The First Day Of Spring

Brandon Road To Cockley Cley To Hilborough – Saturday 21^st March 2015

Cockley Cley Hall Through The Mist & Rain

Today is officially the first day of Spring, the Spring Equinox being yesterday but it felt very far from Spring except that the daylight now exceeds the night.

We had to go to Swaffham to replenish the bird food and to get some shopping. We didn’t hang around today as the last couple of times we’ve been, the shop has been shut. We left home at 2pm it was 7˚C, overcast with light drizzle in the air and there was a brisk cold wind. By the time we got home the temperature had dropped to 6˚C. We saw plenty of Wood Pigeon, Corvids and Gulls on our way but nothing else but to be fair we weren’t really looking that hard.

After doing our chores and having our coffee we left Swaffham at 3.30pm and made our way South along the Brandon Road. We turned off the Brandon Road towards Cockley Cley and The Iceni Village. We passed a large Pig Farm where most of the Piglets we could see were no more than a few days old and immediatley past the Pig Farm we parked in a little pull in and the fields on both sides of the road were covered in birds. On our right the field had mainly Pheasants, Wood Pigeon, Corvids (mainly Rooks and Jackdaws on this side), Partridges and Skylarks which were making brave attempts to battle the wind and sing their flight song. Jan also saw very briefly a brown coloured raptor come down on something on the far edge of the field.

The field to our left had Corvids (mainly Crows on this side), a few hundred Starlings, Lapwings, 100+ Fieldfares but there was also a large flock of small birds (200-300) which were flitting from the trees to the field agonisingly distant at first but then they gradually came closer. We could make out that the majority of them were Chaffinch but we could see Brambling, Goldfinch and our very first Common Redpoll of the Winter, there may well have been others but this was the only one that came close enough for us to identify properly. Most of these birds were feeding on the fields, then flying into the trees and then coming down to drink from roadside puddles. Unfortunately we moved the car a little to try and get a better view of these birds but all we achieved was scaring them further away from us and moving all the other birds further into the fields. We have to do most of our birdwatching from the car, due to my mobility problems and I think it shows that, when you get somewhere to cause as little disturbance as possible; before we re-positioned the car the birds were coming to a puddle about 10 metres from us.

Moving further along the road we saw 2 of the first of our Hares. We also saw a Buzzard circling over some trees but the weather had deteriorated somewhat now and the wind had turned the benign drizzle into a much more potent force. Although this area is highly agriculturalised it has a feeling of remoteness and the farmers have a sensitivity in leaving wide margins of game cover crops (maize and the like) mainly for their shoots but it also has a great benefit for the wild birds.

In my younger days as a Policeman in the Croydon area I did a bit of beating on Lord Beaverbrook’s estate at Theale near Reading. The estate was managed in a very sensitive way to the indiginious wildlife and consequently whenever I was there you got to see plenty of wildlife. Gamekeepers come in for much flack nowadays but it only takes a few rotten apples to spoil the crop and I suspect that sometimes it’s the pressure that landowners put on their staff to get the maximum return for their guns. It is good to see that recent changes to The Wildlife Act have now made landowners more culpable for the actions of their staff. In my experience most Gamekeepers are paid a pittance and there is a pressure on them to go over the top in the protection of their reared birds. France shoots far more birds than we do but their Gamekeepers are seen more as custodians of all wildlife. Once again in this country it seems that greed and profit are the main drivers of our shooting industry. I fully admit that I used to love all country sports (sic!) but now I see them all as indefensible.

Cockley Cley

Going through Cockley Cley towards Gooderstone and Oxburgh we saw plenty of birdlife on and around the River Gadder and the lake: Greylag Geese (6), Moorhen, Coot, Gadwall (4), Mallard, Mute Swan and a Little Egret. 

Cockley Cley

In one of the fields by the river there were some Highland Cattle, 3 cows and 2 calves.

Highland Cattle

We were just about to turn around and head towards home when about 30 metres in front of us a Barn Owl took off from the verge and veered off to hunt over the river flying alongside us and back towards Cockley Cley. I never tire of seeing any Owls but especially Barn Owls they have such an ethereal quality about them, hence the many legends and myths about them being the “Spectre” of the night. It was still light but it was windy and raining which made the sighting quite unusual as Barn Owls usually avoid flying in such conditions. Last year was a bumper year for Barn Owls and many reared multiple broods, mainly because of a glut of Voles but I was reading only this week that this time of year is the most dangerous time for Barn Owls because food becomes scare for about a month and many younger and inexperienced Owls starve because they haven’t honed their hunting skills. Let’s hope that this one isn’t one of them. After the Barn Owl had moved out of sight we heard a Buzzard calling close by.

We then made our from Cockley Cley to Hilborough mainly along Westgate Street and this is what we saw at various places along the way(the rain had now stopped but it was getting colder): 

26 Hares

5 Muntjac Deer

16 Roe Deer hinds

1 Roe Deer stag still with his antlers

2 Egyptian Geese

Magpie

Green Woodpecker 

and our last siting was another Barn Owl sitting on the gate of a farm before it flew off into the woods.

Hare

All in all a very profitable 3 hours.

Roe Deer Stag

Some of you may wonder why I always end the blog with “Keep your eyes peeled.” When I was a young boy living in North London there was a TV programme called Police 5 it was first broadcast in 1962 (I was 10 and a very keen Cub Scout) and a spin off programme from it was Junior Police 5. The programme was presented by Shaw Taylor and it appealed to the public to help the Police solve crimes. It was only 5 minutes long (hence the name) and it ran until December 1992 and in 2014 the programme was resurrected on Channel 5 presented by Shaw Taylor who was now 89. Shaw Taylor always ended the programme with his catchphrase asking the viewers to be vigilant and the words: “Keep ‘em peeled!” It was always one of my ambitions to solve one of these crimes and I’ve no doubt it was in some small way the thing that encouraged me to join the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary in the early 70’s (but that’s another story, if I ever finish my memoirs). Sadly Shaw Taylor (an actor born in 1924) died on March 17th this year so this is my small tribute to him.

Shaw Taylor R.I.P. (1924-2015)

Keep your eyes peeled and good spotting.