Ice & Storms

 Jan 8th Strumpshaw Fen

It has been three weeks since my last shift at Strumpshaw due to floods, Christmas and football. So I was glad to be back. However, it was a freezing cold return complete with sleet and hail. There wasn't too much around either to get excited about during my early morning walk.

The weather did not improve as the morning went on. At least it was a little warmer under the heaters inside Reception Hide. The highlights of the day were mostly outside the hide's door and by the feeders (which I filled up only to discover that they were half empty by the end of my shift, which suggest the birds were really hungry). This include a mixed flock of siskins and goldfinches with the odd redpoll amongst them. Also seen were pink-footed geese, marsh harriers and mute swans.

Redpoll (Jan 8th), Brent Goose,
Spotted Redshank, Brambling,
Sun Reflection On Beach & Snipe (Jan 14th)

Jan 14th Titchwell

The first big outing of 2024. My parents and I went to Titchwell and discovered and we discovered their 50th anniversary. I thought it would be fun idea to find 50 birds to celebrate. Amazingly, I managed to do so.

The highlights included a velvet scoter amongst a floating group of common scoter on the sea, bramblings on the feeders and a tawny owl hiding in a tree covered in ivy fast asleep. The other 46 were; brent, greylag and pink-footed geese, pintails, wigeon, a female goldeneye, tufted ducks, teal, mallards, coot, shovelers, gadwall, shelducks, a water pipit, bar-tailed godwits, dunlin, turnstones, common redshanks, a spotted redshank, curlews, linnets, herring, black-headed and great black-backed gulls, goldfinches, a snipe, reed buntings, red kite, marsh harrier, robins, dunnocks, blue, great and long-tailed tits, oystercatchers, grey plovers, little grebe, water rail, sanderlings, cormorant, moorhen, blackbird, magpie and carrion crow. A great day, though a very cold one!

Jan 15th Strumpshaw Fen

Another freezing cold day with ice and frost covering some parts of the reserve first thing. There must have been a high tide recently as the Fen and Tower hides were closed off due to flooding. My morning walk was reduced to just the woodland trail (which had many trees blown over due to Storm Henk) where I saw a treecreeper, found the first few snowdrops and spooked a large flock of bramblings, redwings, fieldfares and blackbirds. The rest of the morning was uninteresting except for a bittern making two appearances.

Jan 17th Cley

Yet another chilly day and as I had a week off from work, my parents (Dad also had a week off, while Mum had the day off) decided to go out in it to Cley. When we got there, Mum and I went to the three main hides and there were many birds out on Pat's Pool, including many wigeon, shovelers, teal, a pair of pintails, avocets, black-headed gulls, the odd shelduck and a couple of dunlin. The pool itself was a bit icy. From another hide, we managed to spot a couple of snipe hidden in the grass.

While at lunch at the visitor centre, a red kite and a buzzard flew by the windows. After lunch, Dad and I made our way to the sea via East Bank, seeing a kingfisher fly past me along the way. The highlight though was finding a grey seal on Arnold's Marsh. Never seen one there before. It seemed happy enough hunting for fish in the shallow water. Also seen were stonechats, a heron, a little egret, lapwings, wigeon and two buzzards.

Jan 18th Buckenham Marshes

I went to Buckenham with Dad and as we were travelling up to the reserve, it began to snow! A light dusting of it covered the already frozen reserve. It made birds like snipe stand out like a sore thumb, and there were a lot of them. Also in the snow were a few thousand wigeon, a few lapwings, some teal, a marsh harrier, the odd swan and quite a few Chinese water deer. We also saw a hare on the drive over. The snow then started to disappear by the time we returned to the car.

Snowdrops (Jan 15th), Dunlin &
Grey Seal (Jan 17th) Snow At Buckenham,
Wigeon & Their Footprints In The Snow

Jan 27th Norwich

Due to a very strong storm, I was advised to stay away from Strumpshaw on the 22nd. That meant I had no opportunity to go out to do much other than work. Thankfully, this weekend was the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch, an annual national census on the UK's garden birds. As I don't have a garden of my own, I went to my parent's house to do the hour long survey. My parents were out visiting one of my brothers, so I had the place to myself. I started the survey just after 9am and I counted 3 blackbirds, a robin, a dunnock, 2 blue tits, a great tit, 2 long-tailed tits and, a big surprise, a male blackcap, which visited twice!

Jan 29th Strumpshaw Fen

It was still dark on my arrival to Strumpshaw, but it was to be a spring-like day. A barn owl was flying over the reedbeds and the river. After an almost pointless and very muddy walk to Tower Hide (though I did see shelducks, marsh harriers, Canada geese, mallards, swans and a heron), I made my way to the pumphouse and found the owl again peek out of an owl box fast asleep. I also spooked up a few snipe and saw a couple of Chinese water deer in the meadows as I was walking along the river.

During my shift, there wasn't too much about other than a coot (which I haven't seen on this broad for quite some time), marsh harriers, more swans, a heron, a water rail, a female reed bunting, a few gadwall and some mallards and not too much else. As it was the last day of the Big Garden Birdwatch and no one has done an hour here yet, I decided to do the survey of the birds visiting the feeder area. During the hour, I recorded roughly 5 great tits, 8 blue tits, 3 marsh tits, a coal tits, 4 chaffinches, 3 dunnocks, 2 robins, a blackbird, a woodpigeon, a pheasant, a jay and a grey squirrel.