Catching Up

What with working nights and two daughters who seem to keep me busy all the time, it’s hard to find the time to keep my blog up to date. So will do a brief summary of trips that I’ve made in the last couple of weeks.

11th March
I spent the day in Norfolk on my old stomping grounds in the Brecks, I started of early to a part of Thetford Forest south-west of Swaffham. It was still dark when I arrived so I just sat in the car for a while just listening to the sounds of the forest, a Woodcock flew over and as the day grew lighter a Barn Owl flew right in front of my car affording fantastic views as it hunted the roadside verges.
By the time I had reached my destination most of the commoner bird species had been seen including fly over Redpolls and Brambling, my destination was a bird feeder in the middle of the forest. These feeders have been set up to help monitor Willow Tits that make this part of the forest their home, the Willow Tit was once a common species in Norfolk but has declined at an alarming rate over the last few years. This part of the forest is possibly one of the last places in Norfolk where these birds breed though a few are seen at one or two other locations across the county.
The feeders were busy with all of the commoner species of Tits, along with Siskins and Chaffinchs, a Buzzard and Red Kite flew over. After about an hour I finally heard the call of a Willow Tit, it flew onto the feeder grabbed some food and was gone again, a brief but satisfying view of this scarce species.
As I walked back to the car a bird of prey started to call loudly from close by, a large female Goshawk glided along the edge of a fire break closely followed by a male both calling loudly as they disappeared through the trees.
I then headed to Santon Downham, as I got of the car I heard call and to my bemusement a Willow Tit sat right by the car calling loudly, before I could get my camera it was gone! My target species at Santon Downham was Woodlark and it didn’t take me long before I found them, two birds were displaying high in the sky, they then plunged to the ground where they squabbled and gestured to each other for some time.
As I stood there I heard a Crossbill calling, it’s call was different from the Common Crossbill a more slurred, louder ‘gyp’ the bird landed atop a nearby Scott’s Pine allowing me good scoped views of the bird, it was a male and what was very obvious was its heavy deep beak confirming that it was indeed a Parrot Crossbill. A group of these birds have spent the winter in the area and I wouldn’t be surprised if one or two pairs will stay and breed in the area.
A quick walk along the Little Ouse before I needed to head home saw a hunting Kingfisher and a Grey Wagtail.

Monday 12th March

On a wet morning I headed out to the London Wetlands Centre in Barnes, what with the weather and it being a weekday the reserve was very quite and I hardly saw a soul whilst I was there. I scanned the reeds around the main lagoon and eventually found two Bitterns, on the wader scrape I managed to count at least four Jack Snipe and several Common Snipe. At least 12 Pintail were seen along with Wigeon, Gadwall, Little Egret and three Red-crested Pochard.