Spring Has Finally Sprung

A Small Loop Around The A1065 Brandon Road

Cockleycley Warren –Hilborough

Tuesday 7th April 2015

It has been over a week since we’ve managed to get out and do some proper nature watching. We did travel up to Lincolnshire to visit my sister, brother-in-law and their family on Saturday (4th April) but we only saw a Hare and that was on our return journey near Ashill. On Sunday we managed to finally plant our wild flower seed mat in the garden. While we in the garden we saw a Buzzard being mobbed by some Crows over the Richmond Hill Golf Club on Saham Road.

On Monday I saw my first Butterfly, a Brimstone, albeit from the living room as it fluttered across the front garden. 

Tadpoles

The first good news that we had today was that the Tadpoles have finally emerged from the Frogspawn in our garden pond. We had unsuccessfully tried to film them on Sunday but today they were happy to pose for Jan near the surface. Jan also saw a Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly in the garden and the two Peacock Butterflies that were hibernating in the garage have gone. I also saw a Brimstone in the front garden again. 

Today we went to Downham Market Garden Centre to get a few plants and some potting compost. We left home about 2.30pm it was a balmy 17˚C with plenty of sun amongst the broken cloud and there was little wind. I’m sure this week will see an influx of the migrating birds into the country as the wind moves around to the South East, the temperature rises and the weather settles down. 

As we turned from the Brandon Road into Saham Road, just before Richmond Hill Golf Club, Jan spotted a Buzzard, possibly the same one we had seen on Sunday. On our way to Swaffham we saw several Brimstone Butterflies and another Buzzard soaring high above South Pickenham Road. 

After doing our shopping in the garden centre and a small bit of shopping at Swaffham we headed towards home along the A1065 Brandon Road. It was about 5pm when we turned right towards Cockley Cley by Cockleycley Warren, passing the Pig Farm which is on both sides of the road. We stopped briefly to admire some Black Boars before pulling up off the road just past the Pig Farm. It was still 17˚C. 

There was plenty of bird life on both sides of the road with 2 Roe Deer Hinds on both sides of the road and at at least 4 Hares. There were plenty of Corvids (Crows, Rooks & Jackdaws), Pheasants and Partridges on both sides of the road. On the left hand side of the road there were about 20 Lapwings and I saw a Pied Wagtail. There were two birds which at first I thought were Partridges but their behaviour was unlike a Partridge and as they moved closer I could see they were a pair of Stone Curlews. I think the way the Lapwings and the Stone Curlews were behaving they were probably nesting in the field. Every time a Corvid got close to the Stone Curlews they went for them quite aggresively as did the Lapwings. Also several times, the Corvids took fright and flew off whereas the Stone Curlews and Lapwings remained where they were. The Stone Curlews were looking for food and were quite mobile but even when you were looking at them when they sat down their remarkable markings just made them disappear until they moved again. We sat and watched them for about half an hour. 

Roe Deer

The Stone Curlews are crepuscular, meaning they are most active between Dusk and Dawn so to see these two birds was quite a privilege. To think that these birds just a few weeks ago were in the Sub-Sahara regions of Africa and perhaps these two birds were recent arrivals. There has been a lot of success with the breeding of these birds in our area mainly due to the great co-operation between the RSPB, Norfolk Wildlife Trust and Farmers. It was one of the things we noticed on our journey up to Sleaford on Saturday. The fields in Lincolnshire along the A17 were mainly cultivated from edge to edge whereas a lot of the fields in our area have large strips around them and even now there is still stubble and game cover crops left in the fields. As we drove through Lincolnshire on Saturday the thing that most came to mind was that we were driving through a well cultivated agricultural desert. We are so fortunate to live in this part of Norfolk. 

Roe Deer & Partridge

Jan was concentrating on the right hand side of the road. There were Skylarks singing but they were far too fast to get any footage of them but she did see a sizable mixed flock of Chaffinches and Brambling moving through the remains of the Maize. 

As we left this particular spot we heard a Curlew calling and Jan very briefly saw a raptor flying amongst the trees, possibly a Buzzard or Goshawk but she didn’t see it for long enough to identify it properly. 

As we made our way round our loop to Westgate Street, Hilborough it was just a non stop nature show. We stopped at one point to finish our coffee off when a young Leveret (Hare) popped out of a field beside us and came along the road towards us and beside us. It was only Jan’s squeal of delight which frightened it off and back into the field! We saw lots of Hares including a couple of boxing Hares. 

Just before we got back to the A1065 Brandon Road, Jan spotted a small Bat, probably a Pipistrelle, hunting for insects along a tree line, the first Bat of the year for us. 

We did make a brief stop on the cut through road between the A1065 and the B1108 and although we didn’t see anything other than Rabbits we did hear Tawny Owls. 

This is a list of what we saw in about two and a half hours on our loop: 

20-30 Lapwings 

2 Stone Curlew 

Bramblings 

Chaffinches 

Pied Wagtail 

Rooks 

Crows 

Jackdaws 

Buzzard 

9 Greylag Geese 

57 Hares (including a Leveret) 

18 Roe Deer Hinds 

9 Muntjac Deer 

The Road To Cockley Cley

All in all a welcome return to getting out. Keep your eyes peeled and good spotting.