A Loop Between Cockley Cley Warren And Westgate Street, Hilborough
Barn Owl Coming Towards Us
I’m still trying to catch up with the blog entries. When we left home just after 3pm it was bright and breezy and the temperature was 19˚C. This was meant to be a shortish local trip as the first round of the World Speedway Cup was on from Poland but as usual we just got caught up in the wonderful natural world of our area and didn’t get back until way after 10pm.
This is probably one of our favourite local routes and we invariably see quite a range of wildlife. We always see Hares but today I wasn’t so sure as the crops are now quite tall so they are not so easy to spot but even so we still managed to see 28 Hares.
We hadn’t gone very far when we had a lovely close encounter with a Red Kite. We were parked up between two fields when we saw the Kite a way off and it was obviously hunting and just drifting closer and closer towards us until it more or less glided over us. Red Kites are such masters of the air, it was very breezy today but the Kite just hung in the air with very few wingbeats and just manoeuvred with flicks of its tail, wonderful to watch.
We took a slight detour off of normal route down to Gooderstone where came across two fields that had been unploughed and here we saw a number of Lapwings with chicks but they were just a little too far away from us to get any decent footage of them but again it was interesting to watch them foraging, with their parents keeping a close eye on them. Lapwings must be one of the best parents as they are unafraid of any bird or predator and immediately launch an attack on any perceived threat to their chicks.
Soaring Buzzard
There is one particular part of this route where we get excited with anticipation because we’ve seen so many beautiful sights there. It is Westgate Street, just after the crossroads by Everetts Farm at Foulden. From the crossroads right up to where Westgate Street joins up with the Brandon Road is a haven for wildlife.
We came across what we thought was a Woodlark with a beak full of Caterpillars and Flies but we wanted to check with Paul Newport, the Breckland Birder who is a bit of an expert on this particular bird, you can read his blog here:
Hare
Unfortunately it wasn’t a Woodlark but a Skylark but even so it was a lovely close encounter. As we were sitting there watching the Skylark go back and forth we had one of those really magical encounters that make your day. Coming down the road straight towards us was a hunting Barn Owl just floating above the roadside verges. Jan managed to some lovely footage of it and when I’ve caught up with myself there will eventually be a video of this on our YouTube Channel. Where we parked just off the road, the road itself isn’t very wide and the Barn Owl came right past us on the other side of the road, probably no more than 3 or 4 metres from us and it wasn’t bothered by us in the slightest, it was just so focused on hunting for prey. We saw it shortly afterwards obviously flying towards its nest carrying a Vole or Mouse in its talons. Absolutely wonderful.
Not Terribly Brilliant Pictures (Frame Grabs From Video)
We carried on along Westgate Street making our way home as it was now after 10pm but as they say: “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings!” (A colloquialism that is believed to have originated in the rather overweight sopranos who usually sang the final aria in the operas and in particular Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Niebelungen (the Ring Cycle) in which final aria lasts 20 minutes. The first recorded use of the quotes is attributed to a sports writer writing about a baseball game in the US in 1976 but it has also been attributed to Al Capone and various other characters and even to the game of billiards but the truth is no one really knows other than its existence in urban mythology.)
There was no fat lady and she certainly hadn’t sung yet. We pulled over to admire the fine wild flower meadow in the grounds of Hilborough House when we saw an adult Hare and two baby rabbits or hares when a Tawny Owl swooped down and flew off with one of the babies. It happened so quickly that it left a feeling of “did that really happen?” After waiting for about 10 minutes we continued on our journey home seeing some Pipestrelle Bats and House Martins in Westgate Street before using the cut through road between the Brandon and Watton Roads. Jan spotted a Roe Deer hind along this section of road.
Wild Flower Meadow
We turned onto the Watton Road and if it isn’t busy we normally pull up onto the bridge over the River Wissey just to have a quick look at the river, just as we did so Jan spotted a Tawny Owl fly across the road and as we came to a stop on the bridge another took off from the river banks flying past us right in front of my open window.
Roadside Near Hillsborough House
Jan suggested we take a diversion via Threxton on the way; I must admit I was beginning to think I’m not going to get any supper at this rate. As we made our way along the road we saw a Hare and several Pipistrelle Bats (as far as we could tell) hawking for insects around the trees when just as we were approaching Woodcock Hall a Little Owl flew over the car. We’ve seen Little Owls frequently along this section of road but normally on the grass. As we turned the corner lo and behold perched on top of one of the telegraph posts looking down at the field below was a Little Owl, whether or not it was the same one we had just seen, I don’t know but I remember thinking please let the fat lady sing because I’m starving.
What a great
little excursion, surely we couldn’t get any better than that. We shall see.
The Sun Goes Down Over Hilborough
What we saw:
Oystercatcher
Lapwing
& chicks**
2 Red Kite
Red Legged
Partridge*
Pheasant*
Wood Pigeon*
Crows*
Jackdaws*
Rooks*
Shelduck
Swift**
Swallow**
Jay
Chaffinch**
Mistle
Thrush fledgling
2 Magpie
Stock Dove
2
Yellowhammer
8 Buzzard
Cuckoo
(heard in couple of locations)
Blue Tit**
4 Blackcap
(all males)
Blackbirds**
Greylag
Geese**
Barn Owl
Skylark
4 Goldfinch
House
Martin**
Green
Woodpecker (heard in couple of locations)
3 Tawny Owl
2 Little Owl
28 Hares
2 Muntjac
Roe Deer
hind
Pipestrelle
Bat**
Brown Argus
Butterfly
4 Large
White Butterfly
* = Too many to count
** = Several
Keep your
eyes peeled and good spotting.
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