Another Gorgeous Day

RSPB Buckenham Marsh – Wednesday 18^th February 2015 

Another beautiful sunny day after a slight frost. We left home about 11.54am and the temperature fluctuated between 7-10˚C. We decided to go to the least child friendly place we know, not that we don’t like children, I just don’t like crowded places. We went to RSPB Buckenham Marsh.

Between Watton and Norwich we saw a Hare, 2 Buzzards, 2 Mute Swans and 9 Fieldfares. Between Norwich and Brundall a Kestrel and a female Sparrowhawk. Between Strumpshaw and Buckenham a Mistle Thrush. Just like yesterday at Welney when we passed RSPB Strumpshaw it was chock a block with cars and it’s quite a good place to take a young family.

When we got to Buckenham we had the hide to ourselves and although there were a few people who popped into the hide for a short while it remained like that throughout the day. We set up the iPad to take a time lapse video, which you can see on our YouTube Channel.

Views From The Hide At RSPB Buckenham Marsh

I don’t think the wind was as raw as yesterday and we were pretty sheltered from it anyway. We hadn’t been there for very long when Jan got a brief glimpse of a Deer and my sighting of it was even shorter but I’m pretty sure it was a Chinese Water Deer. We saw another one later in the day, which was definitely a Chinese Water Deer and a couple who came into the hide said there was another one on the marshes behind the hide. Unfortunately it was too dark to get any decent footage of it when we left, even though we were quite close.

Notice On The Back Of The Hide

The Back Of The Hide

View From The Back Of The Hide

There were plenty of birds on the Marsh in front of the hide and there were plenty of birds in the air for the whole afternoon. You may or may not know that Buckenham is the home of a massive Corvid Roost which at its peak in the Winter months has some 80,000 birds there. There were plenty of Corvids throughout the whole afternoon with a good number of Rooks and Crows about.

Shoveller Drake

There weren’t many Geese or Swans about which might be an indication like yesterday that some of these birds are beginning to return to their Summer nesting places. There was a handful of Geese on the marsh and the skeins that flew over were quite small and either Greylag or Canada Geese. The biggest number of birds were the Wigeon sprinkled with a few Teal, Shovellers and Shelduck. It was quite amusing to see the Wigeon scuttle back to the safety of the water every time a raptor flew over or someone walked down the lane, especially if they had a dog.

Wigeon

During the afternoon 8 Marsh Harriers flew over the marsh but only one of them went down on something after it was mobbed by some Crows. The Harrier and the Crows remained on the ground for some time which makes me think that the Harrier either came down on some prey or carrion. All the other Harriers seemed to be going somewhere, perhaps to the raptor roost at Stubbs Mill which is not that far away. We also saw 4 Buzzards but again these birds didn’t seem interested in feeding but more on finding thermals and soaring at quite a high altitude.

Pied Wagtail

There was also one white Goose that was with 2 Greylag Geese. This bird had an orange beak and legs but did have a black stripe on both wings. I suspect that this was either a leucistic or young Greylag that was going through a moult rather than a Snow Goose.

We stayed at the hide until about 5.30pm as it was beginning to get dark. It seems that it was only just a few weeks ago that it was beginning to get dark around about 3.30pm.

This is a list of birds we saw during the day: 6 Buzzards, 8 Marsh Harriers, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, 6 Mute Swans, 9 Fieldfares, Mistle Thrush, lots of Wigeon, Teal, Shoveller, Mallard, Lapwings, Shelduck, Greylag Geese, Canada Geese, 3 Stock Dove, Wood Pigeon, Pied Wagtail, Redshank, Oystercatcher, several Little Egrets, Starlings, Moorhen, Coots, Jackdaws, Rooks and Crows. Also 1 Hare and 2 Chinese Water Deer.

Answer to the Quiz next week. Keep your eyes peeled and good spotting.