, a pheasant, greenfinches, blackbirds, dunnocks, robins, chaffinches, blue and great tits and redwings (in the trees above).

Moon & Sunrise (Jan 19th) Brambling,
Bullfinch, Muntjac Deer
& Long-tailed Tit (Jan 21st), White Chaffinch (Jan 29th)

On the way to the next hide, a red kite was flying over a treeline where a buzzard was sitting in. We then had lunch inside Whitley Hide while watching 4 muntjacs (one being a young fawn), 3-4 pheasants, several collared doves, a female reed bunting, mallards and 2 grey squirrels as well as the usual common birds such as robins, chaffinches, etc, all feeding from or under the 2 bird tables. The Canopy Hide is possibly our favourite hide with its bird table close to the window and attracting about 10+ species, including nuthatches, bullfinches, long-tailed tits, a marsh tit and a male reed bunting. 

The final 2 hides didn't provide us much to see, except a red kite and some very distant lapwings in a field. We went back to 2 of the previous hides for one last look over before heading back to the car, seeing a mistle thrush in the trees bordering the car park. It was a great visit, leaving us with a large list of species. If you want somewhere to get very close to bullfinches, this is THE place!

Jan 26th Strumpshaw

A large flock of perhaps 100 or so siskins welcomed me on the way to Strumpshaw as the trees were alive with a cacophony of twittering that blended together into quite a din. Then they erupted into the air and circled above my head into an incredible sight. Not the first group of birds to do so that morning as a little earlier on the way from Brundall, thousands of rooks and jackdaws also did the same as they streamed over me from their roost site in Buckenham.

Other than that, the rest of the morning wasn't as eventful. There were 2 mute swans, marsh harriers and a Chinese water deer and heard some pinging bearded tits at Fen Hide and to add to that, 20 or so gadwall, 10+ coots, 6 greylags and a few mallards at Reception Hide and that was as good as it got. It was such a freezing, cold morning that I just couldn't wait to get back home and warm up.

Jan 29th Waterloo Park

The RSPB's Big Garden Bird Watch weekend has returned for its 53rd year in which you spend an hour watching your garden and record the birds that appear in that hour. I don't have a garden myself, so I went to my local park to help out with an event that was promoting this annual survey. The Friends of Waterloo Park and the RSPB has joined forces and set up several stalls at the centre of the park. I was helping out at the RSPB gazebo overlooking some trees full of bird feeders. 

The feeders were attracting many birds. A lot of them being finches. Greenfinches and goldfinches were well represented here. However, the star bird was a leucistic chaffinch. An unusually white chaffinch. It was so white that the local residents living nearby were mistaking it for a snow bunting. Every time it showed up, it really stood out like a sore thumb. It was a very beautiful individual.

Jan 30th Norwich

As I didn't have a garden myself, I walked over to my parent's house to do the survey instead. They were away for the weekend, so I had the place to myself. There were more birds outside their garden than in it, but between 9:42 and 10:42 I recorded 4 blackbirds, 1 blue tit, 1 robin, 1 woodpigeon and 1 dunnock.