Abbey Farm, Flitcham - Thursday 2nd October 2014
Abbey Farm is one of our favourite locations, providing that there are not too many people there. We arrived just after 3pm, one car was just leaving and another had a couple who were having a cup of something, so we had the hide to ourselves. We have been there when there has been standing room only which hasn't been very comfortable. We go to Abbey Farm quite frequently so we get to see how it changes over the seasons.
For those of you who may not know Abbey Farm, here is a description of the farm from their website, which can be found at:
"Abbey Farm is in the village of Flitcham, in West Norfolk, UK. It is a 940 acre (375 hectare) tenant farm on the Sandringham Estate and has been farmed by the Cross family since 1958. It straddles the chalk scarp that runs north-south through West Norfolk, so ranges from 80 feet to 250ft above sea level. The farm includes the most easterly, regularly flowing springhead of the River Babingly.
The farm's main crops are barley, sugar beet and peas, grown using conventional (i.e. not organic) methods. About one tenth of the farm is grassland, most of which is near the river springhead. We started converting some land to organic in 1999 and harvested our first organic crops in 2002 (wheat, oats and beans). Currently, about 13% of our arable land is organic, but we hope to convert more in the future.
We have been involved in wildlife conservation since the early 1980s. The farm is particularly associated with conservation of wet grasslands, Pink-footed Geese, Tree Sparrows and the recreation of dry grasslands using seeds gathered from the local area.
At the beginning of 2005 there were six full-timers and seven regular part-timers working at Abbey Farm. This is more than twice the number working here before we started growing organic vegetables."
We have had some cracking sessions at Abbey Farm but when we sat down, I must must admit my heart sank a bit and even more so when Jan started reading the entries for September; the last one was a couple of days old and a recent one said: "Lowest number of birds I've ever seen here, wasted an hour!" No mention of the Little Owls since the beginning of September and only a few mentions of a Kingfisher.
The water was the lowest we've ever seen it and there weren't that many birds there, a few Greylag Geese, about two dozen Teal, a few Mallards, Moorhens, Wood Pigeons, Partridges, Pheasants, Squirrels and Rabbits. Abbey Farm has rarely let us down, normally something of note turns up, was this going to be one of the rare occasions when it did?
It didn't take too long for a Buzzard just to glide in before disappearing into the trees and then we witnessed something that had been mentioned in the Visitors Book; two Moorhens were at the top of a twenty foot Apple Tree busily tucking into the apples. In our last home in Bressingham it was something that we had witnessed before and Moorhens quite often roost in trees but it just looked comical and unreal; there is a video of it on our YouTube Channel; just click on the link in the top right hand corner of this page.
Moorhens Eating Apples 20 Feet Up An Apple Tree
Things were quite quiet for a while, a couple of Paragliders passed over, spooking all the Teal, they probably saw them as rather large Buzzards. Another birder came in and spent about 10 minutes in the hide before leaving. I sometimes think you get out of nature watching what you put in. Yes, we all have dour days but because of my mobility problems we tend to stay put for quite a while and we see people come into a hide and then go, sometimes within minutes. It happens quite often at Abbey Farm, I think because of its reputation with Little Owls & Tree Sparrows, people come to see them, don't and then leave without enjoying Abbey Farm's other treasures.
A Muntjac stag turned up and wandered across a dried up pool just to our left. It always amazes me how they seem to materialise from thin air and then quite often disappear in exactly the same way. This was the first of three we saw, 2 Stags and a hind.
Muntjac Stag
We saw 3 Jays and 2 Magpies at various times during the afternoon and there was plenty of small bird activity but you could hear them rather than see them. We did eventually see a a group of about 5 Long Tailed Tits flitting about from tree to tree and also a pair of Goldfinches.
I turned my attention to the pool behind the hide and saw a Blue Tit, Great Tit and 2 Song Thrushes but there were also a couple of Blackbirds but there was something different about them; they appeared slightly bigger and beefier than a normal Blackbird and they had jet black beaks. It may have been that they were juvenile Blackbirds but I had the fancy that they were Scandinavian Blackbirds that sometimes turn up on our shores. Unfortunately they were in the shadows and the light was too poor to get a photograph of them.
On an adjacent field there was ploughing going on with the usual following of Gulls enjoying the freshly turned over worms and grubs. When the tractor disappeared over the ridge 2 Hares made their way across the field, one of them was a large buck a truly magnificent specimen. Then a skein of about 30 Geese flew over and shortly afterwards another skein of about 50 Geese landed on the field.
The Teal were alternating between their usual dabbling and splashing about with just standing on the bank of the pool, they were joined by a large group of Moorhens, Mallards, a Lapwing, a Stock Dove and a hybrid duck that had a little bit of Shelduck in it. We also saw A Mistle Thrush on the power lines.
Then something caught my eye, it was a Stoat. We've seen them several times here and there were a few recent records in the Visitor's Book. The Stoat began its jiggling dance in front of some Moorhens. Now to the uninitiated this can be quite funny and somebody had recorded in the Visitor's Book that they had seen a Stoat "Playing around!" Stoat's don't play around they are one of our toughest predators and this dance is a "Dance of Death" it lures its prey into being mesmerised by its jiggling around and then at the crucial moment it moves in for the kill which is swift and efficient. Even if you are lucky enough to see young Stoats doing this together all it is is play rehearsing for the real thing.
Then the dilemma that happened with the Barn Owls, yesterday, happened again; do I film it or just watch it? By the time I'd made my mind up it was too late the Stoat had been frightened off by a couple of brave Moorhens. The Stoat disappeared into the undergrowth, now normally that is all you get to see but this Stoat, obviously was after his supper and popped up several times in different locations but by this time the light was going and even if we did get a shot it would have been pretty poor quality. It was a great shame because the Stoat went onto a rocky island and went into a hollow stone and his head popped out; it just looked the type of shot that would have made the Countryfile Calendar.
This carried on for some time; I think it must have been a juvenile Stoat because it kept stalking birds and laying in ambush for them but we didn't see him making the kill. Then a moment of pure comic humour happened. As the Stoat came up from the pool to have a go at the Moorhens on the bank, a Muntjac stag ambled past him and I know it sounds ridiculous; I could see the Stoat eyeing the Deer and thinking: "This looks tasty!" The Stoat appeared to follow the Deer but that wasn't his target, it was the Moorhens again but they saw him in time and made their flight. While this Stoat was hunting, I saw another tip of a black tail pop out of the long grass so there were at least two hunting.
The light was now going rapidly but I just caught a glimpse of a Barn Owl in the next field sitting on the top of a post, it stayed there for a while before pouncing on something below it. Not bad, three days, three Barn Owls in two different locations.
We decided to call it a day and head off home, once again Abbey Farm hadn't let us down and revealed to us some of her treasures.
If you ever go to Abbey Farm you should also either walk down the lane away from the village or drive down it slowly (as we do) because you can see things along this lane, for instance this is where the Tree Sparrows are, and quite often you'll see a Hare crossing the lane, just as did on this visit, it was a young leveret that was all legs. We left about 7pm having had a thoroughly good afternoon.
Farmers come in for a lot of bad publicity but I would like to thank the Cross family for the way they treat the wildlife on their farm and freely let us share it with them. Thank you on behalf of all the people who use the hide at Abbey Farm.
Keep your eyes peeled and good spotting.
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