I forgot my camera! I left it at home by mistake. It was ok though as there wasn't much around of interest to photograph anyway.
It was a very misty morning that became a very hot one. I went for a walk through the woods and along the river, passing by the pumphouse. I was mainly continuing my tree search for my latest drawing project that I will further continue next year. There were a few new additions in the form of hornbeam and pine trees that I could only find at one corner of the woods, but this walk was mostly dominated with oaks, hazels, hawthorns, willows, ashes and a few rowans. I also heard siskins, the first of the autumn, and saw a kingfisher flying down river.
At Reception Hide, it was fairly quiet but very hot outside. It was like June again. The highlights include; a great white egret, a heron, swallows, house martins, shovelers, two wigeon, marsh harriers, mute swans and migrant and southern hawkers.
Sep 11th Strumpshaw Fen
A much cooler day than it has been, but it did get hotter by the afternoon. A heatwave had hit the UK for the past week with temperatures of around 30°C. September had been more of a scorcher than most of the summer.
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| Kingfisher |
My morning walk wasn't that memorable at all besides a couple of lizards and a marsh harrier. My shift at Reception Hide was a little more interesting with a short otter appearance and my first kingfisher at Strumpshaw in quite a while, which perched on a few perches and hovering in the air a couple of times. I also watched two great white egrets and spotted a pygmy shrew which pooped out from a crack under the bench next to me inside the hide. There was also one more addition to my tree project, an aspen.
Sep 17th Cley
Not a very exciting visit to Cley. It was a dull, drizzly day, it became very autumnal as it should be for this time of year. The hides provided mostly ducks like shovelers, teal, some wigeon, shelducks and two female pintails as well as avocets, godwits and black-headed and lesser black-backed gulls.
The murky conditions seemed perfect for a spot of sea watching. So I joined a small group of three sea watchers in the shelter on the beach and scanned the waves with my scope. All I could find were a lot of gannets and razorbills with the odd red-throated diver and cormorants. No skuas though. They always seem to avoid me when I sea watch for some reason.
Sep 18th Strumpshaw Fen
A nicer day despite a thunderstorm apparently soaked the ground overnight (which I slept right through). I did a loop round the woods and pumphouse, seeing a kingfisher, many house martins, a willow emerald damselfly and a dark bush cricket along the river and lizards along Sandy Wall.
It was fairly quiet outside Reception Hide, though I did see a hobby or two, marsh harriers, a kestrel, plenty of ducks and a massive fly over of a hundred or so greylags passing through. Inside the hide provided the real highlight. A pygmy shrew was zipping beneath my feet under the benches. It used the gaps in the floor and wall as cover between scurries for crumbs. It was small, but lightning fast.
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| Pygmy Shrew |
Sep 24th Minsmere
A rare visit to Minsmere as I decided my parents and I go see what's about for the first time since February. There had been a few interesting things here a week or two before, such as a buff-breasted sandpiper. There wasn't anything like that around this time, but there was a crowd forming on the boardwalk over the pond near the visitor centre. They were watching water voles. Though I did eventually found one myself, it was very well obscured in a patch of reeds. A couple of grass snakes swimming in the same pond were a little more obliging.
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| Grass Snake |
Out on the scrapes, there was plenty of waders and wildfowl to see. Avocets, ruff, two common sandpipers, lapwing, black-tailed godwits, little egrets, herons, wigeon, shovelers, teal, gadwall, a common tern and an Arctic tern (with a deformed bill), great black-backed gulls, several Canada geese and a distant marsh harrier and kestrel in the horizon.
While my parents left me at the scrapes and did their own thing over at Bittern and Island Mere hides, I continued the loop round the scrapes and made my way back to the pond to see the water vole again. I was able to see one and later a second which came for a short scrap which it ended losing. Some apple in the water enticed the victor out of the reeds to provide me and the latest crowd a decent view of it. It is always a delight to watch these rare rodents.
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| Water Vole |
Sep 25th Strumpshaw Fen
A rather unexciting visit to Tower Hide. Though there were many ducks around as well as three little grebes and a swan, there wasn't much else of note while the low morning sun blinded me. I also saw at least 10 lizards along Sandy Wall.
My latest shift at Reception Hide was far more interesting as it had many highlights. This included close views of an otter that swam in front of the hide. A bittern also made a brief appearance as it flew across the broad from the left to right. A hobby was swooping from high above, a few bearded tits flew into the reeds from the islands and a kingfisher made a short visit by the end of my shift.
