Winter Bird Survey

Towards the end of last year I received an email from the BTO asking if I would be interested in covering a 1km square for their English Winter Bird Survey (WINBS). The aim of if which is to see how winter birds and brown hares are benefiting from the habitat management options within the agri-environmental schemes.

I agreed and ended up with a square not too far from home between Stanhoe and Burnham Market. I was able to contact some of the landowners who allowed access to their land but one of the transect routes couldn't be completed as I couldn't get the access permissions required but that may be possible before the next survey.

The habitat within the square was to be expected from agricultural Norfolk, heavily flailed hedges, cultivated right up to the hedges and mainly autumn sown cereal crops. There is a bit of respite from the agricultural gloom as one of the landowners was doing some good for wildlife. His hedges were nice and thick with wide flower-rich margins running alongside them, better than nothing.

Bird-wise, the visit was very quiet with the highlights being a flock of ca100 linnets over one of the stubble fields and a woodcock flushed from a roadside hedge. No other finches, sparrows, yellowhammers and only 1 hare 😠

Hopefully there will be more in February...

A grand day out

Last weekend I was lucky enough to be asked by Cley Spy to join their team for the Cley Big Bird Day with the aim of seeing as many species within the Cley Bird Club recording area. We could start whenever we wanted but had to get our completed lists back to the Cley visitor centre by 5pm.

The original idea was to have a leisurely days birding but it was probably inevitable that an element of competition crept in towards the end of the day.

I met Suzie, Phil and Simon at the Cley Spy shop at Glandford before light with the hope of tawny owl and woodcock before dawn. We drew a black for both species so headed straight for the woods at Natural Surroundings. This proved a good idea with a woodcock flushed from the site of the entrance track and 2 calling tawny owls as soon as we parked up the car. The first waterfowl for the day were on the lake but no treecreeper or marsh tit at first light.

We were surprised to be the first people at Cley Coastguards for a seawatch but that did mean we could get the best sheltered spot in the fairly stiff westerly breeze. The sea was pretty disappointing with few birds present. No divers or grebes but we did add at least 6 drake velvet scoter, 1st winter kittiwake and a flyby flock of 6 snow bunting. Peregrine over the Cley Marshes was a nice addition and we saw the same bird over the reserve again later in the day.

Keeping on the move we headed on to Morston where we were able to view over Blakeney Harbour from the National Trust tower. Sadly the 2 turkeys on the drive into the carpark couldn't be sneaked onto the list 😉
The view over the saltmarsh was excellent and allowed us to add a whole host of new wildfowl and waders including pintail, red breasted merganser, goldeneye, knot and a wintering greenshank in the creeks right by the tower. However, the highlight was a superb grey male hen harrier picked up by Phil heading in from the west. Great views were had as it passed over the saltmarsh in front of heading towards Cley. A short walk out onto the edge of the saltmarsh added rock pipit to the list.

Next phase of the day was to spend some time in the inland parts of the square. Although it was probably too windy for the heathland specialists we still headed to Kelling Heath with our fingers crossed. We dipped both Dartford warbler and woodlark (probably due to the wind) but we did manage green woodpecker, rook, coat tit and our only goldcrests of the day.  Passing through the village of Kelling to the coast added a grey wagtail on the rooftops and a stop on the main road to check for skylark (we never saw one all day!) yielded our only song thrush.
News of a great white egret at Cley sent us in that direction but by the time we were viewing the marsh from the Cley Spy  shop it had already moved on. We did add a couple of waders to the list and our only redwing of the day.

Lunch and a coffee were calling so we headed back to the Cley Spy base at Glandford where we could sit and watch the bird feeders while having a break. This had been a great location for yellowhammer and reed bunting so a good place for a break. Sadly we only added feral pigeon 😖

We decided to have another bite of the Natural Surroundings cherry but this time we walked up the river from the ford in Glandford. This isn't somehwhere I'd been before but was a lovely short walk through the water meadows up too the woodland. The feeders were now heaving with birds and a great spotted woodpecker made it onto the list. Suzie had a very brief probable marsh tit but the rest of us were looking the wrong way and we never saw it again. Frustrating as we were probably the only team to miss them. Little grebe and Egyptian goose were added but we failed again for treecreeper.

Rachael joined us for the last couple hours of the day as we headed back to Cley for another look at the sea. No bearded tits or reed buntings were forthcoming on the walk down the East Bank but we did have (probably) the male peregrine over the marshes. We added only red throated diver on the sea and then had to make a decision on where to spend the last hour, farmland or reserve...

We decided on farmland so headed back to Cley Spy for another stab at the feeding station. As soon as we arrived, long tailed tit was added before a female reed bunting dropped into the hedge. Yellowhammer was a bit harder but eventually we managed to get 3 birds, one in the hedge on the edge off the field and another couple in flight. Another look around the Glandford ford scored us a bonus chiffchaff before we headed for a final search for barn owl.

Both Blakeney Freshes and the water meadows at the back of Cley were checked but no barn owls showed for us. Despite a desperate plea from myself, I wasn't allowed to add the hooded merganser, red breasted goose or whistling ducks from the pond at Blakeney to the list😢😂

The light eventually beat us so we headed back the the Cley visitor centre to add up the list. Despite missing a few 'easy' species we ended up with a creditable 91 species with the winning team bagging 103.

It was a really fun day spending time in an area that I have never really birded apart from the obvious sites.  Surroundings was a revelation and I will be visitin there again.

Thanks to the guys at Cley Spy for the invite onto their team and I look forward to 2020...

Swanning round with Simon

For the first time in ages I went out birding with my mate Simon.

After deciding where to go, all good days in the field need to start with a hearty breakfast so a slight detour on the way to Welney set up for not just the day but pretty much for the rest of the week!! 

We decided not to go onto the reserve proper but instead spend our time searching the local fields for 'wild swans' which turned out to be a pretty easy task.

Before we had even left the bright lights of Ten Mile Bank we came across out first (of many) groups of whooper swans; a nice mixed flock of 24 adults and grey juveniles. Once we got further out into the fields there were groups of whoopers dotted all over the place. In the end we had over 1300 birds including herds of 420 and several of over 200.

Most of the groups of swans were very distant from the road but one group just past the Welney visitor centre were nice and close allowing decent views. Once we stopped it looked like there was a smaller bird amongst them. The bird turned out to be Bewick's swan and so did the rest of the group, 42 of them with a couple of whoopers mixed in - a nice comparison.

We carried on to the main road in search of a couple of cattle egrets that had been seen recently with a group of sheep. Somehow we managed to miss the sheep of the first drive past and it wasn't until we came back that we spotted them on the riverbank. The sheep were distant to start with and the egrets were feeding in the tall vegetation and only showing in flight to start but as the sheep slowly moved closer then became easier to see. The talk was made easier when a dogwalker spooked them causing them to fly around and land on top of the bank.