My Bird Challenge 2020

A couple of months ago, I wondered how many birds I've photographed throughout the years. I decided to print them out and stick them into a book, like a sticker album but with my own photos. The result was around 240 odd species. My camera is just a bridge camera and to get 240+ species from a bridge camera is quite impressive. However, there are still many empty spaces left. Though most of these are rare migrants, there are still enough birds on the list that I can potentially look for and photograph in the UK that might surprise some of you. So here's the list...

Scaup
Red-breasted Merganser
Black-throated Diver
Great Northern Diver
Slavonian Grebe
Little Auk
Iceland Gull
Black Tern
Arctic Skua
Pomarine Skua
Great Skua
Stone-curlew
Dotterel
Red-necked Phalarope
Woodcock (in the day)
Spotted Crake
Quail
Tawny Owl (in the day)
Long-eared Owl
Nightjar (in the day)
Rough-legged Buzzard
Hen Harrier
Montagu's Harrier
Goshawk
Merlin
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
Nightingale
Ring Ouzel
Savi's Warbler
Wood Warbler
Yellow-browed Warbler
Pied Flycatcher
Great Grey Shrike
Willow Tit
Raven
Tree pipit

As you can see, its quite a list of birds that I haven't photographed yet and I haven't even included any of the much scarcer migrants or birds that are only located to other parts of the UK many miles from Norfolk. Now some of them I have seen in the past, but eluded my camera and there are a few that I have photographed but the photos were a bit rubbish to add to my book. Also note that I'm not expecting to photograph them all in one year, this list is more of a wish list that I can try and fulfil beyond 2020. In fact, I'll be happy if I only succeed with just one or two of them by the time 2020 ends. It is quite a challenge though. Many of them are extremely difficult to find. They are either well camouflaged, really flighty and elusive, nocturnal or are often too far for my camera to really capture a decent shot of them. Seabirds are in particular going to be the worst ones for me.

So that's my challenge for 2020. Quite ambitious, I know. But as I said, I'll be happy if I only end up with ticking off a small handful of them. If you guys want to help me with some of them, let me know. A roosting tawny owl would be one of those I hope you guys can help me with. But if you hear about any of the other species on the list, write a comment below. With a job to juggle with and no licence to drive, this should be fairly interesting if I could see any of them at all.

My Norfolk Orchid Hunt Review

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a good one! Mine wasn't too bad, though I mostly got clothes, oh, and a new phone. As 2019 is now drawing to a close, I thought it would be great looking back at one of my challenge to find as many of the 23 species of orchid found in Norfolk. Here is how my orchid year went, through the series of videos I made along the way...

 

In the end, I managed to see 19 orchids in Norfolk and a bonus one from Suffolk in the form of the Military Orchid. I only failed to find four species out of the 23. Two of those were most likely locally extinct anyway, the bog and lizard orchids, however, the other two completely eluded me. One was the green-flowered helleborine, which despite visiting this one secret place a few times and searching thoroughly, I was unable to locate it.

 

The other was the autumn ladies-tresses, which I went to this small hamlet that was actually on the Lincolnshire/Cambridgeshire border than in Norfolk, but when I got there, the verges I was told they were in were mowed down on that day I visited. It was a long journey for nothing. It wasn't until a couple of months after the orchid season that I learned that autumn ladies tresses were found in the same area as where I saw the creeping ladies-tresses, just they flower a month later! If I get the chance next year, I might see if I can tick these two elusive species off, if anyone hear of anything, keep me posted. For now, I may have another challenge in the works in preparation for 2020, just and see. 

Dec 18th Strumpshaw Fen

Starlings leaving their roost

There was no real problem getting to Strumpshaw today. In fact, I managed to get there before the couple of thousand of roosting starlings decided to leave the reedbed in front of the Reception Hide. I had just managed to unpack my camera in time when they all took to the air at once. The mass exodus lasted mere seconds. A single whoosh over the hide and they where gone!

Fog

Moving on, and dodging Percy the persistently hungry pheasant's ambush in the woods (that's what I'm calling him now), I made my way to Fen Hide. Fog had shrouded over the reserve. Walking down Sandy Wall, you could hardly see parts of the adjacent meadow trail, but I did see something that caught my eye. With this thick cover of fog, the meadow trail was now perfect hunting conditions for barn owls. One had me transfixed for several minutes as it swooped silently low over the grazing fields, hovering at times and then plunging into the fog and grass. In this foggy scene, the owl was like a ghost. It was easy to lose sight of it. And just like a real ghost, with the aid of the gloomy light, my camera was struggling to capture it, always resulting as a fuzzy blur. I caught sight of the owl three times before I had lost it completely.

From Fen Hide, it was a bit of a waste of time as the fog became thicker and thicker until I was unable to see anything at all. With visibility so poor, I gave up and made my way back to do the feeders. From Reception Hide, sunshine was burning the fog away at a very rapid rate and I was able to see everything once again. That thick cover was completely gone by half ten this morning, but despite being able to see things properly now, didn't really mean too much. Today's shift in the hide was a bit uneventful. There were marsh harriers, buzzards, cormorants, 2 mute swans, a couple of coots, mallards, gadwall and teal, and not a lot else. My final shift of the decade came to an end with not a lot to get too excited about.

5 Years On!

Five years ago, I was reading an article in the BBC Wildlife Magazine that was promoting a blogging community project. Basically, they were asking anyone who had a nature blog to share it with them on their website. The blogs ranged from wildlife photographers, nature writers and amateur naturalists who were a bit of both. It was at that moment that I wanted to join and start up my own blog. This one! Five years on, I am still at it. Today happens to be the 5th anniversary of this blog and there has been plenty of ups and downs since I wrote my first post that was about robins. Here's pretty much how my rollercoaster of a blogging journey unfold year by year.

In my first year, it was all new and intriguing. I would write up my wildlife experiences and add a few photos in the format of my wildlife diaries  (which you can read about here https://seanspetmonster.blogspot.com/2015/02/my-wildlife-diary-story.html). A few photos soon became lots of photos per blog post as the year went on, further documenting my adventures. During 2015, these adventures included; an encounter with dolphins on a boat trip in Cornwall, seeing my first badgers, a water shrew, a white-winged black tern and a hoopoe, watching a starling murmuration in Norwich, and best of all, being in the audience of Springwatch Unsprung. Alongside my adventures, I also created my How To Draw series, where I did a step by step guide on how to draw various things.

2016 was a big year for me. It was my 30th birthday, my brother got married, my niece was born and Strumpshaw Fen celebrated its 40th anniversary under the RSPB. For the latter, a challenge was set up in which you had to find 40 species at the reserve throughout the year. I managed to spot and photograph all 40, except the weasel, which eluded me for a photo until the following year. To celebrate my birthday that year, I went on a wildlife holiday to France with Naturetrek, seeing many species of orchid, butterfly (including an Apollo butterfly), Alpine marmots, chamois, a marsh warbler and had an unforgettable night encountering a beaver. Back in the UK, I had more memorable encounters with an ermine, a glaucous gull, twite, hornet clearwing moths, a long-staying glossy ibis at Strumpshaw and I witnessed a greylag goose laying an egg!

With success with Strumpshaw's challenge, I decided to do my own challenge in 2017, which involved looking for a variety of interesting invertebrates, including fen raft spiders, emperor moths and grizzled skippers. I also came across a golden pheasant, a black-necked grebe, a red-flanked bluetail, black-winged stilts, a mole and a water vole. In August, I had a great week in Scotland, where I saw my first golden and white-tailed eagles and watched the Highland games at a small village near Loch Ness. However, 2017 wasn't all that great for me as my finances took a dive after the government took my PIP money away from me, leaving me needing a job and on top of that, my camera broke and I had to replace it with a new one.

My problems got worse in 2018 as I ended up deleting many of my photos off my blog by accident after I had ran out of storage space on Google Photos. I spent most of the year bringing them back after buying more storage space. But 2018 wasn't all bad. I saw a purple heron, a Coues's arctic redpoll, a flock of parrot crossbills, a lesser yellowlegs, a king eider, waxwings, a wryneck and spent a few days in London, which included a visit to Kew Gardens and the London Wetland Centre. For me though, 2018 will always be remembered for raising emperor moth caterpillars, which were given to me as a late birthday gift as eggs. It was a lot of fun, but they were quite demanding. It was all worth it though, as the following spring, many of them emerged as adults.

This year, I ran out of storage yet again with Google Photos and it made me rethink of a new strategy of what I do with my blog. Firstly, I deleted one album on Google Photos to free up some space, which is why many of my posts are missing photos (I haven't gotten round to replacing them yet). I now only show a few photos, at least up to three or four per post. But then I ran out of space a third time. I have sorted out the problem for now, but if this happens again, I'm not sure what I'll do. Another problem is that with both parents working and with no licence or car, birdwatching trips are getting few and far between outside of my Strumpshaw shifts. All this has left me quite depressed lately, though I now have a job to occupy me, despite the shifts being unpredictable and at random times. If there had been one positive thing to remember 2019 by, it has to be my Norfolk orchid hunt challenge, in which I found 19 out of 23, plus the military orchid in Suffolk.

So that has been the last five years of my blog. Can I make it another five years? Only time will tell. I hope you have enjoyed my blog even with all the problems I've had. BBC Wildlife Magazine has now since disbanded its blogger project (at least as far as I know). At the end of its first year, the magazine handed out awards for blogger of the year, and though I didn't initially win anything, they did highly recommended my blog among a few others. During the time of their project, I was seeing my viewing figures rise to fairly impressive figures, though each post I did rarely went over the hundred mark (with exceptions with my How To Draw series, which is still being regularly viewed to this day). Now that they disbanded the project, my viewing figures have nosedived to low figures per post, though I've seen a slow, but steady increase in recent weeks. So, if you enjoy my blog, spread the word. It really helps me out, not financially, but mentally. It gives me a reason to continue with what I'm doing. Thank you all for your support. Here's to another five years!

Dec 11th & 13th Strumpshaw Fen

Dec 11th

It had been a frustrating morning this week. Travelling to and from Strumpshaw was a nightmare, especially with the trains. First, I accidentally got on the wrong train (don't ask), leaving me to call Mum for a lift pretty early in the morning and getting to Strumpshaw just before 8am (sorry Mum!). Then, on the way home, these so called relatively new and state of the art modern trains left me waiting at Brundall station longer than expected as they had broken down and were cancelled. Bad news for me, as I had a shift at work to get ready for.

Marsh Harrier

When I did get to Strumpshaw, it wasn't the most exciting Wednesdays that I've had here. Fen Hide had at least 5+ marsh harriers hanging around in the bushes (including one with orange tags with the letters CC on them), Chinese water deer, a large influx of distant greylag geese, stonechats and pied wagtails. Meanwhile, at Reception Hide, it was pretty much just marsh harriers, a quick flyby of a sparrowhawk, a cormorant, 2 mute swans and the usual mallards and gadwalls. As there weren't too much to see, I spent most of my time talking about exotic, colourful birds from Costa Rica with my colleague Tricia, who had just returned from a two week birding holiday there. Hearing all the many exciting birds that she saw out there, while seeing very little in contrast outside the hide, it was enough to make you jealous.

Dec 13th

My Aunt Barbara has been asking me to show her a harrier roost for over a month now. I attempted to show her the roost at Strumpshaw last month, but it was a bit of a disaster as the Fen Hide was full and we were forced to walk to the Tower Hide through the mud and darkness, seeing very little harrier action. So tonight, I decided that we try again. Thankfully, the Fen Hide was empty this time around and we had a lot more daylight than previously to view the roost from beginning to end.

We got to the hide at 2:50pm. Chinese water deer were grazing out in the open and 2 mute swans were preparing for their bedtime. The marsh harriers were already beginning to gather with at least five soaring around in front of us. But as time ticked by and the light began to dwindle, we spot another and then another, until we had at least 15-20 harriers circling above the reed beds. They were joined by mobbing crows and a large invasion of jackdaws and rooks passing through as they pass by over the hide in a raucous of cawing as they head towards Buckenham. Hundreds of greylag geese then arrived in the horizon, making their way to the Tower Hide, making an equal amount of noise as the corvids did.

In the last rays of light, we continued to watch the sky now alive with harriers and crows. Tried as I might, I wasn't able to count beyond 20 harriers. There had been 50 of them recorded earlier this week. It was an impressive display. However, this display was suddenly outshined by another. Starlings were now starting to show up. A small flock of them at first, but it was rapidly growing in size and number. A few became a few thousand in a matter of minutes. The scene in front of us became a stage for the starlings to perform their swirling mass into various aerial patterns with a roaring sound accompanying it, a sound created by their wings flapping in unison. They remained circling the reserve until the visibility became so poor that we had to call it a night. We had came here for the harriers, but it were the starlings that really stole the show!

Dec 5th Wells & Titchwell

For any Norfolk bird watcher out there, you'd be completely surprised to know that I have never seen a rough-legged buzzard before. This is a winter visitor from Scandinavia and Norfolk happens to be a sort of hotspot. These buzzards are slightly bigger than your usual buzzard, has a slight paler appearance with some distinctive markings and has the ability of hovering like a kestrel. Despite all these features, many people still can't tell the difference. Common buzzards can come in paler forms too after all.

 So after hearing that a rough-legged buzzard had been seen pretty well and regularly at a site near Wells for the past few weeks, I have been dying to go see it. As I can't drive and with everyone I know being busy lately, it has been difficult for me to get to the bird. Day after day passes and every time I'm relieved to hear that the buzzard remained at the same place. Thankfully, today I was able to finally go look for it thanks to my friend David offering to take me there. He had already seen the bird before, so he knew exactly where to go.

We arrived at some ploughed fields with some pools in them just west of Wells. Not long after our arrival and started scanning the fields, two other birders turned up and joined us. I managed to catch a glimpse of the rough-legged buzzard soaring in the horizon before vanishing behind an embankment. We continued to wait around by a gate in the freezing cold, hoping that it would turn up again. There were plenty of other things to look at while we waited. These fields were teeming with birds. Lapwings, golden plover, wigeon, pink-footed geese, linnets, meadow pipits, a redshank, 5 whooper swans, marsh harriers, common buzzards, a red kite, kestrels. It was quite an impressive list for just a couple of fields.

Rough-legged Buzzard? Nope, just a Common Buzzard, sadly 

Eventually, our wait and perseverance in the chilly conditions paid off. My target bird appeared once again, soaring towards the main road, showing off a brief hover along the way. We walked a little down the road and found it sitting in a tree in a smaller field. We had the best, closest views that we could imagine. It may seem like a pale form of buzzard, but it was a truly wonderful looking bird. Here it was, my first ever rough-legged buzzard, at long last! At least I hope it is!


{Edit: Sadly, it turned out to be just a common buzzard. So, I still haven't yet photographed a rough-legged buzzard, but I did see it at least.}

After admiring it for several minutes, the bird moved on and so did we. Our next destination was Titchwell. I was hoping to see a woodcock by the car park, but if they were there, they were extremely difficult to spot. I really hope I can find one during daylight hours one day. In the mean time, we enjoyed our time at Titchwell adding grey plovers, knot, black and bar-tailed godwits, dunlin, shelducks, curlew, little egrets, brent geese, another red kite (our third from four that we end up seeing today), red-necked and great crested grebes and a possible puffin out at sea, and a peregrine falcon that whoosed over the top of my head as it chased waders like a military jet! What a fantastic, yet freezing day it has been!

Dec 4th Strumpshaw Fen

A very frosty start to this morning. Its been pretty chilly, so much so that the broad outside the Reception Hide was frozen over! I was glad that I was wearing an extra layer today.

Bewick's Swans

Leaving the hungry pheasant behind, I was making my way to Fen Hide when I heard some light honking above me. I looked up and there were two Bewick's swans flying towards the direction of Buckenham. They were fairly quiet when you compare them to other swan species, just a few faint honks. I managed to get just one decent photo of them before they disappeared behind a cover of tree branches. From this photo, I could see the fine details that distinguished them for what they are. A smaller body, a shorter neck and a beak that was more black than yellow.

Stoat

Fen Hide was pretty quiet, with only a couple of Chinese water deer, a heron and a buzzard to be seen while trying to resist the cold for as long as I could. I left the hide and decided to walk down to the river to see how many fieldfares that were feeding on the apples there I could find. However, I had only turned the corner to rejoin the Sandy Wall, when something darted across the path in front of me and into the undergrowth to one side. It was a stoat! And it was a surprisingly kind stoat as it gave me plenty of views and even posed a couple of times for the camera. If only the light down along the path was better as my camera was finding it hard to focus properly. At one point, it even carried something like a dead vole in its mouth. How I would have love a better photo of the moment than what I ended up getting!

Finally, after a few minutes being distracted by the stoat, I managed to reach the apple trees by the river. I sat on a frost covered bench for a short while and it wasn't long until the apples on the ground were attracting flocks of fieldfares and blackbirds. Lots of them. They squabbled over them, the fieldfares being the bossiest in this pecking order. Their rattly calls echoed in the cold air. A very welcoming wintery sight.

Female Goldeneye

Back at Reception Hide, the broad was starting to thaw and a pool was forming at the far end. There were ducks making the most of this freed up bit of water and amongst them was a female goldeneye. This is the first time I've seen a goldeneye at Strumpshaw. It was the only duck in the group that was diving completely beneath the surface in this icy cold water. However most of the time, they were hiding behind the reedy islands. Luckily, there were marsh harriers busy harassing them and scaring them back into view. I guess the marsh harriers were becoming desperate and fancied their chances on having duck on the menu. In the end, their attempts came to nothing as they were continuously returning into the air without anything to show for their efforts.