Hickling Broad NWT 11th May 2012

Hickling Broad NWT 11th May 2012

On the 11th we left from Halesworth headed for Cley where we were to stay three days at the George Hotel. Cley is, of course, a sort of birding Mecca and we had been there briefly once before when we saw a small flock of Spoonbills but this time we hoped to have a bit more time to look around the site properly. When we are travelling from place to place we normally try to fit in another reserve en route and today’s target was the Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Hickling Broads reserve. The reserve comprises of a visitor centre and a series of walks through woods and reedbeds with a series of hides before opening out into Hickling Broad itself. There are further tracks to Potter Heigham and along Weavers Way and over to Hickling Heath. Bittern and Eurasian Cranes were our target birds and we tried to maintain an optimistic outlook on our chances of success.
As soon as we arrived we enquired about a boat trip on to the Broad and, as it happened, they were so quiet that they offered us a trip straight away as Perry, the warden cum boatman was at a loose end. We quickly headed down to the edge of the Broad where Perry was waiting for us. We set out immediately and since he could see we had scopes and binoculars he had us for birders straight away. He was, himself, a bird photographer and ethologist so we were in good company for an informative boat trip. There are two hides on the Broad that can only be reached by boat and both overlook man-made scrapes. So it was to these we headed after a brief description and history of the management and development of the Broad, the reed beds and the scrapes. Like the other Broads they are only a few feet deep and the boats have no keel so with a high wind it can get quite choppy out there.

We stopped off at the first of the two hides and immediately saw a small group of Egyptian Geese, Shelduck and Gadwall. On the scapes were Common Tern and a small mixed group of Dunlin, Plover and Little Ringed Plover. There were also Greylag and Canada Geese and a healthy smattering of Black-headed Gulls, of course. We sat there for about half an hour as he described to us his various encounters with Bittern but he could not get one to appear in front of us. As we scanned the scrapes a Marsh Harrier flew above and a Stock Dove landed on the far side. A Common Sandpiper also made an appearance and after a while we headed off to the next hide. This was a little less impressive but it did at least provide very close views of a Wren who had got itself trapped inside the hide and couldn’t get out. We opened several windows in the hide and eventually it managed to find its way out to freedom. On the water there were some Shovelers and some Gadwall to add to our day count but not much more. The trip lasted about ninety minutes and was highly entertaining. It is always nice to get among the reeds and on the water where the wildlife seems closer and more in its own element.

When we landed we proceeded to pick our way through the bits of the site that were not flooded (a theme of our holiday) including the so-called “Bittern Hide” that shared the same quality as all the other “Bittern Hides” that we have visited on our holiday – the total lack of Bitterns ! Again we got good views of Marsh Harriers which by this time were becoming almost commonplace and also a view of a couple of Hobbies. After staying at the Bittern Hide for a while we took the path back to the visitor centre. As we went we could hear a Cuckoo calling. At the visitor centre we enquired about the possibility of seeing Cranes and we were told that there was a field down the road a bit where there was a platform used for watching birds of prey but the field was apparently used by Cranes some of the time and it was suggested that this was our best bet. We headed down to the “winter raptor roost” at Stubb Mill about 1km away and when we got there after much scanning of the far edges of the field we located a single Crane feeding. It was frustratingly bent over grazing for a lot of the time and hidden behind reeds for a while too but eventually it emerged and started lifting its head up and at the extreme edge of the scope magnification we could clearly make out our bird – a Eurasian Crane.

So at least we had found one of our target birds and this was the first time we had seen a wild Crane on the ground – our previous sighting was of three of them flying over Pensthorpe.

Back at the visitor centre the door to the gents toilet was blocked by a Peacock who had found a nice warm place to sit – but I don’t think that counts as a tick because it was a visitor from the nearby animal rescue centre.

We still had another 90 minutes of driving to get to Cley so we thought we should get going. It was around 4.30pm when we passed the Cley Reserve so we thought we would just pop in for a quick cup of tea. From the cafe windows we looked out onto the outdoor benches and hopping along was a Black Redstart – another life lister !  The end of another successful day.

Bird Sightings : Hickling Broad NWT