False Start

With Tier 4 now in full swing and movement restricted to local only, the start of Norton 2020 has been delayed so for the time being I’ll have to make the most of walking the local area close to home. 

This morning I set out with the plan to check some of the wet woodland in the local area for marsh tits. Thankfully the local area is still pretty good for them on the habitat still looks really good for willow tit although sadly they are probably long gone. 

Despite the recent cold weather it actually seemed quite quiet for birds in the woodland although with several male great tits singing strongly, maybe the birds I’ve already started to disperse under their breeding territories. However the first small tit flock came across contained two marsh tits which was a pretty good start.

The pools in the bottom of the valley held a few duck, which is quite unusual, including 14 gadwall, a calling little grebe and several teal although I could only hear them as they were in a thickly vegetated area. The best bird was a woodcock flushed from the side of the road while searching for tit flocks.

The wet area at the far end of the walk is an excellent area of wetland habitat especially after all the rain we've had recently. Sadly though none of it is accessible and can only be viewed from the footpaths and roads that run around the outside. I’m sure if you could walk it it would be full of snipe, jack snipe and water rail and I bet there is a good chance of wintering bittern. Watching from the river bridge I had two female Marsh Harrier hunting the area and fingfisher perched up. At the north end of this wet river valley there is a small area of open water which is the best place for attracting waterfowl. Today there were 24 wigeon and three tail on the pool.

The best however was in the field next to the pool where a cattle egret was feeding with the cows. I had already seen a couple of groups of cows which I checked for egrets considering how the population has increased in the local area in the last couple of years so I wasn’t surprised when I eventually found one. Despite being a regular sight on the coast these days there was still a buzz finding one in an area where they hadn't been seen before. A further four marsh tits was seen or heard on the walk back along with a male bullfinch and treecreeper.

With work starting again next week hopefully I should be able to get Norton 2020 up and running at last

Wet area viewed from the bridge

This area used to be cattle grazed up until a few years ago and held breeding lapwing. With a lack of grazing the area is turning into a fen

Marsh tit wet woodland

Wet woodland

Morus bassanus

That is gannet to you and I

The only 'good' thing about it being quiet when birding on the Northern Isles (trust me I don''t want it to be) is that there is a bit more time for photographing some of the commoner species present around the place.

At this time of the year there are still lots of gannets feeding around the coast of Unst and at times they can come incredibly close to shore especially along the north coast. At times the birds are too close (never happy) but it does provide excellent opportunities to try and photograph fast moving birds in flight.

Every bird is a challenge to photograph whether its fitting it in the frame, getting the exposure right or getting the camera to focus on the individual. Being bright birds in dull conditions, getting the exposure correct has been the hardest this. On the back of the camera many shots look over-exposed but by under-exposing they are all too dark when transferred onto the computer. All of the attached pics have been lightened using the wonders of Lightroom.

It is a really valuable learning curve but I'd rather be finding sculking locustella warblers in a damp irisbed 😂

Marvels in minature

Been out and about over the last couple of months with the better weather trying to photograph insects with my macro lens. Getting the exposure, shutter speed and aperture right is a tricky business but the more you do it the better you get.

The main advantage of using the macro to get images is that it helps greatly in being able to identify many of the species. Of course that isn't always possible, some require a specimen to study under a microscope, but at least I can get them to right family with a help of the internet and books.

If you disagree with any of the identifications or can add any names to things I can't, please shout 😊

6-spot burnet moth caterpillar

Broad bordered bee hawkmoth - there has been at least 2 individuals around the garden this spring feeding on the red valerian. Much slower in their flight than hummingbird hawkmoth making them slightly easier to photograph.

Two species of nomad bee. The top 2 are (I think) blunt-jawed nomad bee from Dersingham Bog and the final 3 are Lathbury's nomad bee from Syderstone Common.

A few dragons from the recent hot weather. Male emperor (2), recently emerged female ruddy darter (?) and a couple of male red-veined darters that arrived on the coast last week ahead of the surge in hot weather.

Hummingbird hawkmoth. Smart when they are in flight feeding with the flash of orange in the wings but boring as hell when they are perched up. Something that you don't see very often.

Ichneumon wasp sp with its caterpillar lunch. I thought the caterpillar was a large heath butterfly but that doesn't occur in Norfolk so does anyone know what it is?

Fat-thighed beetle

Small heath butterfly

Silvery leafcutter bee from Burnham Overy dunes. This took quite a while to identify and in the end the kind people of Twitter came to the rescue. Even when I knew what it was I couldn't have identified it from the book!

Sharp-tailed bee sp from Burnham Overy dunes

I think that this is some kind of wasp sp but I can't find anything that matches in the books.

The best of Burnham Overy

Today was a bit of an unusual day as I got to carry out one of the reserve WeBS counts as Jonny was away on holiday - its normally his patch.

We manage the reserve between the three of us wardens, we all have our own patch and we get to know it well throughout the breeding season as we carry out our monitoring work. Being out on our sites at least two days a week gives you a real insight into what is going on. You almost get to know the individual wader families and follow their highs and lows throughout the season. Every now and again though it is good to have a close look at a different part of the reserve with a pair of 'fresh eyes'.  My normal patch is the marshes at Burnham Norton so it was nice to have a change of scene and look around Burnham Overy today.

To be honest, now that we are into June I wasn't expecting there to be many wildfowl and waders left to count for the WeBS, there wasn't, but that did give me an opportunity to have a look at how the breeding waders were getting on.
Since the beginning of the year we have been able to tweak the management on our sites to make improvements to habitat in favour of the waders. Nothing too drastic at this stage but by increasing water levels, introducing earlier grazing to get the sward in good condition and effective predator control, we have managed to increase breeding wader numbers across all of our sites - a great result but just the start.

Lots of muddy pools and rushy channels and footdrains have proved very successful and it was brilliant to see lots of chicks about on the marsh. These areas provide loads of insect food and cover from predators.
There were lapwing chicks that had just hatched complete with eggtooth still, half grown birds and several that had reached the fledging stage. After all the work we've all put in, seeing lots of young makes it all worthwhile.

It wasn't just lapwing there were plenty of redshank and avocet around the site too but you have to be careful about where you drive.
I spotted this adult redshank calling like mad in our of the causeways I needed to cross. Clearly it had young somewhere but where were they... I decided to walk the area before driving through and it was clear from their behaviour that there were chicks close by. All of a sudden I spotted one them hiding in some docks that were growing on the track I was following. The chick was frozen, hiding from the predator (me) as it was being told to by its parents. I picked it up, wished it well and moved to to the ditch edge where it vanished into the vegetation. Later in the morning I saw that same bird again with its 3 siblings.

The highlight of the day came when I was watching one of the breeding scrapes and noticed a group of 5 egrets flying in from the west. I assumed that they would be a group of adult little egrets heading back to the Holkham colony to feed their young when I realised that they had yellow beaks - they were cattle egrets! They came in over the the seawall, circled around  couple of times and pitched in to the scrape I was watching. With the recent influx of birds into Norfolk it probably wasn't too surprising but it was rather unexpected. They sat around looking rather grumpy, as they often do, before moving into the herd of cows on the marsh. The Brancaster birds were still present so presumably these were new birds in...

The rest of the count was rather quiet but I did see a smart adult spoonbill and an early returning green sandpiper.

Just a few minor adjustments to the management of the reserve have made a big difference - great stuff.

A lucky day

Bit of strange day but ultimately rewarding…

Started the day early out on the reserve listening for bittern which sadly we didn’t hear any sound of (looks like we only have 2 boomers this year) but did have the bizarre sight of 2 fulmars flying SW over the grazing marsh followed by greylag geese sitting in the tops of pine trees!! We see Egyptian geese doing this all the time and in fact they often breed in the flat-topped pines but I’ve never seen greylags doing it before. Initially there was one bird but in the end there were at least 6 birds sitting in two separate trees with others circling and trying to join them. Couldn’t tell if they were nesting but certainly unusual behaviour. Too far really to get a picture but if you squint...

After a break we headed inland to an area that we have been carrying out farmland bird surveys to check out some possible lapwing nests that needed protecting from future farming operations.

As we headed south of the Park along the dry road Andy picked up a bird flying towards the road from the west being mobbed by some black-headed gulls. Andy instantly called eagle but unfortunately we were following a tractor and caravan and there was nowhere to pull over. By the time we were able to pull off the road the bird had disappeared but our luck was in.

We stopped opposite some cottages and to our surprise the bird was on the ground in a field! It quickly took flight and headed into the east with several buzzards in tow. We relocated to another road and could see the bird distantly towards Walsingham before is disappeared.

2nd eagle in a matter of weeks but this time a smart adult

adult white tailed eagle being chased by a common buzzard

We carried on to original destination were we managed to locate 2 lapwing nests and at least 3 broods in a bare field earmarked for cultivation in the next few days. All of the nests were marked with canes so that the tractor drivers know where the nests are and can lift their machinery up to avoid any damage.

An excellent day of species conservation and some nice birds to boot.