Joy Followed By Sadness

Croxton Heath, Grimes Graves & Little Cressingham 

Sunday 29^th March 2015

The Rowan Tree was planted yesterday and hopefully we will see it bearing fruit in our lifetime. Although some of the top layer of the Frogspawn had turned milky (we’ve had a few frosts in this last week) the bulk of it looked as if hatching would be imminent.

We began this Palm Sunday morning with joy at seeing our YouTube Channel pass the 30k views mark. Thank you to everyone who supports that channel. As I’ve said before we’re not photographers with flash equipment but just wildlife enthusiasts who try to bring you some of what we see, albeit sometimes out of focus or a bit jerky.

The sadness came with a double whammy. It hit me when I realised it was Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. For the best part of the last 25 years this has been the biggest and busiest week of the year for me but now that I am retired it all feels a bit empty.

The second jolt came when I read Paul Newport’s blog:

(You can find it here http://brecklandbirder.blogspot.co.uk )

Paul had sadly found the body of a Barn Owl on the B1108 near the crossroads. We’ve seen a Barn Owl hunting in this area several times this Winter. I was completely caught unawares with the level of grief I felt, it was as if a very good friend had died. We love seeing Barn Owls in the wild and it is a very great privilege to see them close up. We have seen Barn Owls hunting along the roadside verge in this location before and unfortunately when traffic is travelling fast they can be sucked in by the slipstream and hit. Barn Owls are such fragile creatures, their bones are hollow to boost their lightness and if they are hit they can be fractured very easily. Paul suggested having Wildlife Signs up but I’m not sure they would work especially seeing the Toad collectors in operation last week. The Toad Signs were up the volunteers were in High-Vis waistcoats but still the traffic was coming along sometimes in excess of 70mph and I feared for the life of the rescuers let alone the Toads. I’m afraid this sadness stayed with me all day and I probably wasn’t much fun to be with. I’m far too sensitive about these things.

The Edge Of Croxton Heath

We had to do some shopping and Jan had picked to go to Thetford but said we would do some spotting on the way home but I have to say my heart wasn’t really in it, all I could think of was the poor Barn Owl.

The Edge Of Croxton Heath

We left Thetford at 3.15pm it was 11˚C with blustery showers with a very brisk wind. Going along the A11 we saw a Kestrel hovering beside the road it was doing a fantastic job of being stationary in the blustery wind. We left the A11 and drove around Croxton Heath, we stopped in several places but didn’t see very much except for some Blue Tits, Chaffinches and Wood Pigeons.

Driving to Grimes Graves we were surprised that it was open so we decided to have a look to see if the Great Grey Shrike was still about, it had been reported in this location a day or so again. If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that I have failed miserably over the last several years to see one of these birds. Needless to say we didn’t see it this time either. Every Winter about 100 Great Grey Shrikes overwinter in this country until they return to Scandinavia in April so it probably looks as if the next opportunity will be next Winter. It wasn’t a wasted trip, though. There were plenty of Corvids there and we also saw a Mistle Thrush and a Skylark both in the air and on the ground but I failed completely to get any video, as I said earlier my heart wasn’t really in it today.

On our way home we stopped at The Brook at Little Cressingham on the Great Cressingham Road. I think I felt even worse here as it was so close to where the Barn Owl was found. The only thing that was in abundance was Sheep although we saw 4 Hares in the adjoining fields. Travelling North along Great Cressingham Road we saw another 2 Hares, a Curlew, plenty of Pheasants and Partridges. We returned home and I have to say I was glad to get home.

Grimes Graves

Keep your eyes peeled and good spotting.