Herons & Buzzards

A Couple Of Hours After Shopping – Thursday 16^th October 2014    

Anybody who reads this blog regularly may think that we’re always shopping. It’s not really like that but we do try to tie our shopping trips with a bit of Nature Watching.

After our shopping trip to Swaffham we decided to have look at the Ford at Hilborough. As we drove the lane towards the Ford a Buzzard glided over us just above our roof and landed in the trees just above us and then we saw it disappear over the field to our right. While we were at the Ford we heard a Buzzard calling the whole time. We did get another sighting of a Buzzard but whether it was the same one or a different one we would never know.

Sitting down at the Ford there was lot more water in the River Wissey but there wasn’t quite as much of the abundant fly life as recently. There was a lot of activity in the Ford; the extra depth had obviously encouraged more fish to move into this particular stretch. We saw lots of rises to the flies and some fish leapt clear of the water. I saw a fish that was about 9-12” and a shoal of 3-4” fish moving through the Ford. We also saw several Blackbirds and I thought I caught a glimpse of a Mouse or Vole at the base of a tree. As we usually do, we could hear plenty of bird life in the Ivy and hedgerow but we couldn’t see any of them.

After our coffee we moved onto the cut through lane between the Swaffham and Watton Roads. It was very busy along the lane but it didn’t seem to bother the many Rooks and Wood Pigeons that were visible and a Heron that was hunting along a hedge. It was only when a tractor turned up with a trailer loaded with carrots to feed the sheep that the Heron took flight. While we were sitting there a Mistle Thrush landed on top of a tree.

Driving onto the bridge over the Watton Brook we parked there for a while. We caught a glimpse of a Hare opposite us and then a Heron flew over and Jan got some footage of it feeding amongst a flock of Sheep. Just a few weeks ago the Brook was alive with birds but today we saw just a single Blue Tit. In the distance we could see what we believed to be either a Buzzard or Red Kite perched on top of a tree. It took a couple of stops further along the lane to confirm it was a Buzzard. We stopped further along the lane by a field that was only drilled last week but already the crop of Winter Wheat was about an inch or so tall. While we were sitting there two rather noisy cars disturbed a Sparrowhawk and it glided effortlessly in front of us into the next field. There were some Crows and Rooks in the trees and it always surprises me just how big Crows are.

 Our last stop of the day was at the Watermill at Little Cressingham and once again the field that was only drilled less than a week ago was bristling with tips of Winter Wheat striving upwards. I guess it has been all the wet and mild weather we’ve been having recently. Just as before the hedgerows were devoid of birds even though there were still plenty of Blackberries and Hawthorn Berries. There were plenty of Pheasants, Partridges and Rooks about though.

We returned home early because I was keen to see the Apple broadcast. I was really impressed by the new 5K Retina Display iMacs and I downloaded the new operating system “Yosemite” and all the associated updates. I have to say it’s been a long time since my iMac has run so smoothly. Safari is really fast and it seems to have solved the problems I’ve been having with iMovie.

Keep your eyes peeled and good spotting.