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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
Mar 14 2013
Visit to WWT Martin Mere 14th March 2013
Visit to WWT Martin Mere 14th March 2013.
On 14th March we paid a visit to WWT Martin Mere, principally to pick up my new Swarovski ATX scope and APO adapter for my Nikon D300 that I had ordered two months ago ! We gave the scope a test run on a fairly quick walk around the hides. As we walked down the avenue to the Ron Barker hide we saw a single Redwing looking exceptionally attractive in the sunlight. At the hide the presence of about a dozen Avocets was the highlight. Continue reading
Mar 02 2013
High Tide at Hoylake 2nd March 2013
High Tide at Hoylake 2nd March 2013
On the 2nd March we went up to Hoylake for the high tide as we had done earlier in the year in the middle of January. The tide was supposed to be quite high but it didn’t come in anywhere as near to the promenade as it had done on our first visit and also the visit was at the weekend so the place was even more full of dog walkers than before and they seemed to take great delight in walking all the way our to the edge of the water where most of the birds were roosting which got them flying off to somewhere quieter.
When we first arrived we got good views a, first just one but then later several more, Grey Plovers. For quite some time the closest views of the assemblage of birds were to be had on the far side of the lifeboat station where the tide comes in first. Eventually the tide drove them off the sand at that part of the beach and the water eventually covered all the sand beyond the station.
Feb 28 2013
Summary February 2013
Summary February 2013
Garden
February continued wet and sometimes very windy and still a bit cold. Many of our garden birds seem to be absent though I did see a Wren on several occasions. By the 13th there was more snow and the cold brought our two Mistle Thrushes back into the garden. In fact I hear them quite often even if I cannot always see where they are. Dunnocks are re-appearing. By the last week of the month the sun had gone and the cold returned with the odd flurry of snow. Lots of the Starlings have disappeared and there are only a few Goldfinch around.
Feb 26 2013
Birding Group Visit to Brockholes Nature Reserve 26th February 2013
Birding Group Visit to Brockholes Nature Reserve 26th February 2013
The last birding group outing for the month was to a new venue for us, Brockholes Nature Reserve which turned out to be a much larger site than we had imagined on the many occasions we had passed over it on the motorway. They have great facilities and there are several routes you can take around the site. We parked up at the car park – which charges £4 for five hours – and walked down to the swish visitor centre / cafe / shop complex. Our first treat was to four Meadow Pipits feeding on the small hillock to our left.