Welcome to my blog. My name is Sean Locke from Norwich and I am autistic. But this does not stop my passion for nature and wildlife. I am a volunteer for RSPB Strumpshaw Fen and I also help out at Mousehold Heath with surveys and I birdwatch whenever I can. Since 2011, i have been writing a wildlife diary filled with my adventures, drawings and photos. Now i have decided to go online to share with you all.
It was a strange day at Strumpshaw today. It was suppose to rain this morning, so I decided to get a lift to the reserve. Annoyingly though, it didn't rain, that is until after I arrived. The weather kind of see-sawed from warm, bright sunshine to very heavy deluges throughout the day. Wet Wednesdays have returned with a vengeance!
Clancy's Rustic
Despite the typical British weather, I actually had a good day. Before I went to start my shift, Ben had something to show me at the office. He handed me a pot with a moth inside that was caught in Great Yarmouth the other day by a friend of his. This small brown moth was a Clancy's Rustic, apparently the fifth recording in Norfolk. Heading over to the Reception Hide, I was greeted by a kingfisher sitting on the measuring post. It sat there for a few minutes, so I decided to film it. As soon stopped recording, it flew away. A few minutes later, it returned and at the same time, something else showed up too...
Emerging from the far right corner of the broad and momentarily hiding behind the reedy islands as soon as I saw them was not one, not two, but three otters. A mother and two cubs. They swam back and forth around the far side of the broad for about an hour, occasionally disappearing from view from time to time. The cubs followed their mother closely, though they did often stop to play fight with each other whenever they felt like it. With the otters around, the hide was soon packed with visitors who wanted to see them and also trying to shelter from the latest downpour. Eventually, after a final bout of play fighting, the two youngsters left us down the far left channel disappearing through the reeds to chase after their mother, who had probably left them to it some time ago by this point.
Rainbow
The rest of my shift continued with sightings of stonechats, marsh harriers, buzzards, chiffchaffs, 20 or so wigeon, a brief water rail sighting and more fleeting visits of the kingfisher. The only thing that I could not find, despite many attempts of searching, was the jack snipe that continued to evade me. Once my shift was over, I made my way through the soggy detour route of the meadow trail to get to Fen Hide to meet up my friend David who had decided to visit today. It was starting to rain again just before I reached the end of the meadow trail and entered the hide slightly wet. Not long after entering the hide, the sun came out and a colourful rainbow appeared.
Trying to make the most of the sunny spell, David and I went for a walk to Tower Hide. I was hoping that we'd see the ruddy shelduck that had been reported there yesterday. Along the way, we saw plenty of dragonflies as well as a willow emerald damselfly. From the Tower Hide, there were possibly a hundred or so teal with a few wigeon and other duck out on the water and a water rail (I had now had seen one from each of the three hides). There was no sign of the ruddy shelduck (which is most likely an escapee) and I couldn't spot the garganey that had been seen this week too. Then, the weather changed yet again and rain hammered the hide and the reserve for quite some time. We were soaked on the way back, stopping at Fen Hide along the way, in which we saw a snipe. Our afternoon walk turned out to be a bit of a washout. Just another Wet Wednesday at Strumpshaw Fen!
It was a fine afternoon and Mum and I decided to make a visit to Cley for a couple of hours. With it being autumn, I was curious of how many different migrant birds I would see. Though there weren't anything out of the unusual that's native from the other side of the world on offer, there was still a few interesting birds to see that caught my interest.
There was a contrast between Pat's Pool and Simmond's Scrape with the latter being more emptier of bird life than the former. From Pat's Pool, the scene was mostly dominated by teal, shelducks and lapwing with a handful of wigeon and a few pied wagtail and common redshank scattered across the pool and its small islands. I was surprised to not see any godwits, avocets or ruff or even any marsh harriers, but I did pick out a snipe, green sandpiper and a handsome greenshank with its slightly upturned bill and greenish legs.
Migrant Hawkers mating
Spotted Redshank
Simmond's Scrape, on the other hand, was a bit empty. There weren't as many birds around. The islands and pools here were very bare. Though, I did manage to spot a few more green sandpipers, a meadow pipit, another snipe, rooks and jackdaws, redshanks and the greenshank from Pat's Pool popped over briefly. The main highlight here, though, were a couple of spotted redshanks. One was close enough to show us its white supercilium (a stripe above the eye).
I must be dreaming! It is Wednesday and its not raining! Its a miracle! It was actually a nice day, though a bit chilly and autumnal. I was hoping to walk to Tower Hide before my shift this morning, but I soon discovered that I couldn't. This was because Sandy Wall was being repaired and a fence was blocking the section of the path leading beyond the Fen Hide's little path. I had no choice but to check out the Fen Hide instead. A juvenile water rail made an appearance wading along the near left edge of the pool, while a flock of bearded tits were pinging loudly and provided brief glimpses as they shyly moved from reed bed to reed bed. I also saw a great spotted woodpecker attempting to mob a buzzard perched in a tree by the tree line to my right. Not a bad selection of birds, though I wouldn't have minded checking out the great white egret at the Tower Hide to see if it was there or not.
Returning to the office to prepare the bird food that I needed for refilling the bird feeders, I learnt that the maintenance work at Sandy Wall was now in the progress of switching ends. This meant that the section leading from the fingerpost up to the Fen Hide was the part being closed off to visitors. However, the meadow trail was going to be reopen and acting as a detour so that you can still get to Fen Hide without making the long way round through the woodland trail and then walk along the river pass the pumphouse. In other words, everywhere is still open as usual.
Kngfisher
From Reception Hide, an osprey was seen 15 minutes before the hide's opening time. It returned about an hour later and I was able to see it flying in the distance over by the Tower Hide area, but it wasn't quite as satisfying of a view as last week. A bittern also showed up a couple of times this morning in the reed beds surrounding the broad, but sadly, I missed it on both occasions. At least I was more lucky with a kingfisher making a quick visit close to the hide. More could be said about the jack snipe that was apparently being fairly active in the fresh reed stubble and mud that was even closer to the hide, but despite scanning for it on numerous occasions, I just couldn't find this incredibly well camouflaged little wader. Oh well! At least its not raining.
It has been raining again, but there's one thing that easily took my mind away from it all this time around. There was an osprey still hanging around at Strumpshaw this week and as I made my way to Tower Hide this morning, I passed one of my regulars who showed me a photo of one just moments ago. It got me excited. If there was anything to cheer me up on another wet Wednesday, it had to be an osprey. When I got to the hide, however, there was no sign of the bird. A kingfisher was the best consolation as well as a few Egyptian geese, shovelers, gadwall, teal and herons. Oh, and a heavy downpour.
Osprey
Back at Reception Hide, I was glued to my binoculars, continuously scanning the same sky that constantly changed from sun and blue skies to rain and gloomy, grey clouds in the hope that an osprey would appear. And then, after a good couple of hours had passed, a large bird was flying over the reed beds to the left of the broad. At first, I was going to claim it as a marsh harrier, but then it revealed its white underside and it was then clear what it was. An Osprey!! Here it was at last! Annoyingly though, it decided to do its hunting by Tower Hide where it was a bit distant to photograph. Despite the distance and a row of trees hiding it from view now and then, I could still see it well and follow its every movement. It circled and hovered over the far side of the reserve for several minutes before it finally decided to move on back towards Rockland Broad, becoming more and more distant from view as I watched, hoping for it to make a U-turn back towards me instead.
Hobby
It was a remarkable moment and a breathtaking bird to watch. It feels like an age since I last saw an osprey at Strumpshaw. They don't breed here. They only visit this corner of England as a stop over. A place to refuel themselves before heading south to Africa. It is not the only one, as a hobby was preparing itself for the long journey as well. This small falcon sat on a branch of a tree on the far left of the reserve of where I could see, waiting for the latest spell of rain to lift so that it could hunt down some dragonflies. There was also sightings of a bittern (though I didn't see it myself), another kingfisher, a Chinese water deer (at Fen Hide), marsh harriers, buzzards and two tufted ducks and two wigeon mixed in the usual cast of scruffy and some not so scruffy mallards, shovelers, gadwall and teal. The autumn migration is already in full swing!
It's Wednesday. Its raining. What else is new? The worst of it was while I was making my way to Strumpshaw, but it was a bit on and off throughout the morning. However, it wasn't a bad day for birds. I was hoping to see the osprey that had been travelling between Strumpshaw and Rockland Broad this week, but it sadly never made the appearance for me. But, it was still a decent morning for kingfishers. One showed itself while I was at Fen Hide and another made brief flybys at Reception Hide. There were also green sandpipers, Chinese water deer, swallows, house martins, kestrels, sparrowhawks and marsh harriers.
There were two birds, though, that were real contenders for bird of the day. One was a bittern. I had a brief glimpse of it walking along the edge of the reed bed by the left channel in which it vanished before I could pick up my camera. It then reappeared around lunchtime when it made a quick flight from the left channel reed bed to the far left channel at the back of the broad. Maybe this was the female that apparently had a nest in that area earlier in the summer?
The other bird that caught my interest was a pigeon. It was a feral pigeon, but it may have been a racing pigeon. It made a few laps around the broad and even had a moment where it thought it was a duck by landing in the water before it too disappeared from the scene. We believe it had rings on one of its legs, which made us think it must have belonged to someone. A homing pigeon that has no sense of direction? Weird!
Water Boatman Sculpture
After my shift, I was dropped off all the way back to Norwich. But instead of taking the bus home, I decided to visit Chapelfield (a mall) to buy something for Mum's birthday. However, I got side tracked and forgot what I was intending of doing when I noticed a giant sculpture of a water boatman. This was part of a set of 12 giant insect sculptures scattered around the mall until the end of this month. Apart from a few missing their antennae, they were fairly impressive. If you are in Norwich this September, I highly recommend you go take a look yourself.
It was a perfect night for moths and so, on Friday, I went along to another moth session at Mousehold. Though it wasn't as incredible as the session a month ago, it was still a great success with a great turn out with the amount of people showing up. The moths took a short while to visit the light trap we had set up, but once they did, they kept on coming for at least a couple of hours before midnight. There were plenty of species to thumb through the pages of the various ID books and to hand out to the crowd. The youngsters of the group even had there fun in catching some for us. Most of the moths were yellow underwings (at least four species) and species that we've caught in previous moth trap sessions at Mousehold over the years. The best highlight of the night, though, was catching an old lady, which is a large brown moth that apparently resembles an old woman's shawl.
Aug 27thMinsmere
A second heatwave has hit the UK this week and that feeling of melting away in a pool of my own sweat has returned to me. The sun sapped away at my energy at a fast rate. There were better, cooler ways to spend a gruellingly hot day like this than bird watching at Minsmere, but it has felt like forever since I last visited this reserve and Mum fancied a visit there too, so here I was trying my best to keep my mind on the birds and not the heat. It was not an easy task. There were some relief in the form of the odd shade and slight draft coming through the hides, but there was no real way of preventing the heat from making us suffer.
Wasp Spider
At the scrapes, there were plenty of birds from keeping our energy drained minds occupied. There were avocets, black-tailed godwits, ringed plovers, a curlew, ruffs, 2 greenshanks, lapwings and dunlin. It is amazing how they can all get on with life without showing signs of fatigue from this heatwave. At least one of the herons here was behaving the same way as us. It sat there at the centre of the nearest island with its wings drooped and partially pointing outwards at an angle, its neck straight and bill open as it pants in an attempt to cool itself down. It really did look like it was done with the heat as we were.
I also, that day, saw a green woodpecker, heard bearded tits and watched the activities of bee-wolves and jewel wasps at the always fascinating area of sandy path known as Digger Alley. However, my favourite highlight of the day was seeing five wasp spiders along the fence bordering the beach. I had managed to see one of these colourfully striped spiders for the first time last year, and now I was able to show them to Mum. She's not exactly keen on spiders, but even she agreed that these were impressive to look at.
Aug 28thStrumpshaw Fen
Water Rail
After struggling to sleep last night thanks to the heat, I was glad that it was a more cooler day than it was yesterday as I made my way to Strumpshaw for my shift. I was expecting it to still be a nice day and had left my coat and fleece behind, but I should have known better. It was Wednesday after all. I had gotten to the reserve nice and dry, but after a stop for the toilet, I came out of the toilet block minutes later to find that it was raining! It was actually refreshing to walk in it without any waterproofing to protect me after the week we've had. I made a visit to Fen Hide, seeing a young water rail, while the rain began to really pour down.
With my shift looming to start, I had enough time to refill the bird feeders out in the rain. Inside Reception Hide, I watched the rain continue to fall as more and more ducks were flying in on the broad. Watching each duck arrive was like counting sheep. Thanks to the lack of sleep from last night, it was no wonder that they were slowly causing me to nod off. However, I managed to fight the urge off. The weather was improving as the morning went on and sunshine eventually won through, allowing the rest of the day to be rather pleasant. The return of the sun seemed to cue the arrival of a kingfisher that made a few brief visits before I had to leave. I also saw a marsh harrier harassing the ducks, a great crested grebe with its glorious crest bleached of its usual colour, and a great spotted woodpecker making a quick cameo on the kingfisher tree.
It has been a while since my last butterfly survey at Mousehold, hasn't it? Will, Mousehold's warden, has been extremely busy as of late and had been doing them in his limited free time without me. Today, though, I was able to join him. It turned out to be a very successful survey with 61 butterflies counted. This included; 13 gatekeepers, 1 painted lady, 14 small whites, 2 large whites, 3 small coppers, 2 commas, 10 red admirals, 2 common blues, 4 speckled woods, 4 meadow browns and 2 green-veined whites.
The best of the bunch though was seeing 4 brown arguses. A brown argus is a member of the blue butterfly family and looks very similar to a female common blue but has brown upper wings with orange dots. I've not seen them that often at Mousehold, but this year, they seem to be doing exceptionally well at the site. Their cousin, the common blue, on the other hand, are not doing as well. I hate to admit it, but I haven't seen as many of these brilliant blue butterflies as much throughout the last few years. It really is a worrying decline.
Aug 21stStrumpshaw Fen
The sun may have been shining, but it was still a rather quiet morning at Strumpshaw. However, I'm just happy that it wasn't windy or rainy like most Wednesdays. I had heard that a garganey had been seen from Tower Hide, so I decided to check it out before my shift began. Along the way, I spooked a muntjac deer, walked past a basking lizard and had bullfinches follow me from Sandy Wall to halfway down the river trail. At Tower Hide, there were many drab-looking ducks, but with the sun in my eyes and my hot, sweaty face fogging up the lenses of my binoculars, I was unable to spot the garganey, only teal, shovelers, gadwalls and mallards as well as herons and two Chinese water deer.
At Reception Hide, a kingfisher made several visits, perching at the post partially hidden behind reeds at the centre of the reedy islands every now and then. There were also swarms of swallows with the odd house martin swooping over the broad and I had to rescue a dragonfly that had flown inside the hide, flying into the window above the main door like most insects that cannot distinguish the difference between free airspace and glass. I had to use a net to catch it, which was not easy. I've often saved butterflies trapped in this hide, but this was the first time I had to save a dragonfly. It was a big one too! A southern hawker, I think.
