Watton To East Wretham And Back Again - Sunday 22nd March 2015
Little Owl - Peddars Way Merton
First of all I must apologise for the lateness in posting this blog. My first excuse is that I’ve been suffering from a very painful bout of gout and I’ve been unable to get up without Jan’s help. Normally I write these blog entries in the early hours of the morning but I haven’t been able to get to the computer and secondly most of Monday was swallowed up by a hospital appointment.
However, all that said, we did manage to get out on Sunday for a few hours in the afternoon and what a memorable few hours it was.
We left home at 2.30pm it was 10˚C with broken cloud, plenty of sunshine and the wind wasn’t quite as bitter as it has been of late.
Our fist sighting was really in Watton, we hadn’t quite got to the Merton sign when we saw 6 Hares, Pheasants and a Pied Wagtail a good start to the afternoon.
Our next sighting was probably the most exciting when driving along a section of Peddars Way in Merton, we finally met up with our fellow Wattonion, Paul Newport and his dog, Toby. We have had close sightings and glimpses of Paul before but this time we actually had a chance to speak to him. Paul graciously spared us some of his time and shared a little of his vast treasure trove of local and avian knowledge. I’m sure he should write a book because his knowledge of this area is just fantastic. We have learnt so much about this area from his blog and even in just a 15 minute conversation with him we learnt so much more. In my ministerial days, I think it would be fair to say that I was a good teacher, well, Paul has all these qualities just oozing from him and even in just a short time with him, his passion for birding is just so infectious. You can read his blog here:
Enthused by our conversation with Paul we moved a bit further along Peddars Way nearer to some houses, Farmhouse and a Cattery where we sat for a while taking in the beautiful scenery and enjoying the warm afternoon sunshine. We saw a Kestrel, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Stock Dove, Yellowhammers, 3 Hares and 4 Buzzards riding the same thermal getting higher and higher until eventually they became mere specks in the sky. Then Jan said rather calmly: “I’m looking at a Little Owl!” I said where? Expecting to be directed at some distant spot when Jan pointed to a tree just 30 metres from us and there sitting in the Ivy and clearly visible even to my poor eyesight was a Little Owl. There was much coming and going along this part of Peddars Way, cars going into houses a family with a buggy and a hiker all passed the tree in complete oblivion to the presence of the Owl and in the Owl’s turn, although keeping a sharp eye on matters, seemed completely unfazed by us and the bypassers. Jan got a lovely video of the Little Owl which is on our YouTube Channel (just click on the logo in the top right hand corner of the blog).
Little Owl - Peddars Way - Merton
We carried on back up Peddars Way where we came across some beautiful male Chaffinches and Goldfinches. Chaffinches may be one of our commonest birds but at this time of year they are just resplendent in their breeding plumage. They were drinking from a roadside puddle and for once not fighting with each other. We then blotted our copybook a little by inadvertently disturbing Paul who was in full action photographing some Tree Sparrows, I hope we didn’t blow it too much for Paul especially after his generous sharing of his knowledge. He certainly posted a brilliant shot of a Tree Sparrow on Facebook and his blog. We beat a hasty retreat and carried on to Merton Church.
St. Peter's Church - Merton
Merton Church, St. Peter’s is a quaint little country church situated on a country estate in very picturesque surroundings. The estate is Merton Hall, once the former home of the Lords of Walsingham. It is a shame that the church is not open because I’m sure the inside belies it’s simple exterior. You can read more about St. Peter’s Church, Merton here:
We then went down to the Range Gates in Sparrow Hill and it was surprisingly quiet gone were the sounds of explosions and gunfire that been heard all around this area for the last 6 weeks (this was the last official day of the military exercise going on on STANTA the battle training area, but there were no parked cars, hikers or dog walkers either. Perhaps they had stayed away because of the exercise.
Peddars Way - Sparrow Hill
We sat at the gates and had some of a large flask of coffee. One of the mysteries of the Universe – Why does coffee always taste so much better when you have it when you’re out and about? Here we saw Great Tit, Squirrels, Pheasants, Robins and my first Blackcap of the year, it was only a quick glimpse but unmistakable as he flitted amongst the Brambles. As we made our way back along Sparrow Hill to the main road Jan saw a Buzzard take off from a field next to the road and fly off into the trees.
Hot Air Balloon Over Thompson
Continuing our afternoon expedition through Thompson we came to the fields overlooking Thompson Church, the Church of St. Martin and again you can read more about the church here:
As we looked across the fields towards the church to our left we could see 3 Roe Deer hinds enjoying nibbling the hedge and then lying down in front of it, some Magpie and another 3 Hares. On the right side we could see 3 Roe Deer hinds and a stag. As we continued through Thompson we took a little detour down by the side of the church where we saw a lovely modern house with its own observatory, wow! What a beautiful setting. Carrying along the road we came to what I suspect is a pingo; see the following link for a full explanation:
Pingo At Thompson
This one always reminds us of a primordial swamp. We couldn’t stay there too long because the road is quite narrow here but we did see a Moorhen sitting on a very complex looking nest.
Moorhen Sitting On Nest Of Woven Reeds Above The Water
Carrying on along Stow Bedon Road we came to the field opposite Top Farm where we have seen Roe and Red Deer before and today there was no exception there were 3 Roe Deer grazing on the field. Jan got out of the car to film them and I could see a pair of Great Tits going bonkers above her head, there was probably a nest nearby. I also saw 6 Long Tailed Tits and 2 Goldfinch in the same section of hedging.
Three Roe Deer Hinds In Field
Roe Deer
We then moved on to East Wretham around by the Village Hall. We saw a Muntjac Deer and a Kestrel and further on we stopped to finish off our coffee. Here we saw another Muntjac Deer and heard a Tawny Owl calling in the trees. As the Sun
went down we had an excellent view of a new Moon and the planet Venus.
The Sun Going Down Over East Wretham
The Moon & Venus
The New Moon
We decided to head for home as it was now getting dark. We made one last detour of what we call the triangle, which is Woodcock Road from The Dog and Partridge Pub around to the Thetford Camping and Caravan Club site. We hadn’t gone very far along Woodcock Road when we saw 22 Roe Deer grazing on a field and in the same field but a bit further on was another Muntjac Deer. As we got to the top of the triangle and turned to go down the other side we caught sight of a Tawny Owl in our headlights in the trees and further along another Muntjac Deer crossed the road in front of us.
All in all we had seen:
10 Hares
32 Roe Deer
5 Muntjac Deer
Little Owl
Tawny Owl (1 heard & 1 seen)
Pheasants
Partridges
Pied Wagtail
Kestrel
Blue Tits
Great Tits
Yellowhammers
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
Wren
Blackcap
5 Buzzards
Grey Sqirrels
Robins
Moorhen
Long Tailed Tits
Paul Newport and Toby.
A good few hours spotting.
Keep your eyes peeled and good spotting.
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