March 2013 archive

Mar 31 2013

Summary March 2013

Summary March 2013

Garden

The first week of March was an unusually dry spell and sometimes quite warm. After that the weather got wetter and a bit colder. By the start of the second week it was snowing a bit and very cold but by the 17th it was drier and a bit warmer. Towards the end of the month the snows started to fall again, this time much more heavily, and the temperatures were freezing. Actually Manchester seemed to get off lightly compared to the rest of the country and by the end of the month there was some sunshine even though it was still cold. In fact the coldest March for fifty years.
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Mar 29 2013

Summary of Birding in Norfork, Cambridge, Rutland etc 22 – 28th March 2013

Summary of Birding in Norfolk, Cambridge, Rutland etc 22 – 28th March 2013

Our eight-day holiday, mixing visiting friends with as much birding as we could fit in en route, took us first to the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust site at Welney summarised here which was, disappointingly, as flooded as it had been last year. With few birds on view the highlights were probably the Avocets.

Next we had our two-day guided birding tour of the Brecks led by Stuart White. On day one despite the snow blizzard we still managed to get some good birding done and the highlights were the Black Bellied Dipper on the River Thet and magnificent views of Otters. Nice additions to our year list were Woodlark and Marsh Tit and we also had a great view of a large flock of Redwing who were actually singing !

The second day the snow abated but it was still extremely cold. We were taken to some the same places we had been the previous day but this time we had views of two Black-Bellied Dippers not one – perhaps the first time two have been seen together in the UK!  A great life tick was several views of Goshawk and we also added Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Fieldfare as year ticks. The close views of a dead Woodcock were very interesting if a bit morbid.

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Mar 28 2013

Visit to Rutland Water Nature Reserve 28th March 2013

Visit to Rutland Water Nature Reserve 28th March 2013

After we left Lakenheath Fen we drove up to the Midlands where we stayed at the Barnsdale Lodge Hotel, a very comfortable hotel that we had stayed at previously. It is a bit pricey normally but they do good offers for some dates and we took advantage of this to break up our journey back to Manchester a little bit. We chose it for its close proximity to Rutland Water Nature Reserve where we hoped to see the female Osprey that has arrived back first from Africa and is already checking its nest out. We wondered if, with only a few hours available to us, we would get lucky and see the bird? Continue reading

Mar 27 2013

Visit to RSPB Lakenheath Fen 27th March 2013

Visit to RSPB Lakenheath Fen 27th March 2013

After we left Halesworth we drove straight to Bury St Edmunds where we were staying with some other friends. After a nice dinner and watching a bit of the football on computer we went to bed and next day we set of early for Rutland Water but on our way we dropped in on RSPB Lakenheath Fen for a good walk and to see what was around. We knew it was a little early in the year for a lot of the special birds they are famous for, Hobby and Golden Oriole, but we thought we should give it a go anyway. We stopped for a chat in the reception but we were told there wasn’t too much around. Undeterred, we still headed off for a walk around the site.

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Mar 26 2013

Visit to Halesworth 26th March 2013

Visit to Halesworth 26th March 2013

After we left Minsmere on the 25th we went on to visit friends in Halesworth where we had dinner and caught up on things. They had been promising me that they had a Barn Owl in the field behind them that I could not fail to see if we visited the. Well, naturally, it did not want to show and they got more discomfited by this. By the morning of the 26th we still had not seen this Barn Owl so they took us out for a walk where we were highly likely to see it even though it was day time. Apparently this owl does not worry about it supposed “crepuscularity”. By lunchtime we had to get going to visit other friends in Bury St Edmunds and we still had not seen this barn Owl. Then just as we left their house around noon I had one last look into the field before we got in the car and there it was ! It flew from the far left of the field and passed over the field, behind some houses, back into view and then eventually disappeared behind some trees – Fantastic – and our hosts were mightily relieved that their promise had, at last, borne fruit !

 

Mar 25 2013

Visit to RSPB Minsmere 25th March 2013

Visit to RSPB Minsmere 25th March 2013

After our two-day guided birding weekend in the Thetford Forest and surrounding area we moved on to visit friends in Bury St Edmunds and en route we dropped in on RSPB Minsmere It was still very cold but there was no snow. We started out with a visit to the Bittern Hide where – like last year – we did not see any Bitterns although someone insisted that one had been showing well all morning ! Well, surprise, surprise, it didn’t show for us. Oh Well – one day !. In any case we only sat for forty five minutes and I am sure that the art of seeing Bitterns is patience and also early starts and late finishes – neither of which we had time to do. In any case we got a reasonable view of Marsh Harriers and a trio of Whooper Swans whose necks were deeply stained from the brackish water they fed in. This was apparently a notable bird which just goes to show how spoiled we are in having WWT Martin Mere so close. Continue reading

Mar 24 2013

Birding in The Brecks Day 2 : 24th March 2013

Birding in The Brecks Day 2 : 24th March 2013

On the second day of our two-day guided birding tour we had some new additions to the group and a couple of losses so Stuart felt obliged to show the newcomers some of the same spots we had visited the previous day. Whilst this was a little boring for us it was understandable – at least it wasn’t snowing and, although it was cold, the birding was much easier because you didn’t have to clear snow off your bins every five minutes. As with the previous day, we started off with a walk along the banks bank of the Little Ouse near Santon Downham. The going was poor underfoot as some of the previous days snow had partly melted into the underlying mud making it very slippery and slow walking. Again we saw Siskins, Bramblings and Redwings, though not in the numbers of the previous day and no singing from the Redwings but, in contrast to the previous day, we did get brief glimpses of a female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Continue reading

Mar 23 2013

Birding in The Brecks Day 1 : 23rd March 2013

Birding in The Brecks Day 1 : 23rd March 2013

While we were getting work done on our house we thought that it would be a good idea  to get away for a week when all that was left to do was the painting work which we felt could not really go wrong. As it happened the work finished before we expected and we found ourselves going on holiday on the last day of the painting work.

We had planned to mix visiting friends with a bit of birding so, after a bit of research we thought that a visit to the Brecklands would be a good idea – perhaps we could see Goshawks, Firecrests and Hawfinches ? What we had not built into the plan when we arranged all this was the weather as blizzards closed down large parts of the country and led to week-long power cuts in Ireland and the coldest March for fifty years. However, our plans were made and we had no intention of calling off a much needed break from a house turned upside down by plasterers, carpenters and painters and, with carpets lifted, radiators removed and windows open to let paint fumes out, freezing cold. How much colder could it be anyway ? We were about to find out ! Continue reading

Mar 22 2013

Visit to WWT Welney 22nd March 2013

Visit to WWT Welney 22nd March 2013

As a reward for enduring the renovation work on our house we took a few days off to do a bit of birding and a bit of visiting friends. Our initial plan was to do a two day birding tour of the Brecks but we stopped en route to see if we could get to the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust site at Welney. Our attempt to get there was greatly confused by the signage for the site which is fairly clear if you come from the Wisbech direction but not if you come from the Littleport direction as we did !  One thing in common with both our visits was the road closed signs we met with. We had come from the Wisbech side last year and had encountered the warning signs saying that the road was closed due to flooding so had not gone further. This year we came from the Littleport direction but missed the sign so went on past the village of Welney and came across the road  closed signs again ! This time we ignored the signs because we could see cars coming from the opposite direction. This only meant that we went a long way out of our way and had to double back on ourselves coming back through Christchurch and back to Welney. From this direction the signage was much clearer and we eventually made it to the visitor centre. In point of fact the road closed signs mean very little because they do not have the manpower to keep changing the signs from open to closed so they largely say that the road is closed whenever there is inclement weather ! Continue reading

Mar 20 2013

Birding Group Visit to Frodsham Marshes 19th March 2013

Birding Group Visit to Frodsham Marshes 19th March 2013

After missing a couple of weeks of the birding group, due to work being done on our house, we were glad to get back to our mornings out and it was a pleasant day and not too cold or windy. As usual Frodsham was very muddy but we took the high path that runs along the side of the field next to the parking area and walked along there dropping down to the River Weaver near the end of the field. From the parking position we could already hear a lot of Skylarks chirruping in a field nearby and a Buzzard was on a post as usual. As we walked down the side of the field we got up a small flock of Greylag Geese in which we were pleased to see two Barnacle Geese which we caught up with again where they landed on the river a short distance away. Continue reading