March 7th Mayday Farm and Lynford Arboredum

Mayday Farm

I was in search for a real phantom in Thetford Forest this morning. Mayday Farm is one of the best places to see goshawks in East Anglia. Goshawks are secretive birds and are rarely seen most of the time. However, there is a short window from late February and early March in which you have a good chance in seeing them. During this short period, goshawks are courtship displaying and defending territories and will fly out in the open above the trees where you can see them. These birds are stealthy predators that can fly through the narrowest of gaps in branches and I would love to see one for the first time.

Woodlark

We (Dad and I) waited at a blind overlooking an open area in the pine forest, scanning the sky for goshawks. As we waited, the beautiful songs of woodlarks poured delightfully into my ears and then one flew over our heads, pausing to hover and sing in the air. Just wonderful! Later that morning, I watched three woodlarks on the ground of this open area together, feeding and singing.





By 10am, two large birds appeared above the tree line. Were these goshawks? No. They were buzzards busy circling together in an aerial courtship display similar to marsh harriers but really high up. Two buzzards became four and then... GOSHAWK!!! I had two brief sightings of goshawks flying low above the pine trees. They were distant and they didn't hang around into view that long, but I could clearly see a buzzard-sized, elongated sqaure-tailed goshawk, it was definitely not a buzzard this time. After the second sighting, lots of people started arriving looking for them. It seems, because we were here early, no-one else saw a goshawk but us. But I don't mind, I'm very happy indeed to see my first ever wild goshawk no matter how brief the encounter was. They are phantoms after all.

Hawfinch

After spending the morning goshawk watching, we went for lunch at Lynford Arboretum. Before we had our picnic, I joined a crowd aiming their scopes and cameras at a bird feeding area. Every spring, birdwatchers arrive here to see hawfinches. These large finches with a nutcracker of a bill are becoming rarer and rarer in Norfolk and Lynford is the best place to find them. This feeding area seems to be popular for both hawfinches and for the people admiring them. It is almost silly that so many people are crowding around to one spot along a fence for one British bird. I only managed to see and photograph one of these birds, but it was a handsome male.

Hawfinch Watching!

The feeders and bird bath were attracting other birds including siskins and bramblings. I am happy to see that bramblings today as there hasn't been many visiting Norfolk from Scandinavia this winter. They look similar to chaffinches but with bright orange to their plumage and yellow bills.

Brambling


We had our picnic under some trees with so many siskins feeding on the cones. I reckon there must be around 50-100 siskins above us! The sound of constant twittering and wheezing from all these noisy little finches was incredible! After lunch, we had a walk around the site and found brimstone butterflies (my first butterfly of the year), queen bumblebees pollinating crocuses. We walked past daffodils, snowdrops and also saw marsh tits, nuthatches and a muntjac deer. It was a very nice and productive day.


Siskin

Coal Tit

Buzzard

Crocuses

March 4th Strumpshaw Fen

Blackthorn

Periwinkle

Despite it feeling like a blustery winters day, there was plenty of signs that spring is on the way. Not only were there snowdrops and catkins in the woods, there were a few other plants beginning to bloom. Blackthorn blossom has emerged on a few trees with a few new leaves are growing amongst these white flowers. Sometimes confused for hawthorn, blackthorn blooms in early spring, while hawthorn is in May (which is why it is also known as Mayflower). Periwinkle has also emerged with it's purple flower head poking out from the undergrowth of some shrubs.

Scarlet Elf Cup

Further into the woods, beyond the fingerpost on the left, I was looking for something nearing its season end. After a careful scan along each rotten log on the ground close to the path, I found a tiny shape, the thing I was after. It is a rarther pretty fungus called a scarlet elf cup. The top of it is bright red, while the curled up underside is a more subtle shade. They come in many sizes and where you find one, turns out to be more and more in the same area, slightly covered up by bramble and leaf litter. You can easily miss them as you walk by.



Lilly the Marsh Harrier

Marsh harriers were still skydancing. I watched them carefully. It seems Lilly the white-bellied female has paired up with a male. He is also an interesting looking marsh harrier as he is much paler than the other marsh harriers. Together, Lilly and her mate were displaying through an aerial dance throughout the morning. Every now and then, she would swing herself upside down to clasp his talons. This is a sign that they are a couple. It is a bit like holding hands. I also see talons hanging down, a threat display to other harriers. It does amaze me on how much bigger she is compared to him. He is almost a quarter smaller than her, which is normal in birds of prey. At least he is a good dancer, as he produces loop-the-loops and high dives.

As well as harriers, the local sparrowhawks and buzzards were also displaying high in the sky. The sparrowhawks, in perticular, soared in circles together close to the Reception Hide a few times.



Spring cleaning Strumpshaw style

Another thing that happens in spring is the spring clean. Now if you thought dusting your house was a chore, dusting the cobwebs from the eaves of the Reception Hide will make your duster seem puny. Ben, one of the reserve's wardens comes in with a broom and a long plastic pipe. He slides the broom down one end of the pipe and starts to sweep the ceiling. We had to watch out for things from the rafters from falling on our heads.
Finally, the feeders were very busy with hungry blue, great and marsh tits.

Blue Tit, Great Tit and Marsh Tit





Great Tit feeding under the bark

Robin

How To Draw: Bird Behaviour

Birds are always doing something interesting. They never just pose for you, they move around and display an array of behaviours at you and other birds. Drawing things like aggression or nest building gives you a window into the bird's life and you can learn a lot about them if you observe them closely enough. Today on How To Draw, I will draw a male house sparrow flaunting his bib off to rivals and a long-tailed tit building a nest.

Stage One

We start off with the sparrow. As always, begin with a rough circle and oval to measure the size of the bird's head and body. Remember, it doesn't matter if it looks like anything yet.

Stage Two

Next, draw in the basic shape of the bird; triangle for the wing and rectangle for the tail, etc. As we are showing aggression the tail is upwards and the bill is going to be open. Draw a circle for the bill and then draw a sideways 'V' which slightly bent downwards to make the bill open and add a line to mark the other side of it's bill. Mark out in rough shapes where the detailed areas are going to be.

Bib Stage One

Bib Stage Three (pen)

The bib of a male sparrow is like the insignia of a military rank (captains, generals, etc) The larger it is, the higher it is in the social ranking order. The biggest bib is usually the colonel and he gets the best food without any squabble from the others in the flock. All he has to do is show that bib off by puffing it up and call loudly. As the bib is an important feature, I'm working on that first. To make the bib have that puffed up appearance, I work from the edges marking it with small but heavy pencil marks. Then do the same in the centre but with larger marks that gradually turns into blobs. Repeat the process with a pen, but don't forget to leave some spaces inbetween as part of that puffy look. You can also work on the bill and eye.

Bib Stage Two

Stage Three (body)

 Now the bib is delt with, draw the outlines of the other areas of the sparrow in pen. Go lightly on the markings on the wing or don't draw over it at all for now, as we have a bit of work to do on this area. Rub out the pencil lines (but not the wing area unless you drew over with a pen).







A little concentration is needed as you draw in the rows of plumage markings, primary feather and tail feather edges. You can use a photo to see where each marking goes, but it actually isn't too laborious. Simple blobs and lines are all you need to use, just space them out a bit in neat rows. Then go over them in pen. When your doing the tail, start from the centre. It is the largest and widest of all the tail feathers and the others overlap under it from both sides and gradually gets thinner and thinner.


Detail Stage One

Detail Stage Two

Stage Four (colour)

Colour each part in. Chestnut brown for the stripe behind the eye, wing, back and tail. Grey for cap, breast and rump. I lightly blend other colours for texture to the back, breast, wing and tail. And my male house sparrow is complete.

Stage One

For my long-tailed tit, I am not only drawing the bird with nesting material, but also the nest and part of the tree it is in. I start with a rough outline of the tree, a circle for the nest and a small circle for the bird's head, a small oval for it body and a long line for it's tail.

Stage Two

Next, I add a bit of basic detail to the tree and nest using scribbles and heavy markings. I also make a start on the bird's basic structure of it's wings, head stripe markings and it's eye.

Stage Three

More pencil detail work is included on the bird and on the nesting material it is using. The tail, wing edges and head stripes need heavy shading. The breast, head, nesting material and wing needed to be lightly scribbled in for now.

 



Stage Four

I draw over the drawing again in biro, adding a bit more detail. For the nest, I used a very light and slightly compact scribble to make it look like it was covered in lichen which the bird fixes together in real life with spider silk. The tree was a mixture of light scribble and heavy markings to create the texture of bark.








Stage Five

 Finally, I coloured it in. The tree and nest was a mixture of green, grey and brown lightly shaded in on top of each other. The long-tailed tit was mostly left white, only the eye, breast and part of the wing was a subtle pink (a bit darker on the wing). And thats it. One long-tailed tit filling the inside of it's nest with feathers completed.

What do you want me to draw next time? Comment below. Until then, good luck on your drawing! Hope I have helped you out?

March 2nd NWT Cley Marshes

Black-tailed Godwits in flight

Mum and I visited a freezing cold, windy Cley Marshes today. When we arrived, however, we were in quite of a shock. The Visitor Centre was closed for refurbishments. That means no cakes or bacon sandwiches! Luckly, for the next few weeks, there is a temporary Visitor Centre in the form of a mobile office building. The cake selection might be limited, but we both had a nice Eccles cake each to keep us going.

It was so cold in the wind as we made our way to each of the four hides, that it overpowered the warmth of the bright sunlight trying to break through. For the birds, the wind didn't seem to bother them, although there was the odd cormorant struggling to fly straight and far. Last time we visited, the birds were everywhere in large numbers spread across the landscape of the pools and in the air. Today, the large flocks were split into different parts of the reserve. A large gaggle of brent geese were grazing on a field and wigeon carpeted a bank between two pools. Shoveler, shelduck and teal were feeding out on the pool to my left (from the central hide), godwit, ruff, dunlin and a redshank fed in front of us in a second pool feeding along the edge of a muddy island and further to my right, avocets and gulls (including black-headed gulls and a couple of common gulls). There was also a couple of marsh harriers playing in the wind.

Wigeon in flight

Shelducks

Shovelers

Godwits and Dunlin

The avocets were probably the best of my sightings today. I have seen avocets on most visits to Cley, but I can not tire from seeing them. They are iconic birds with striking black and white plumage and an upturned black bill. When you see a mass of them together, it is like some Pop Art painting with a series of black curvy brush stroked markings on a white canvas. Unlike the other waders who feed by probing the mud, the avocet uses it's special bill to sweep just under the surface of the water, swinging it's head from side to side. It is nice to see that this once extinct bird is spreading across the UK once more.



Avocet

After our visit to Cley, Mum and I made a quick stop at Salthouse, where another large group of brent geese grazed by the roadside. We used the car as a hide to get some shots of them.

Brent Geese in flight

The Brent Geese flock

Brent Geese