Wednesday 4 June 2014

Norfolk road trip pt2 - Dashing Hobbies, feisty Avocets and a new Bog!

Cley Marshes




















I saw my first ever Avocets at Cley Marshes, back in the 1980s when they were still a relatively rare sight in the UK. Thrilled as I was to see these, at the time, exotic looking waders actually nesting on these shores, my strongest memories of that time were of the place itself. Along with Titchwell and Blakeney Point this stretch of Norfolk coastline, a watery land of reedbed, dune and shingle had a remote and timeless feel then that thankfully still persists today.

The Avocets are still there of course and in much bigger numbers, back in the late 70s a nesting Avocet in the UK was big news - now there are 1500 pairs and increasing still. Climate change has undoubtedly propelled this dainty wader northwards as a breeding bird but let's not forget the role played by the RSPB in creating and managing the habitat they like.

I say 'dainty' but Avocets are feisty too. We saw several 'mobbing' episodes during our time at Cley and nearly all of them involved Avocets!




Avocets, nest prospecting, Cley.


 




Avocets mobbing a Grey Heron, Cley

 
 
 


Avocet mobbing a Marsh Harrier
Both Marsh Harrier and Grey Heron will gladly pluck a young Avocet from the ground so the attacks are worthy ones, though sometimes the harried fights back and we almost had feathers flying at the end of this one!


We spent an evening and an early morning here ...thus avoiding having to pay Norfolk Wildlife Trust and a little protest to NWT about them being the only county that charges Wildlife Trust members for visiting their reserves (come on Norfolk ... get with the programme!)


Reed Bunting - lovely singing male, great early morning sunlight!
 
Every picture tells a story so they say, and I do believe that - there's a tale to be had behind just about every picture I take. As I mentioned last time though, with so many pictures taken between the two of us, in the main the raconteur in me will have to take a back seat to make this a digestible post! So here's a few Cley highlights. As you will see we were blessed with some good early morning and evening sunshine ......



Male Linnet - same gorgeous light and beautifully posed! 
 
Sedge Warbler - so many chattering in the reeds I would have gutted if I didn't get a half decent shot!


Reed Warbler - distant shot across one of the lagoons; just as many around but I was disappointed not to get a better shot.

 

Male Shoveller - caught in that 'golden light' evening sunshine

That's me probably photographing that Shoveller!

The viewing at Cley is second to none, several good hides and of course the boardwalks themselves often provide discreet photo opportunities.
 
Me again - taking advantage of another man's equipment and seeing what a Wood Sandpiper looks like through £1500 worth of telescope!
 
Sadly the Wood Sandpiper (best bird of the day!) flew off before anyone had a chance to photograph it but I did get a distant shot of some of the Little Stints that were also present from this hide. 
Grainy old zoom crop but enough to id them as Little Stints!
Very 'bird laden' this post I know but Cley is after all a mecca for birdwatchers and has been for decades and still is. The same tidal surge that hit Spurn Point and various other coastal spots on the east coast last December also did a fair amount of damage here, but nothing irreversible, its looking great and as wetland sites go this has to rank up there with the UK finest.
 
Here's the rest of the Cley pics ....

Black Headed Gull in tip top breeding condition!

Black Tailed Godwit

Grey Heron stalking something or other - out of one of the hides

Goldfinch in the last few rays of sunlight - never appreciated that pink bill before!!

Lapwing - the light was almost too bright to catch that lovely green/blue sheen on its wing feathers

 
A couple of Cley landscapes taken with the Samsung during a lovely 'golden light' moment during an evening stroll around the boardwalks. The first is looking back towards the delightful village of Cley itself.
 


 

Hobby, one of two circling above the beach at Cley

and here's my Cley finale ... walking along the coastal shingle that borders the reserve and a chance look up in the sky revealed not one but 2 Hobbies circling on high. All of a sudden one of them put back its wings and pelted hell for leather out to sea, the other one followed and although in a matter of seconds they were mere specks against the sea, we could clearly see them through binoculars harrying a smaller bird. There was a lot of swooping and twisting as they worked as a pair and whether they got their bird I don't know, they faded out of sight but it was certainly a moment!











Dersingham Bog




Just inland and a few miles south west of Cley we found a nice little heathland reserve called Dersingham Bog. Very close to the Sandringham estate, it was just a destination berth for the evening but it turned out to be a little gem of a place.













We had another Hobby here and heard a Nightjar churring briefly, in the drier areas there were several Stonechats, Tree Pipits and Cuckoo whilst in the boggier parts there were 4 Spotted Chaser dragonflies and many damselflies of both red and blue variety.




4 Spotted Chaser, Dersingham

Large Red Damselflies, Dersingham. One of Rob's and a smashing picture.

 
Male Stonechat with what appear to be colour rings on both legs.

Male Stonechat, Dersingham

Singing Tree Pipit
 
Dersingham Bog is a designated SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) and managed by Natural England. It wasn't surprising to hear a Nightjar there - the site is of  national importance with currently around 20 churring males recorded there. There are also many scarce bog loving plants here including Round & Oblong leaved Sundew, Cranberry and Bog Myrtle. For more info click here, its a great little spot to visit if you're ever down there.




Thursday 29 May 2014

Norfolk road trip Pt1 - White blobs on the Wash and scarce butterflies at Snettisham

So after the trials and tribulations of my aborted trip to the Somerset Levels and all the domestic 'busyness' surrounding my house sale, it was time to take a breather and head off in the new van.
My good friend Robin was free and came along for the ride and good news about my regular walkabout pal Mark .. he's gonna walk again!


The new van!

I Haven't  been to Norfolk for nigh on 15 years so reckoned it was time to revisit and the plan was to split 5 days (Mon - Fri) between the North Norfolk coast and the Broads, chill out with my guitar, Rob's cahon, the local flora n fauna and test drive the van that will be my roving home for a while once my house is sold.














Thankfully, large chunks of Norfolk are still a relative backwater in the UK (and I mean that in the nicest possible way)... few major access roads and lots of narrow winding ones - perfect! In short we had a cracking few days and with both of us snapping away far too much material for one post so here's the first of 3 or 4, starting bizarrely with our last port of call on the way back .... who needs order in the natural world!

Snettisham & The Wash
One of the largest estuaries in the UK with Norfolk on one side and Lincolnshire on the other, this is more than just a vast expanse of mud. Its a designated SPA (special protected area) and home to countless wading birds, ducks and geese, especially during the winter when its estimated that some 400,000 may be present at any one time (more info here - The Wash ).





Greylag Geese with chicks, Snettisham

The few hours we spent at Snettisham RSPB reserve were bathed in sunshine and the wet and wonderfully lush meadows that border the reserve were teeming with bird and insect life with many chicks taking their first steps.

The bushes were full of the sound of scratchy Common Whitethroats plus at least 2 Lesser Whitethroats, Reed Buntings and pleasingly good numbers of Linnets.





Female Linnet, Snettisham

Female Reed Bunting with bugs in its beak, Snettisham



Cuckoo calling from a way off, Snettisham

Cuckoos seem to me to have made a mini revival this year, we heard and saw many in Norfolk and back on my own patch one has been calling from my neighbourhood for the past week. This was a distant shot but came out ok and typical 'wings down' pose is shown off a treat here.












Brown Argus, Snettisham


The sun brought out the butterflies and amongst the brilliant Common Blues we spotted a handful of the locally scarce Brown Argus ... rubbish pic but hey it was a first for me so had to include it as a record!


The Blues were far easier, nonetheless this isn't far off as good as it gets of a nice bright male ... corker of a shot Rob!




Common Blue, Snettisham (pic by Robin Marrs)

Snettisham is renowned for the huge gatherings of migrating waders that gather there to feed on the mud and perform their spectacular aerial displays as they follow the tides .... this mighty fine pic, one of Chris Gomersall's (RSPB), gives you a fair idea!


We weren't blessed with such numbers!

Oystercatchers, Snettisham

...... but we were treated to some spectacular views across the Wash at low tide with a heat haze making distant Lincolnshire look rather more interesting than it actually is!
The Wash, from Snettisham towards the Lincolnshire coast.
 
 

Common Shelduck, Snettisham
and in the foreground those little white blobs you can just about make out are lots of these - we estimated close on 800 Shelduck resting up on the mudflats! Also spied a couple of summer plumage Grey Plovers when I zoomed in on some of these pics.
The vistas here are big and bold, typical 'estuary meets saltmarsh' you see around our coast I suppose, but here in Norfolk the surrounding fields seem more natural, lusher, less intensively farmed maybe, more 'hay rich' certainly and the consequent abundance of wildlife was very very obvious.
 
Young bucks (Roe deer?) with Greylag Geese, fields around Snettisham.
 

Next and coming up soon is Sandringham / Dersingham Bog and Cley Marshes
 
 
 
 
 
 
 













Monday 12 May 2014

Bird surveying in North Yorks produces rocking horse shit around these parts .... breeding Redstarts!


Blogging my stuff has had to take a back seat for the past few weeks ... as even the less observant of you may have noticed but life has been hectic recently to say the least. In short I've sold my old camper, acquired a bigger and better one and have decided to sell my house and live in the new van  over the summer, probably winter in Spain again and then look to buy a smaller house next year. That's the plan anyway and if my house sells soon and I can negotiate a 9 month contract with Yorkshire Wildlife all the better!

So .... busy busy busy, tarting up the house, buying, selling, dealing with unhappy lodgers, not to mention a host of family issues to manage has created the most stress I've experienced in years and to cap it all my best mate Mark has just been involved in serious motorbike accident and has a badly broken leg. We were due to set off on a road trip to the Somerset Levels this week and any feelings of disappointment I have are totally dwarfed by his total abject misery at having to call the trip off .. in all the years we've been hanging out together I've never known him so enthusiastic and 'up' for the cause. He's so pissed off right now.

My thoughts are with him and hope as he does that the orthopaedic surgeons are cooking on gas when they go to work in the next day or so and that he'll be up and running for some mega trip in the Autumn.

So, its been an ok Spring so far, weather's been reasonable and although I've had this constant feeling of missing lots of stuff I have had a few trips out. One of the highlights was being asked to participate in an early breeding bird survey over 2 days back in April on YWT land in the Vale of Pickering at Low Carr farm and Appleton le Moors. My good friend Robin Marrs organised this and jolly good time we had ... still collating all the results but here's a few photos from the gig starting with the undoubted highlight, probable breeding Redstarts at Low Carr.





Didn't manage a decent pic of the female and both seemed very wary so I didn't push it ... need to pop back there soon to confirm breeding but this is a good record for the area.


Little Owl, Low Carr fm
Always good to catch one of these cheeky chappies too ... Little Owls are not as common as they once were and we had a definite pair.

Stacks of common warblers recorded - Willow Warbler, Chiff Chaff and Blackap but sadly no Whitethroats on this occasion. A handful of Sand Martins and Swallows were about and a Kingfisher plus a  pair of Bullfinches on what is essentially arable land was a bonus.

Other notable breeding species including good numbers of Tree Sparrow, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting, at least 2 pairs of Song Thrushes, Common Buzzard of course but also Kestrel.

Several pairs of Curlew and Lapwing and a distant flock of Golden Plover which we couldn't really count, but sadly no Snipe in some good looking wet fields on the site, but Rob has some on moorland behind his house and still being a bit of a novice birdwatcher we had a laugh about him being freaked out by hearing their strange 'drumming' mating call - he thought aliens had landed in his back garden!

Breeding Curlew at Low Carr fm




 
Male Brambling, Appleton
Bit of a busman's holiday for me this and although my job was to just shout out all the birds it was strenuous enough ... up at the crack of dawn both days and walking all day. No complaints from me though and day 2 at Appleton le Moor was just as enjoyable. No real surprises here but some wonderful woodland habitat with the forest floor covered in Anemones, Bluebells and Wild Garlic. Nuthatches everywhere (we reckoned on 20 plus pairs), more warblers, all the common tits plus a probable Willow Tit amongst at least 3 pairs of Marsh Tit. Several pairs of Great Spotted Woodpecker (now this is a bird that's doing well!) and a single Green Woodpecker. On the river we had Goosander with chicks and a Grey Wagtail, Treecreepers in abundance, Goldcrest, Siskin, more Bullfinches and although just passing through a small flock of Bramblings were the star birds .... one very resplendent male in near full on breeding plumage was particularly photogenic, albeit through a mass of twigs and branches .... not bad for April 19th in North Yorks!
 
Male Brambling, Appleton
Female Goosander with chicks on the River Severn, Appleton
Marsh Tit, Appleton


?Willow Tit, Appleton
All in all a splendid couple of days, good weather, great company and something that needs to be repeated soon so we can get a better picture, many of the breeding birds of both area were yet to arrive ... cuckoo, whitethroat, lesser whitethroat, swift, etc and I could have sworn I heard a Wood Warbler at Appleton and those Redstarts need checking out again before everything goes quiet in mid June.

I'll leave you with a few snaps of YWT staff hard at work (our survey coincided with lambing time at Low Carr!) plus a couple of Rob's very nice wild flower pics ....
Rob with his hands full!
Surveying at Appleton

Surveying at Low Carr
Hard work this lambing .... but I suspect they were up all night!!
Forget me Not

Sloeberry flowers