The Arms, Bodney To Cockley Cley & Back Again – Tuesday 17th March 2015
Warning Sign At Cockley Cley
I had a splitting headache today and I’m not sure I really wanted to go out but I’m glad I did. We left home at 3.10pm it was misty and had been raining previously, it was 9˚C but again didn’t feel much like that.
Visibility wasn’t that great today and the mist kept going and coming back again. We made our way to The Arms at Bodney seeing the usual flocks of Gulls, Pheasants, Partridges and Corvids. We could also hear plenty of bird song in the trees seeing some Robins, Great Tit, Blue Tit and a Reed Bunting.
Making our way along the Cressingham Road we came to a corner of a field by a small covert of mixed trees. We had seen large flocks of mixed small birds here before and there were some here today but not in the numbers we’ve seen over the Winter, they were mainly Chaffinches, Dunnock, a single Redwing and a few Brambling. Like the last time we observed them they were making quick forays from the trees to the stubble and back again but there was some heavy machinery working the field.
We carried along Cressingham Road crossing over the main Watton Road and heading for the bridge over the Brook. As we approached the Brook we could hear lots of birds. They were in the trees around the Brook, they were Starlings and there were several hundred of them with more joining them all the time. Every now and again groups of a hundred or so would fly into the adjacent fields and swirl around like small murmurations before returning to the trees. Jan managed to catch some of this behaviour on a video which will eventually be on our YouTube Channel. I couldn’t help wondering if these were some of the Continental birds that increase the numbers of our sadly diminishing indiginious Starlings either beginning or continuing their migration home. There were also a pair of Teal on the Brook, a pair of Pied Wagtails and I’m fairly sure I saw a pair of Rock Doves in a tree, they were a bit far off but I’m sure I saw the white patch on their rump and the black wingbars were large which distinguishes them from Stock Doves but the picture of them was inconclusive.
Pied Wagtail At The Brook
Carrying along the Cressingham Road we saw 2 Buzzards in the treetops, the large flock of Fieldfare we had seen in the same location a few weeks ago but this had now grown considerably from the 100 or so birds we had seen to about 300 but they were spread out over a large distance and very mobile. There were some Redwing among them but they were predominantly Fieldfares. Jan heard a Curlew calling and we saw three Hares.
Contented Sheep
When we got to the Olde Windmill Pub at Great Cressingham there was again another large gathering of Starlings in the treetops but this is not too unusual in this location as there is a large Pig Farm in the locality and there are often large numbers of Starlings and Corvids in the tree tops resting between their foraging amongst the Pigs. We carried on to The Ford at Hilborough seeing another 2 Hares on the way.
We had our coffee at The Ford where saw Wren, Blue Tit, Blackbirds and Goldfinches. I noticed there was a little more fly life than there has been of late, not much but a sure sign that Spring is on its way.
The Best Coffee Stop Around - Overlooking The Field To The North Of The Ford At Hilborough
We then travelled North along Brandon Road towards Swaffham with the intention of heading towards Cockley Cley before we turned off the Brandon Road we saw a Kestrel, 2 Hares and a Roe Deer. We turned off of Brandon Road, towards Cockley Cley and we hadn’t gone far when we came across 9 Roe Deer on one side of the road and at least two on the other side. Jan managed to get a video of these in the mist. A couple of birders pulled up behind us and were showing a great deal of interest in the trees on the North side of the road but we couldn’t see what they were looking at and we didn’t have a scope. When I checked the Birdguides and Surfguides sightings reports for yesterday there was nothing reported in that location (not that that means there wasn’t something there as birders use several different sources for their reports and of course some don’t use any at all). Jan also saw 2 skeins of Geese one of 30 birds and the other 60-70 birds but they were too distant to identify them properly. At this location we also saw Lapwing and 2 Hares.
Making our way to Cockley Cley we saw another 5 Hares including a couple of big bucks and several Greylag Geese. At Cockley Cley we went past the oddly named pub “Twenty Churchwardens” and along Riverside. As a point of interest the pub gets it’s name from The Hilborough Group of Parishes that consists of 10 parishes with each church having 2 Churchwardens hence 20 Churchwardens but it may also be a reference to a type of pipe having the name of a churchwarden but I think it is highly unlikely that the chances of having 20 pipe smoking Churchwardens who all happen to smoke the same type of pipe must be quite remote. The church of All Saints’ at Cockley Cley is quite interesting it has a ruined round tower. Round Towered Churches are quite prevalent in Norfolk but rarer in other parts of the country. I used to be the Rector of a round towered church, the Church of St. Remigius in Roydon. Apparently the tower of All Saints’ Church, the only remaining medieval part, (its restoration in 1860 was considered to be more of a re-building) collapsed on 29th August 1991. The Church holds memorials to The Roberts family, patrons of the church who were Master Cutlers of Sheffield.
Turning onto the Swaffham Road, heading towards Oxburgh we saw on a lake 2 pairs of Gadwall, a Moorhen, a pair of Greylag and a pair of Canada Geese. Also a Muntjac was running along the far bank. Jan heard a Tawny Owl here. We also saw two young ladies and a young lad who were walking along the road carrying buckets and wearing high-vis jackets. We stopped and had a chat with them. They were on Toad Patrol, they told us that since February 25th they had carried nearly 800 Toads and some Frogs across the road from the Thetford Forest to the Lake-side of the road. They also told us that they do this at Cranwich Heath as well and a couple of years ago they carried over 8,000 Toads across the road there, for which they won an award. One of the ladies was obviously a Teacher because she firmly put me in my place when I suggested that the young lad should splash in the puddles. She explained that when she had 26 children at school the last thing she wanted to have to do was to explain to the parents why their children were soaking wet. I did offer very weakly that when you get to my age that one of the things that you long to do is to splash in puddles but are unable to do so because you’d probably fall over and break a leg!
When I meet people like these it makes me feel so in awe of them. Yes, I love nature and observing it in all its forms, pay my subscriptions to the various conservation bodies and support them where I can but these ladies after a full day’s work were giving up their spare time and putting their lives on the line (none of the passing traffic was slowing down, despite the warning signs) to do something about conservation. It is people like these who are the real heroes of our world. Every blessing to them in their efforts. We talk about the bigger issues in World Conservation but often forget all about those doing things in our land to protect and preserve wildlife.
It was now getting quite dark and misty again so we decided to head for home. We had a brief stop in the cut through road at Hilborough between the Brandon and Watton Roads where we saw 6 Greylag Geese and Jan heard a Barn Owl. We made one more diversion through Threxton where we saw a Little Owl in exactly the same place we’d seen one last week.
Unfortunately the headache didn’t go but I did feel all the better for being out for several hours. Keep your eyes peeled and good spotting.
No comments:
Post a Comment