Dec 4th Strumpshaw Fen
After a week away from Strumpshaw due to heavy rain and flooding, I returned and the weather was still lousy, but at least it stopped raining by mid-morning. It was a dull, grey day, but at least the floods resided.
I was given a lift to the reserve and the rain was at its most persistent, so I spent a good hour at Fen Hide. The marsh harriers were emerging from their roost with one looking rather soaked perched on a bush. I also saw a great white egret and a few pink-footed geese flying over and heard bearded tits.
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| Otter & Heron Eating Eels (Dec 4th) Grey Seals & Pup (Dec 10th) Dawn Rainbow & Sunrise (Dec 18th) |
The weather improved but was still gloomy by the time I started my shift. It was the wildlife that provided the light in this dull scene in the form of a heron and an otter. The heron had managed to catch an eel in an open area of cut reed to the right of the hide. It then dropped and lost it after a few attempts in swallowing it down. Some time later, an otter appeared on the scene and found the eel a short distance behind the heron and took it away to eat a little further near the far side of the same area.
The otter took quite some time munching on it before swimming off again. However, it didn't end there. Near the end of my shift, the heron caught another eel. A real monster of one, far bigger than the one eaten by the otter. It became an epic battle of life and death between predator and prey. The heron kept stabbing at it until it managed to get its bill stuck within the eel's body. Eventually, it freed itself and attempted to swallow it whole. But even then, it struggled to swallow due to the eel still putting up a fight and wrapping its tail around the bird's head and bill. It took about 4-5 attempts to finally get the eel down its gullet.
The broad's edges were fringed with sheets of ice where many ducks took shelter when the otter was around.. This included a pair of gadwall, a shoveler, a teal and seven swans. I also saw a great spotted woodpecker on the feeders.
Dec 10th Horsey Gap
This morning, Dad took me out to see the seals at Horsey. The most recent count in pup births here (from Dec 7th) this year so far was 3224 and 3608 adults on the beach. Not as many as there were at Blakeney Point, but at least I'm guaranteed in ticking another spectacle off my list. It is also a lot easier to get to than at Blakeney, so at least I didn't have to walk that far.
Every winter, thousands of grey seals arrive to this beach to give birth and to mate. The beach didn't seem that packed from the viewing area, but all I saw was just one small section. Along the coastline from Horsey to Winterton, these seals were practically everywhere. Amongst them were their pups of various ages (most still in their white coats) guarded by their mothers.
Big bull seals were also on the beach and I witnessed a few matings, which seemed rather forceful with a lot of biting involved. Up on the dunes, a few females had given birth and raised their pups where the public were, away from the other seals. One mother and pup had forced the path beyond closed off completely, preventing us to go any further. It ended up being a shorter visit, but still a good one all the same.
Dec 11th Strumpshaw Fen
A much nicer day than last Monday, though Tower Hide was closed off due to flooding. So I went to Fen Hide and had an otter swim around in front of it for a short while and saw marsh harriers, a great white egret and heard bearded tits. At Reception Hide, I spotted a water rail, another great white egret, swans, a few mallards and marsh harriers and a great spotted woodpecker on the feeders.
Dec 18th Strumpshaw Fen
A fantastic dawn sky welcomed to Strumpshaw. Walking to the reserve, it was still dark but pink-footed geese and rooks and jackdaws were leaving their roosting sites by their thousands. By the time I got to the Sandy Wall, there was a little bit of a drizzle in the air, but that wasn't enough to dull the bright and colourful sunrise over the meadow trail. Behind me though, on the opposite side of the reserve, an enormous rainbow sitting atop of some glowing clouds stretched across the orange-pink sky. Colours were bleeding into one another. It was like looking into heaven. It was absolutely breathtaking!
Inside Fen Hide, I watched the rainbow fade away. The scene outside was rather empty without it. There was one surprise in the form of a green sandpiper which flew right in front of the hide, calling away with its loud piping voice. This bird should be in Africa by now, but as winter has been on the mild side, which could be why it hasn't really migrated south yet. Also seen today were pink-footed geese, marsh harriers, siskins, possible redpolls, a great white egret (flying briefly), a treecreeper, a great spotted woodpecker on the feeders, greylags, mute swans and heard bearded tits.
Dec 23rd Cley
My last visit to Cley of the year and the last outing before Christmas. It completes a whole year of monthly visits to the reserve. It was a short visit though as I had to get to Carrow Road in the afternoon.
Mum and I made our way to the central hides. We were a bit cautious as an enormous high tide had already made Strumpshaw almost completely underwater the day before and we wondered if the paths at Cley were the same. Thankfully it wasn't. However, though Pat's Pool was full of birds, it wasn't to be that memorable of a morning. A mass of gulls, godwits, lapwings, teal, shovelers, wigeon and a few shelducks, avocets and a turnstone were constantly spooked up into the air by a couple of marsh harriers, erupting like a snow globe. A large flyover of hundreds of pink-footed geese, an arrival of a smaller number of brent geese on the pool and a kingfisher were the other highlights of the morning before heading back to watch Norwich beat Huddersfield 2-0 beneath a bright red-orange sunset.
Dec 30th Welney
After spending Christmas at Hadleigh round my brother's place and seeing red kites fly over my head while escaping the tantrums between my nieces over toys for a few minutes and the remainder of the week going to work, it was time for one last outing for 2023. I met up with former Reception Hide partner, Tricia and we made our way to Welney in the hope of seeing the whooper swan roost, which is my final spectacle to tick off remaining.
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| Welney Swan Feed, Whooper Swan, Cattle Egret, Pochard & Scaup With Tufted Duck (Dec 30th) |
We arrived around midday, so plenty of time to kill. Tree sparrows were our first target of the day. I managed to spot one amongst a flock of house sparrow visiting the feeders at the visitor centre, though it took some time later for Tricia to see one herself. In the area behind the feeders, a flooded pool had our first whooper swans of the day. Behind them, fields with sheep and around 12-14 cattle egrets following them.
Crossing the bridge over the road to the main hide, we discovered a talk was going on with a warden out in the water with a wheelbarrow of seed feeding the many pochards, mallards and the odd mute swan. Only a few whoopers though. Amongst the ducks, however, we did manage to spot a male scaup between dives and, away from the feeding frenzy, goldeneyes, wigeon, teal, a pintail, a spit of land full of lapwings, black-tailed godwits, a few dunlin and curlew and a spotted redshank.
We waited after dark for the whoopers to arrive in what I hoped in large numbers. Sadly, it was just a smaller number than expected (about under 100 or so) that came in to roost. Not the mass gathering I was hoping to see. It appears that the water was too deep for them this year, meaning they could not feed . Apparently they've been roosting elsewhere this winter. It left us feeling a little disappointed, but it was a good day nonetheless. Goodbye, 2023.
