Jan 10th Dersingham Bog and Roydon Common

Dersingham Bog

Norfolk is more than just The Broads and a beautiful coastline. I'm in West Norfolk with my dad, not too far from the royal estate of Sandringham. We are visiting two sites that is home to a landscape of heather and a target bird in each. Will we see them both?

Our first site is Dersingham Bog to look for the exotic golden pheasant. This is an alien species from China, but a feral population is established here. It is a colourful bird with gold and scarlet plumage and a long tail. They were introduced here as a gamebird in the late 1800's, but they discovered that golden pheasants prefer to hide in dense vegetation than to fly into the aim of their guns. To see one you need to get here dawn (or dusk), but I couldn't persuade my dad to get up early. So, I had to make do with a late morning walk instead.

Female Stonechat

Male Stonechat

We were greeted as we arrived with a view of a muntjac deer and a pheasant (not a goldie I'm afraid) along the roadside. We also came across a redwing and a sparrowhawk on the start of our walk. This site has a boardwalk across an acidic bog which is home in summer to unique plants such as sundews and wild cranberry, but now, everything is brown and out of season. The heather too is waiting for summer and the landscape appears dead. The stonechats provided the charm in this bleak scene as they flit from perch to perch and back. These rust-orange breasted little birds seem to follow us around in small groups. We watched 2-3 of these birds for a while, posing on the heather. The males still with black heads, while females without.

In the woods, large mixed flocks of long-tailed tits. blue tits, coal tits and goldcrests were patrolling the thin branches. It is always good to check a flock of tits as other small birds like goldcrests often tag along during the winter months. As for those golden pheasants, the best place to look are under Rhododendron bushes. Even with those striking colours, though, a golden pheasant is a master of 'hide and seek' and it clearly demonstrates this as I fail to see one this morning.

Fieldfares

Our next location is Roydon Common. Here I have come to find a great grey shrike that has been wintering on this site this winter. We arrived as someone with a scope was leaving. He told us that it was still around which was promising. But first, I notice a large mixed flock of fieldfare, starling and what could possibly be corn buntings (though I couldn't get good enough views of them to get a positive I.D.) and decided to get a closer look of them.



Roydon Common

We made our way to the spot where the shrike was last seen. We staked out the spot for an hour on top of a small hillock, under a tree. While waiting for this shrike, gulls swooped over the heather and a flock of lapwings flew by with floppy-looking wings. The strong icy winds were taking its toll over me as I became too cold to hang around waiting anymore and I decided to give up. Today, I wasn't going to see the bird that I have longed to see since I saw one as a kid on 'The Animals of Farthing Wood' taking the rodent characters of the show to skewer on a barbed wire fence on display like a set of butcher's hooks. It is still on my wish list... for now.

The sun was beginning to set as we made are way back. But then, Roydon gave us a conoslation prize that you could say is even better than a shrike. A female hen harrier was out hunting. She was distant but that 'V'-shaped flight posture that all harriers do with their wings gave her away as a harrier. You could also make out a white patch on her back near her ringed (or banded) tail. Her body is brown  and her head is owl-like with yellow eyes. She is beautiful enough on her own, but then I saw another harrier. This was a male hen harrier. He looks completely different as he is pale grey with wingtips that appear as if they were dipped in black ink. These rare birds come to roost here at Roydon during winter months. Hen harriers (as far as I know), don't breed in Norfolk but arrive here for winter from Europe and Northern Britain instead. This is a special sight for me and Dad, who has never seen one before, and it makes up for missing out on the golden pheasant and the shrike.

Jan 9th Catton Park, Norwich

Catton Park

Catton Park is yet another of my local patches in Norwich. It is just a short walk from my flat, surrounded by busy roads. This site was created in the 1770's by landscape designer Humphry Repton and is a large grassland area dotted with ancient oak trees and bordered with two wooded sections that stretches three sides of the park. It is a popular dog walking site and many people are already here with their dogs. For me, however, I am here for the wildlife and the ancient trees.



The Catton Eagle

Taking a walk under the tall oaks, beeches and other tree species in the woods can make you feel small yet one with nature. The ground is muddy and the air has a slight chill, brought to me by a winter breeze. It is peaceful. You forget that a busy road is nearby. It is the time to start learning bird sounds (or refreshing your skills if you know the common sounds already like I do) as there are fewer bird species singing at this time of year. I move slow and keeping my footsteps as silient as possible so I can hear more clearly. I cup my ears with my hands to increase my hearing slightly and to direct myself to where the sounds are coming from.



Nuthatch

In a wooded area like this, blue and great tits are the most numerous. But, if you want something more exciting than a blue tit's 'seee seee seeee seeeee' or a great tit's  'teacher teacher' to learn, then keep your ears out for loud wolf whistle-like 'weeep weeep weeeep weeeeep' calls. This belongs to the nuthatch, a tree climbing specialist. One was high above me pecking at a branch for food beneath the bark. It showed off it's climbing skills by climbing the underside of the branch without a single feather drooping by gravity. It has adapted claws and feet that can cling onto even the smoothest of bark surface.




Ancient Oaks

Away from the first wood and out onto the open grass field. A handful of giant redwoods stand really tall dotted in different places along the edges of the park. In the centre of the park, however, standing like natural works of art are ancient oaks. Some are hundreds of years older than others and stood with broken or distorted branches. A few look nothing more than dead trunks with short branches, but of course there is no such thing as a dead tree as many things still call it home. They have a lasting presence when you get near them, like elderly people with many stories of their life to tell.



I reach the top of the park, where Catton Hall is sited. I sit on a bench in front of this building and admired the view of the ancient oaks with Norwich Cathedral in the distance. The trees frame the city view perfectly. Humphry Repton designed that on purpose when he created this park.

Catton Pond

I continue my way round Catton Park until I came across a pond fenced off to stop dogs from entering. This is a dog free-zone, one of two areas like this on the site. As an anti-dog person, I love this idea. I have an area where I can watch wildlife without someone's dog charging in and disturbing the peace. At this pond, I watched from a bench as blue and great tits take a bath, while long-tailed tits patrol the branches of the surrounding shrubs. I love this spot!

Grey Squirrel

Walking the last section of woodland now, before leaving the park altogether and I find several grey squirrels around me. A few were posing on a branch or groundlevel for me, feeding on seeds. Others chased each other through the trees. This is a game of 'kiss chase', sort of. A female tests the fitness of the pursuing males with a fast chase through the trees. The one that keeps up gets a chance to mate with her.

Just before I return home, I want to introduce you to a giant friend that towers over the street not far from where I live. It is a large beech tree with an amazing labyrinth of a root system. I'm always in awe with it when I pass it. This is an impressive looking tree, I hope no one ever chops it down. I love this tree so much that in November 2013, I drew a picture of it for my wildlife diary that year.

Jan 7th Strumpshaw Fen

Marsh Harrier

My first shift at Strumpshaw for 2015 was fairly quiet. From Reception Hide, apart from mallards, coots, the odd marsh harrier and a sparrowhawk being mobbed by crows, there was very little about.

Treecreeper

Walking along the woodland path, however, was much more interesting. Small birds from the tit family were flitting about in nearly every branch by the path. Blue, Great, Marsh and Long-tailed tits (the latter not a true tit by the way) were very inquisitive in an area where a stump had food put out by photographers. They were joined by robins, dunnocks and chaffinches. There was also a treecreeper spiralling up the surrounding tree trunks, searching for insects hidden beneath the bark. All these small woodland birds are a challenge to photograph as they are constantly moving. Every time I find them in my bridge camera, get them in focus, press the button to take a picture, they become a blur or are absent in my shot. I guess everyone has this problem? I've only had the camera nearly a year now, so I'm still learning the basics.

Great Tit

Robin

While I was walking along the woodland path, I came across a mole hill in action. This mound of fresh soil was moving! It bulged upwards several times. I waited as still as possible to see if it came up. For a second, I thought a snout was going to break the surface and I was going to see my first living mole! But no. It decided to stay under and the mole hill became still. Still an exciting moment though.

Jan 5th NWT Cley Marshes

View of NWT Cley Marshes

After feeling under the weather for most of the new year so far, it is nice to finally get some fresh air. I am on the North Norfolk coast at the popular Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve of Cley Marshes with my mum. As it is my first outing of the year, I am hoping it will start my year with a bang. I wasn't disappointed.
As we made our way to the cluster of three hides at the centre of the site, we bumped into someone from BBC Radio Norfolk who wanted to interview us about our expectations of our birding year and what we are hoping to see. I did most of the talking as Mum is less knowledgeable on the subject than I am. I think he was happy with my answers.



Black-tailed Godwit

Once that surprise interview was over, we entered the first hide (the one on our right). The view was a scrape full of birds and more was coming in the longer we stayed inside the hide. Black-tailed godwits were busy feeding close to our hide and were joined by wigeon. On the scrape with them were; lapwing, dunlin, pintail, avocets and a large flock of golden plover. At first the golden plover were on a tiny island on our far right. But then something must have spooked them as hundreds of these birds took to the air in a murmuration of gold and white and then settled on the island in front of us.

Golden Plover

Golden plover is a personal favourite of mine and when they settle in front of you like a carpet of speckly golden feathered bodies, I just had to show them off to someone. That person, of course, was Mum. With my scope, she could see the detail of their upper wings. The speckles were like gold leaf mingled with black dots. The birds were figety and costantly stretched their wings, revealing the clean white undersides. For the original lapwings and dunlin that were roosting there before the golden plover showed up were now outnumbered. Joining them, almost unnoticed by us, was a snipe. It's cryptic camourflage seemed just as good for hiding amongst golden birds as it is for normal vegetation, only that huge bill it possesses gave it away.

Brent Goose

A winter visit to Cley means that you are garanteed in seeing large flocks of wild geese. Today, we had two species flying above us from many directions. Brent geese were bold enough to join the plovers, ducks and the other waders we've been watching on both viewable scrapes. These are black and grey geese with a white neck bar patch and tail. You can hear them calling to one another with barking 'brr brrr brr' sounds.

Pink-footed Geese

 Above them, pink-footed geese (or pink-feet as I call them) were also coming over in good numbers but were not stopping by like the brent. The name points out the reason for why these grey-brown geese were named, those pink feet. Those feet are not the only things that are pink, their bill is too. They also like to call out the word 'pink' as part of their most distinctive vocal calls 'pink-wink-wink pink-wink-wink'. Listen out for that phrase and you will know that you have pink-feet in the air somewhere, flying in 'V'-shaped skeins.

No visit to Cley is complete without a sighting of a marsh harrier and we had a male and a female patrolling the shrubs and reedbeds in the background. Cley often provides great birdwatching opportunities and is probably why Mum and I enjoy coming here a lot. This will be the first of many visits to this reserve this year.

Shelduck

Wigeon

My 2014 - Review Of The Year

As 2014 comes to an end, there is no better time to revisit my best moments of the year. It has been a blast and I hope 2015 delivers the same.

JANUARY
2014 started with the hangover of last year. No, I'm not talking about drinking too much, I'm talking about the start of the recovery work from December 2013's surge. I visited NWT Cley Marshes and the place was in a state. Reedbed sections were dumped onto paths and the public hide near the beach was washed away. Even Strumpshaw was effected as salt water was forced down the River Yare and overflowed into the freshwater broads. Luckly, most of it was removed by draining using the sluices.




My article in local paper


January wasn't all bad for me though. Not only did I see my first ever glossy ibis near the village of Cley, I was also interviewed by local paper, The Eastern Daily Press (EDP for short) and had a double-paged spread about my wildlife diaries, the bird guide of Afghanistan for my soldier brother and the work I do for Strumpshaw and Mousehold Heath.


FEBRUARY
This February, I walked amongst thousands of snowdrops at Hoveton House which was like seeing snow in the woods. A waxwing was busy gorging on apples at Ber Street in Norwich for a couple of weeks. But my main highlight for February was at Mayday Farm near Thetford. I was looking for goshawks displaying from the viewing area, but only managed to hear one (which is good enough to me). Instead of goshawks, I managed to finally see my bogey bird. I had been trying to see crossbills for years but failed, so I was really happy when I saw a flock of them here when I wasn't looking for them.

MARCH

I got my first bridge camera for my birthday and I tried it out everywhere in March. My previous camera conveniently died on me a day before my birthday at Minsmere, where I watched great crested grebes dancing and got close to red deer (my last photo with my old camera). At Lynford Aboretum, I saw a hawfinch and my first firecrest. It was too fast to get it's picture, but I still enjoyed listening to it singing and seeing its fiery-coloured crest all the same.

Grasshopper Warbler

APRIL                                                                                                      April was the start of the butterfly surveys at Mousehold Heath. Also this month, Strumpshaw was being productive with migrant birds. On April 16th, I had a male and female garganey in front of Reception Hide early that morning along with a little gull that hung around for the rest of the day. On April 23rd, I was lucky enough to not only see a grasshopper warbler but to also get it's photo taken. And at the same time, I found a glow-worm looking for a place to hide for the day.

MAY
For Dawn Chorus Day, I listened to a variety of bird song at Whitlingham Broad with a stunning sunrise as a backdrop. The birds I heard here included; cuckoo, common sandpiper, green woodpecker and a host of warblers and common woodland and wetland birds. At Strumpshaw on May 14th, I was walking back along the river, when 3 cranes called and flew past me low at my level down the river! They then landed at Fen Hide, where I saw them again. This was the first time I had seen them here and it made me really pleased. Maybe they will eventually breed here next year? Lets hope so! Also that month, I made a visit to Choseley Barns and Titchwell Marshes where I saw my first dotterel and wall butterfly, corn bunting, turtle dove, red-crested pochards and little terns.

JUNE

Swallowtail

In June, I came across Norfolk hawker dragonflies at Mousehold Heath for the first time. This was unusual as there's hardly any water at this site and the city is close by too. On June 9th, I made a visit to Minsmere during the last week BBC Springwatch was there. As well as sand martins, kittiewakes, a hummingbird hawkmoth and the green woodpecker chick still in it's nest hole, I managed to spot a busy Martin Hughes-Games in a jeep driving past me. Strumpshaw was busy due to many visitors arriving for the annual swallowtail season. It was a pic of a swallowtail that won me an online monthly photo competition for June and a place in the website SpotterJotter's calander.

JULY

Puffin

I was on holiday with my parents in July up at Northumberland. It proved to be a great week with highlights including plenty of eider mothers with ducklings, goosanders, my first ever red grouse (another bogey bird found this year) and a trip to the Farne Islands to see puffins, shags and have Arctic terns poop on me (one was a direct hit on my right eye piece lens on my binoculars!). On July 22nd, I came runner up for the Individual Award at the Norfolk Community Awards for my volunteer work and overcoming with my autism in the process.

AUGUST
August was a quiet month for me. I did however had good views of clouded yellow butterflies while on an exhaustingly long walk from Breydon to Berney Arms and back.

SEPTEMBER

Pilot Whale

Two-tailed Pasha

Two-tailed Pasha on camera lens

This year, September was my biggest and busiest month. I took part on a bird marathon for charity, counting as many bird species during the entire month. This count included the Wader Spectacular at Snettisham in which my dad and I took my mum to see thousands of knot, 4 spoonbills and other waders fly over our heads on her birthday. I also had a guided birding holiday in Southern Spain and Gibraltar which I had booked before I decided to take part in the bird marathon. Thankfully, I was allowed to include any sightings I had over there. I got to see a lot with thanks to my two guides including; 2 species of eagle and vulture (including huge griffon vultures flying low above my head), black and white storks, honey buzzards, Kentish plovers, a Montagu's harrier, serin, a blue rock thrush, slender-billed gulls, greater flamingos, Northern bald ibises on a golf course, a squacco heron and a bee-eater. On top of that, I saw fiddler crabs, a praying mantis, moorish geckos by the pool, pilot whales on a whale cruise (with one seen under the glass hull), Barbary macaques on Gibraltar Rock and two-tailed pasha butterflies with one landing on one of our group member's camera lens. I ended up winning the marathon with 158 bird species.

OCTOBER

Fallow Deer

I am happy to report that Mousehold has 6 new species of fungi discovered while on a fungi walk with a group led by expert Dr Tony Leech. Orange peel fungus was one of these new findings and it was growing at the new pond that was built last year. At Strumpshaw, the banks of the River Yare burst again due to the previous night's storm. I watched the measuring post at Reception Hide go from the 6 mark when I arrived to being submerged when I left. At Holkham Hall, I witnessed this year's fallow deer rut. Deer weren't the only thing fighting that month, as back at Strumpshaw, two mute swans tried to drown one another in an epic fight that took 10-20 minutes. Fortunately, both swans survived.

NOVEMBER

Grey Seals

My first goldeneye (a female) at Strumpshaw was about on November 5th. The annual seal pupping season started at Horsey Gap and a family of otters (mum and 2 cubs) were showing nicely at Strumpshaw on November 19th.

DECEMBER

Whooper Swan

As well as the rook roost at Buckenham, the other highlight was seeing the swan feed at WWT Welney with hundreds of whooper swans and other waterfowl coming in for their evening meal.

This concludes my great year. 2014 has been full of surprises and new and exciting wildlife experiences. What have I got planned for 2015? Well, I'm still looking for my first badgers and who knows, maybe I will eventually fulfill my dream of swimming with wild fish and marine life. You will have to find out next year. Happy New Year everyone!

Dec 29th Waterloo Park, Norwich

 

 This is the last week of the year. So today, I decided to take a walk in my local park at dusk. I don't usually walk around it at this time of day due to fear of being locked in. Waterloo Park is a small urban park on the outskirts of the city centre of Norwich and apart from dog walkers and families, you just don't know what you will find here.

Starling

Starlings are still a common sight in my part of Norwich and sometimes I find where they roost some nights along Angel Road, but not tonight. Only a small flock is around this evening, gathering on trees, TV aerials and chimneys. They chatter, wheeze and whistle in the dim light before moving on out of the park.

 As light began to fade, bird noise and activity was more apparent than when I arrived at 3pm. Robins were singing and making 'tick tick tick' calls. Dunnocks were making single 'peep' calls while bouncing around the lower branches of shrubs. Blackbirds made chuckling alarm calls and wrens sounded like old football rattles. A goldcrest was just visible in a pine tree and pigeons flew from the perches with wings clapping loudly.


The sounds gradually became silent and the sky merged with pinks, blues and oranges. Clouds were just mere thin whisps of pink sandwiched between the dimming light blue glow of the sky and the dark silhoutte outline. Only the brightness of half the moon shone brighter. Skeins of gulls flew eastwards above me as well as a plane heading to Norwich Airport and were the only dark shapes I can see in the air. Street lamps in the park were like orange spheres amongst the dark leaf-less fingers of the trees and the surrounding dark blocks of houses and other buildings.

I left the park before it got too dark, but it seemed like it was almost night and everything has gone quiet. Only a few people were still walking in the near darkness of the park when I left. The winter sky produces some of the best colour displays around and it is different every morning and evening. I just can't help but to admire it. The urban setting just provides that homely backdrop to the bright colours around me.

Dec 24th Strumpshaw Fen

It is Christmas Eve and my last week at Strumpshaw Fen for 2014. My last day started well before it began. While I was walking to the Fen, I heard a rustling noise from the long grass on the roadside verge to my right. A startled Chinese water deer had come out of hiding a few feet from me. It did not run, however, it just stood there and stared at me. I stared back at it's tusked teddy bear-like face for a few minutes until it walked away slowly onto the field.

That wasn't the only Chinese water deer I saw this morning. I found one on the Meadow Trail field, two at Fen Hide and one more at Reception Hide. That makes five in total, a record for me. These small deer are active at this time of year as it is their rutting season. Though they don't form large herds or even have antlers like larger species do. Instead, the males will find and follow a lone female or a small group of females and fight other males away with their tusks until she is ready to mate. Imagine fighting with knives in your mouth and you get the picture of how brutal the damage can be. I have seen males with torn ears and a fur coat that looks moth eaten in the past, but fights can also lead to death. Their teddy-like features may look cute but don't mess with those tusks!

At Reception Hide, a bittern landed into the far reedbed behind the reedy islands. It perched half way up on some reed stems and was showing itself out in full view twice. You could see it posturing its head up high a few times and also was preening itself before vanishing into the reeds as if it was part of it.

 Marsh harriers were very active today. At Fen Hide, I came across two females with green tags on both wings. This indicates that these birds were from Sculthorpe Moor, tagged by The Hawk and Owl Trust in North Norfolk. I couldn't read the numbers on these tags I'm afraid as they were distant. At one point today, I watched 6 harriers in the air together all at once, while being mobbed by the local crows at the same time. It was like a dog fight between harrier and crow worthy of being named as 'The Battle of Strumpshaw!' Elsewhere today; nuthatches in the wood, marsh tits on the feeders (as usual), a breif kingfisher flyby, a snipe and mallard sex (which involves head bobbing courtship with bills touching the water and followed by a game of  'follow the female' before eventual mating).