Strumpshaw Fen RSPB

I got up a bit late today, went into the kitchen to get some breakfast, checked my phone and found a text from a friend saying she and her hubby were going to visit Strumpshaw Fen today and would be there in an hours time! Well I wasn't going to pass that one up, I have been hoping to catch up with this particular friend for ages and had never met her hubby, plus I have been meaning to go to Strumpshaw for ages.  

I had a bit of a dash about, gulping down some porridge, forgetting to drink my tea and making a jam roll (healthy eating or what?) for lunch because that's all there was in the house and managed to get there in reasonable time!  We had a great walk round, there was nothing spectacular about, no Ferruginous Duck or Otters but some lovely migrants and a whole bunch of Black Headed Gulls showing off in front of the hide.  It was also the first time I have ever gone all the way round so was also a landmark occasion!

This guy thinks he looks dead hard, shame he looks like a clown really!

Other news.  Pinky is doing well, she has taken over my study and now spends most of her day flying about in there.  I put her away when I go out just in case she gets into trouble and no one can help her but apart from that she seems to enjoy using my dresser as a tree and perching on my monitor.  Oh yes and leaving copious amounts of poop everywhere.  I noticed that she had done one on the chair and that Hairy Hubby had sat on it but I decided that it would be best to keep quiet about that one for diplomatic reasons.  Heaven knows what it will be like when I have the new babies, Daisy and May, flying about.  Double trouble!  Pinky also likes sitting on my shoulder and preening my hair which is really nice except yesterday she managed to stick her beak right down my ear!  Not pleasant at all I can tell you.  Think sticking the cotton bud in too far!  I could still feel it about two hours later.  So now when she preens me or plays with my earrings I put my finger in my ear just in case!

Mr and Mrs Lovey-Dovey in the garden seem very happy.  They have a couple of Collared Doves who come and visit sometimes which is nice.  They have given them the guided tour of the des res bird table which is now basically theirs because not a lot else gets a look in.  They seemed to be nest building earlier in the week but I haven't seen them do that for a while.

Peggy the Pheasant with a sore foot seems to be improving.  I'm glad because she seems to be the favourite of the male bird who is often seen jumping on her back.  I feel quite sorry for her because she can barely support her own weight let alone his hulking great bulk and she is the smallest of the group of females.

I'm still waiting for The Hairy One to get his rear in gear and finish my Chicken House.  There is so little to do now it's really frustrating.  Just a handle to fit, some predator proofing and a bit of sanding.  It's like he has done the bulk of the work and moved onto new things.  New things being some stupid car he is doing up for someone.  I had hoped to get my new Chooks this weekend but that won't be happening now.  Maybe next weekend?

Horsey Mere

I have been meaning to do the circular walk around the Horsey area since I moved here.  To be honest the main thing putting me off is that I am too tight to pay the car park fee.  Personally I think it's a liberty to make you pay extortionate prices to park somewhere like that.  Anyway today I bit the bullet and decided to blow the budget and pay the darn fee!

I arrived and marched reluctantly to the machine to buy a ticket only to be greeted with a sign which told me the trail was closed due to flood defense works.  How typical was that?  It also said that the shop might be able to advise me alternative walks so I trundled over there and spoke to a very nice lady who told me that if the locals had opened the fence because they were sick of it being closed.  Yipee said me and off I went and climbed through the gap in the fence.  I love a bit of trespassing!  After a while I realised that I was losing the trail.  I think that some of the way markers had been moved during the works and the trails crushed under caterpillar tracks.  After doubling back and finding a way marker I thought I must be on the right trail but eventually came to a dead end where a cut went right accross the path and there was no bridge.

Evidence that I can follow a path

I don't know exactly what was going on with the trail but despite having to turn around and head back to the car after an hours walking I am glad I went because I had a lovely view of two Common Cranes who were actually in the same field as me (probably a field I was not meant to be in...)  They were just ambling along without a care in the world.  It was probably one of my nicest Crane sightings because it was unexpected, I was alone and they were on the deck and fairly close.

When I got back to Horsey Mere I went back into the shop to check where I had gone wrong.  The nice lady had been replaced by a very rude man who treated me like an idiot who couldn't follow a trail, virtually pushing me away from his kiosk window to serve someone an ice cream, which was obviously much more important than my enquiry.  However I can follow a trail, see the evidence above!!!  I feel an email to his employer The National Trust coming on!

Other purely gratuitous pictures from my walk today, which I really did enjoy before I met the rude man in the shop....

Synchronised  Greylag

I never knew this existed

Horsey Mill, it used to be a donation to go up it, now its £2.50 a go!

Life goes on

I had a surprise waiting for me at The Haven this morning.  There were two baby White Doves in a brooder!  Their mother abandoned them last night, she was a single parent and birds struggle to cope going solo as parents and often desert the nest under those circumstances.  They are two dear little (with think) girls, just getting their lovely white feathers.  The shafts are showing and there are tiny tufts of feather coming through.  Probably by next week they will be well on their way to being totally feathered.  I was able to have a cuddle with them and was asked if I would like to take them home maybe next week!  Would I?  OH YES PLEASE!  I have named them Daisy and May which might be spelt Mae but I haven't decided yet.  It was such a lovely surprise to see them especially after losing Perky on Monday.  Life stops for no one.

There were also a couple of other new babies in the hospital.  A baby squirrel for one.  He was gorgeous, a proper squirrel but in a mini version.  Full of fun and mischief.  I was able to have a cuddle and a play with him, he ran right up my arm and down my back like I was a tree!  I know I have done a lot of cursing about Butterfly the Squirrel but this little fella really was cute.  He drinks milk from a tiny doll sized bottle and holds it in his little hands.  Totally adorable.  The Haven do not usually take any thing other than birds but there was no where else for this little lad to go so one of the other volunteers is going to take him home and rear him.  She has done it before apparently.

The other new baby was the tiniest pink thing I have seen.  Not even as big as my thumb and with his eyes still closed.  Not a feather in sight and so young we can't even tell what species he will be yet.  We are thinking maybe a Robin from the size of him or certainly something Robin sized.  He takes his food in drops from the end of a cocktail stick because he is too tiny for a syringe.  Apparently a cat got at the nest and killed all his brothers and sisters.  This little lad only survived because he fell and landed accross a branch so the cat didn't find him.  It's a horrible vision to think of a cat with the other babies because they are totally helpless, it makes me shudder.

An old friend came to visit me late this afternoon.  Marilyn the white duck flew in with her latest beau.  It was great to see her in the garden again.  I often see her down at The Broad but she hasn't visited since this time last year when she was quite regular for a while.  I wonder if Esmeralda will appear again, she was my favourite and used to come to the back door and quack for food!  I have the feeling the ducks only come into the garden at around breeding time, heaven knows why but it seems to be the pattern.

Sad news

I heard today that Perky died in his sleep last night.  I knew he was very weak and sick, I knew this was probably coming but it is still a shock and still horrible.  I'm glad that I was able to have him home for those two nights and spend some time with him.  I'm also glad that he was able to spend some time playing with his sister Pinky.  They sat together for ages on my desk preening each other.  Perky had some adventures on my desk, he managed to flap onto the monitor shelf and got himself stuck behind the monitor.  I had to move everything to get him out.  He was very well travelled for a little bird who never really got to fly.  He went from Rollesby where he was born to Stratton Strawless, then to Somerset, back to Stratton Strawless and then to Rollesby and back to Stratton Strawless again.  He saw the world did out Perky!

I will never forget the way Pinky greeted him when I brought him home, or the way he cuddled into my neck the day I took him back to The Haven.  He was a dear little bird and I'm glad I knew him,  RIP Perks.

Once Bittern...

I had a lovely walk around a very quiet Hickling NWT yesterday.  It's usually quiet there so I wasn't fussed.  I had really wanted to photograph butterflies but typically I didn't see a single one during the whole hour and a half I was there!  There were Willow Warblers singing their head off on the trail which was lovely, I don't think the novelty of singing Willow Warblers ever really wears off even when you have heard a hundred this year.

The one star bird was my first Bittern of the year.  I always peep round the side of the second hide (whose name escapes me) just incase there is something really nice on the pool.  There never is but it makes me feel like a real birder to do it.  This time I raised my bins to watch a Lapwing and Blackheaded Gull having a disagreement over some food when something caught my eye along the fringe of the reeds.  Oh...my...God..a bittern..and out in the open!  I never see them out in the open.  I have seen loads in flight and half hidden by reeds but never out in the open.  I crept into the hide and carefully opened the flap, praying it wouldn't creak.  Creaky flaps are a speciality at Hicking, it's like they want you to scare the birds off!  Anyway the god of birding was on my side for once because there was no creak and the Bittern was still there, creeping slowly along the fringes, doing his wonderful Bittern walk.  I ran off a few shots, most were rubbish but one was not too bad.

Not the best Bittern shot ever, but its my best (only) one ever!

Big Sis, Lil Bro

It's been an interesting couple of days.  Yesterday I had my birding friends come visit for the day.  We went to the coast to try and find a reported Ring Ouzel at the Waxham pipe dump.  When we left the car park at Horsey Gap it was breezy and not all that warm.  We all wore jackets and fleeces when we started our trek.  Naturally within five mins the sun came out and by the end of our walk it was 24 degrees and we were all about to collapse from heat exhaustion!

Looks more like The Sahara than Norfolk!

We never did find the Ring Ouzel but we had a great walk despite the overheating.  The highlight was the most amazing Yellow Wagtail any of us had ever seen.  It was right in the middle of the Waxham camp site just sitting there positively glowing in the sun.  None of us can remember ever having seen such a bright yellow one.  Absolutely the bird of the day.  But a Ring Ouzel would have been nice....

The other highlight of yesterday is that Pinky's weaning is coming along nicely.  I finally found some seed she likes.  It was trial and error but I had given her some of the wild bird seed I use and noticed that she was picking out one particular tiny seed and actually eating it as opposed to playing with it and spitting it out.  So I whizzed down to the pet shop to find a match.  I came home with Budgie seed!  My baby dove eats Budgie seed!  Since then she has been munching for England and has not been wanting half so much food from me.  She even turned down lunch today!  The other good thing is that her poops are not so watery and so easier to clean up.  She still produces copious amounts but thicker is better!

Today I had a garden treat.  I was out in the garden hanging out my smalls when I spied a Marsh Harrier cruising over the garden at tree top height.  He was well and truly in our air space, not just a 'seen from the garden' actually over the garden.  I called to The Hairy One to look and he asked if it was the one I had been looking for.  I wondered what the hell he was on about till I realised he thought it was the WT Sea Eagle!  It's easy to forget sometimes that non birders will not clock the difference between a bird with a 3 foot wing span and one of 8 foot!  Especially as he has seen both several times.  Oh I do wish I had seen that Eagle over my garden at tree top height.  Mind you I would probably still be talking gibberish now if I had!

Perky came home for a visit today.  He is still sick, though looking a little better than when I saw him last on Tuesday.  He was much better when having medicine but when the course finished he took a downturn so he is back on it for another go.  Anyway, the people at The Haven have asked me to have him for a couple of nights so I jumped at the chance to bring him home to see his big sis.  She was really shocked to see him and was jumping about in her cage shouting her head off to come out and see him better.  I think he was a bit overwhelmed by it all and eventually I put him back in his cage with his stuffed pony, he is used to a quiet life. Pinky is now sitting on his cage, I am not sure if that's because she wants to be close to him or if it's because I have put his cage where my printer usually goes and she likes to sit on the printer!  She is sitting over his head, I do hope she doesn't splat on him!!

Big Sis and Li' Bro (Pinky with red ring and Perky with green)

In order to bring Perky home I had to take a crash course in tube feeding birds.  Very nerve wracking I can tell you but my first attempt seemed to go OK so hopefully I will be just fine feeding him later tonight.  It's a very strange feeling poking a metal tube down a bird's throat and into it's crop.  Seeing them side by side it really is noticeable how small he is bless him.  Pinky is huge in comparison and has much more feathers.  I'd say he is a good two weeks behind her feather wise.  I do hope that one day he can come home to stay.

You win some, you lose some!

A howl of despair was heard in my house last night when I looked at Birdguides after a manic day of Grandkids, Easter Egg hunts and baby dove feeds.  A White Tailed Sea Eagle had flown virtually over my house and I didn't know!  It had been seen in Martham and then in Ormesby and I am just about in the middle.  If I had known I'd have made for open ground and looked UP!  I can only imagine what such a massive bird would look like away from the vastness of the Scottish Highlands.  Without those huge mountains as a backdrop it must look huge.

This morning I logged on after feeding Pinky and found that the bird had roosted locally!  Oh no, if only I had checked Birdguides earlier.  It was only a couple of miles away and the report was only an hour old.  Maybe just maybe it would still be there.  I grabbed scope and bins and was in the car and on the road within 5 mins of reading the report.  What I didn't know was that just about the time I was leaving the house it was seen over Caister!  You win some, you lose some!  Mind you despite heading south and being seen over Lowestoft it was reported today back in North Norfolk!  You can bet it will be sitting in a tree next to Rollesby Broad all day while I am at The Haven!