October Of Two Halves

 Oct 1st Holkham Hall & Wells Pools

I was hoping to see the rut of red and fallow deer at Holkham Hall to add to my displays and spectacles challenge. Sadly, though, it didn't seem to have started yet. There was no sign of the red deer and, though the fallow deer were out in large numbers in the open, they weren't doing very much. I did hear the odd grunt from a buck and saw some signs like antlers being rubbed against branches and the ground and the bucks were sniffing the does to check if they are in season, but there was no antler clashing at this point. It looks like it could be another week or two until things could get interesting.

Fallow Deer & Wilson's Phalarope (Oct 1st),
Manx Shearwater & Chicory (Oct 8th) &
Grey Heron & Great White Egret (Oct 9th)

Disappointed, I convinced my parents to take me to the other side of Wells to some pools where a rare American wader had been reported for the past few days. A Wilson's phalarope. A bird I last saw 10 years ago at Cley. This one was out on the eastern pool along a spit of land in front of a gathering of wigeon, godwits and other things. It was actually showing well 10 minutes before I arrived but had flew off to that spit and the only way for me to see it was through someone's scope for a couple of quick glances.

It was smaller than I remember. Especially when beside a wigeon. As a 1st winter individual, it was white with some grey. In summer, they are more colourful, but it is the female that displays to the males, the complete opposite to most other bird species. I was glad to see it, but it was too distant to photograph.

Oct 2nd Strumpshaw Fen

A dull and gloomy morning, but had plenty to see. I had an hour on my own inside Fen Hide before my shift and saw a bittern, a great white egret, snipe, a sparrowhawk, marsh harriers, a pair of swans with 5 juveniles, heard bearded tits and, at Sandy Wall, a water rail. I also encountered a green woodpecker a few times and a muntjac.

From Reception Hide, an otter, a kingfisher for most of my shift, a bittern in the distance, a stonechat, shovelers, gadwall and a cormorant. After coming back from the toilet, I discovered a red-legged partridge peering through the window above the desk. It was so close to the glass it seemed as it was breathing onto it and left what seemed to be condensation, but it was actually the powdery residue from its breast feathers.

Oct 8th Cley

My 10th visit of the year at Cley and I wanted to do a spot of sea watching more than anything else. I did pop into Bishop's Hide and though there were many birds on the scrapes, there wasn't anything that would cause too much excitement to me. A marsh harrier, avocets, godwits, dunlin ruff, many wigeon, teal, shovelers, gadwall, lapwings and a few common gulls amongst the many black-headed gulls, nothing rare and out of the ordinary.

We then made our way to the beach via the East Bank. I joined a group of sea watchers and set my scope up. The sea was relatively calm with light fog in the horizon. It was a really good session with many things flying over or floating on the waves. This included several Manx shearwaters gliding low over the sea on their long black and white wings with ease. There were also many gannets (adults and juveniles), common and sandwich terns, common scoters, brent geese, wigeon, razorbills, a Mediterranean gull, a red-throated diver, a grey seal and a short-eared owl (though my phone rang and distracted me from seeing it properly)!

After what was a great spot of sea watching, I backtracked down East Bank and saw some curlews, redshanks and heard bearded tits. But it was at the sluice gates near the shelter that distracted me the most as I not just saw a kingfisher dart down the ditch, there was also an otter swimming across the same channel of water for a few minutes while using the reed edges as cover.

Oct 9th Strumpshaw Fen

A warm day for October. I went to Tower Hide where a female red-crested pochard was seen yesterday. Not today though. Many shovelers, gadwall, mallards, wigeon and teal instead as well as a great white egret, a little egret, a heron, 5 cormorants, greylags and a little grebe. I also glimpsed a kingfisher on the way back, redwings on the way there earlier and heard pink-footed geese and bearded tits.

Reception Hide had most of the above including 3 wigeon, two marsh harriers, buzzards and the great white egret, little egret and heron entertained the most. When the heron flew in, it landed on the submerged stump in the water and before its feet made contact to the stump, it managed to catch a fish and ate it!

Oct 17th Westonbirt Arboretum

I was spending a week with my parents in Gloucestershire and though most of this week was mostly visiting zoos and meeting my younger brother and his fiancée, we did go to Westonbirt Arboretum which is a good place to see the best of the autumn colour. I've been here before in 2016, where I was impressed by the amount of colour and adding this natural wonder to my challenge list is a good enough reason to visit again. However, it has been a warm autumn so far and it seems to have caused a delay for the majority of the trees to change colour.

Japanese Maple (Oct17th), Flood at Strumpshaw,
Spider silk in sunrise, Upright Coral,
Earthstars (Oct 23rd) & Trumpet Lichen (Oct 30th)

It was a cool but pleasant day and though the colour displays were limited at this point, we still had some trees displaying yellows, reds, purples, etc. The arboretum has trees from all over the world and its most popular were the Japanese maples which has its own section of the site. It was more colourful here than anywhere else. And they came in many leaf shapes and sizes. This was perhaps the best part of my walk here and though I was disappointed that most of the trees were still green, I did learn a lot about the trees that I lacked before. It was like a zoo for trees and labels dangling on their branches or placed on their trunks, which really helped me learn which tree was which.

The remainder of my week off was fairly miserable as the weather changed to relentless downpours of rain that lasted for the remaining three days. On the third and final of these days, Storm Babet hit. It was Dad's birthday and we spent most of it driving across the country in poor visibility, constant backsplashes from lorries and navigated through a few floods in Suffolk, where we ended up for the night at my other brother's place. One of the worst journeys I've had in recent years.

Oct 23rd Strumpshaw Fen

It was a much nicer day on my return to Strumpshaw. However, the river had flooded and I had to close off the Fen Trail. I had to settle with an extra longer stay at Fen Hide with views of a great white egret, a marsh harrier and heard pinging bearded tits. I also had a quick fungi foray in the woods, finding an upright coral and three earthstars.

It was a busy day at Reception Hide as many families enjoying our spooky half term activities. It was also the day of the bittern as from outside the hide, I had several sightings of at least one or two flying between the reedbeds at the back of the broad. There was also two great white egrets having a disagreement with one another, a heron, skeins of pink-footed geese, swans, mallards, greylags, shovelers, an Egyptian goose flying by, bearded tits and marsh harriers.

Oct 28th Holkham Hall

It was time to try my luck again with the deer rut at Holkham Hall. This time I went with my Aunt Barbara, though she did accidentally sent us to Houghton Hall as she put the wrong postcode into the sat nav by mistake, taking us a little longer to get there than we had liked. 

This time, the rut was happening (in the thick mist), but there was no sign of any antler clashing that I really wanted to see. The red deer was nowhere in sight either. Only the fallow deer was showing in the open and a few of the bucks were making some noise grunting and hanging around the does very closely. An improvement from my last visit, but not as good as I hoped. A bit disappointing, but at least seeing a red kite fly over our heads made up for it.

Oct 30th Strumpshaw Fen

For the final walk at Strumpshaw before Halloween, I thought I would look for something different. I did a loop around the reserve via the woods and the pumphouse searching for lichen and mosses. I don't really know any of the names or that much about them, but it was an eye opener. A couple of species dominated, but there was a surprising variety if you look hard enough. My favourite was a trumpet lichen which has this otherworldly look to it with these strange trumpet-like structures poking out. I also saw a couple of fieldfares and a flock of bearded tits during my walk.

The rest of the morning was quite dull. There was not a duck on the broad and there was just a family of swans. If it wasn't for the marsh harriers flying close, a few buzzards, a passing kestrel and a glimpse of a bittern at the very end of the shift, it was almost a forgettable morning.