Strumpshaw Fen & Buckenham Marshes

Harriers & Corvids – Tuesday 16^th December 2014 

The day began well with another sighting of a Hare through the scope in the field behind us. It was a bright chilly start (8C) to the day but no frost.

We left home about 11.50am to go to RSPB Strumpshaw, a place we hadn’t visited since the beginning of the year. We arrived there about 1pm and went to the Reception Hide where we remained until about 3.45pm. It was very quiet both on the bird front and the number of visitors. The only birds on the Fen in front of us were a raft of about 30 Coots (collective noun – fleet or covert) who spent the afternoon drifting from one side to the other and back again at the far end of the Fen.

Fleet Of Coot

It wasn’t too long before a Marsh Harrier appeared and all in all we had 15 different sightings of Harriers while we were there. There was no way of telling if they were 15 different birds or different sightings of the same birds but we did see three of them together so there were at least 3 different birds and our sightings were a mixture of male and female Harriers.

Pool In Front Of Reception Hide - Light Early Afternoon

Reed Bed

At one point about 17 Teal came into land but were unsettled by the appearance of the Harrier and never really settled. We saw a Heron take off from within the reed bed and there were several Crows dotted about. One of the Crows took it upon himself to mob any passing Harrier and it was during one of these mobbing attempts that the Crow and a Harrier disturbed a Bittern who flew a short distance to escape the melee.

Female Teal

Light Mid-Afternoon

There were two Ducks who drifted around on the Fen but never came close enough for us to get a good enough look at them to identify them properly but we think they were Teal. There was one solitary female Teal and one Mallard Drake who were also present on the Fen. There were a few other visitors to the Hide and the Warden herself who all commented on how quiet the Reserve was generally and had been over the last few weeks. Various reasons were offered as to why this was, mainly because the weather had been unseasonably warm of late and the predominant airflow was from the West, which had discouraged large numbers of Wildfowl from their migration to this country from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia.

Light Late Afternoon

 We did see a few other birds during our stay at the Hide: A few skeins of Geese flew over the Reserve at high altitude, Great Tit,  a Cormorant drying its wings in the distance, a Reed Bunting, a Wren flitting about in front of the Hide and a single Starling. Just before we went we did see a small group of Starlings, about 20 in number and a much larger murmuration of Starlings (several hundred birds) but they were quite a way from the Reserve. A couple of years ago we did witness a murmuration of several thousand Starlings from this very hide in front of us. You can find a video of that on our YouTube Channel.

We were very pleased that this week our YouTube Channel passed 25K views. Thank you to all who have supported our channel.

As we were leaving the Reserve about 200 Corvids (mainly Rooks and Jackdaws but also some Crows) flew over the trees at the Eastern end of the Reserve towards Buckenham Marshes a well known Corvid Roost.

The light was now going rapidly but we decided to go down to Buckenham Marshes anyway. As we approached the Marshes the telephone and power lines and the trees were lined with rows and rows of Corvids but as we drove down Station Road towards the Hide the sky was thick with several thousands of Corvids making their way towards their roost. It was too dark to get any decent shots and they were at quite a height but it took them some time to fly over us making quite a cacophony of Corvid sounds.

Moving down the lane we became aware that we were surrounded by a large number of Wigeon making their haunting whistling sounds. This was quite atmospheric in the failing light. We could just make out in the gloom a couple of Swans and a white Goose amongst some other Geese. There have been quite a few reports of late of several white morph Snow Geese amongst some Bean Geese. We ourselves saw what we thought were 5 Leucistic Greylag Geese amongst a flock of 100+ but the next day that was reported as white morph Snow Geese amongst Bean Geese in the same location!

It was our first time at Buckenham Marshes but I think we will go again in the near future. Mainly because of my mobility problems we often like to scout places out before we visit them properly and at least we could get right up to the hide.

Quiz

The answer to the last question (3)

Rainbow Trout: The seven colours of the rainbow are derived in sequence from 1. Red Admiral. 2. Orange Tip. 3. Yellowhammer. 4. Green Woodpecker (Professor Yaffle). 5. Bluebell. 6. Indigo Bunting. 7.Violet (from A. A. Milne’s Winnie The Pooh Stories).

Question 4

You find a tall perennial plant with beautiful blue flowers in long spikes, a small extremely common weed with heart-shaped seed pods, and a spiny evergreen bush that seems to have many small green leaves (but doesn’t). From among the shopkeeper, the cleric and the stockman; who cleans up, who protects his money and who has no need for a hat?

Answers next time. Keep your eyes peeled and good spotting.