Flycatcher Collared

After a reasonably quiet walk around Winterton on Saturday morning I thought the talked up rarity fest was not going to happen. The 2 Avocets and Spotted Redshank over Winterton were unexpected rarities, however not those that have come from the South. Sunday started at 4am for me with a sort of guided walk around Surlingham Church Marsh, a nice stroll followed by a great fry u in the pub. A Sunday afternoon around strumpshaw saw a Red Kite fly over and the first Banded Demoiselle of the year, also a few Swallowtails are on the wing now.
News of the Collared Flycatcher at Holme had me a little twichy, in fact so much so that after a quick bite I found myself on the road, I was shattered so had to think twice, but I told myself to do it or I'd regret it, what a bird too! The bird decided to dissapear for 45mins as soon as I arrived, but soon got picked much to my delight, it showed very well for at least an hour much to the delight of the observers.


After that excitement i decided to spend the last half an hour of light at Titchwell, this proved to be a good idea as I managed to get 3 Temminks Stints, Curlew Sand, Gargany at about 5m in the open (!) and a bittern booming well throughout the visit, a fitting end to a great day, I managed to get home at 10.15 after a 4am start bed was most welcome. Up at 5 on mon for a cbc and then 4 again on tuesday so as I write this I'm pretty tired....survey season is here, a time when bleary eyed wardens are easy to find!
Added to the early mornings I have been managing to get the moth trap on, results have been very good over the past few nights, particularly Saturday night with 59 species. I am identifying as many micros as I can without dissection at the moment, not taking any/many macro moth pictures this year, just micros. A few moth photos attached.





A mass emergence of Scarce Chasers on Monday is worth a mention and the very attractive immature dragonflies were all over the place.



I have also included a couple of pics of the Ruddy shelduck at Cantley. Rather oddly it seems to have managed to tame a pair of Egyptian geese, usually they wont stand for anything to be near them so thats pretty odd, whats more amazing is that they have at least 5 young. This is really odd behaviour, I have heard of Egyptian geese herding horses into the corner of a field because they had young so to find a pair of EG with young running around the feet of the RS was quite extrodinary, glad to see they can make friends after all!

Too much has happened in the past 2 weeks to put it all on here. Needless to say the migrants are in, the moths, butterflies and damselflies are out and there has been no rain all April, so much for April showers!
I have updated my stats to the right so they are looking a little more respectable. There have been quite a few early emerging moths including a poplar hawkmoth 3 weeks earlier than I had in kent last year.
Bird highlights have been few recently but local scarcities have included Strumpshaw- both godwits, LRP, Avocet and Greenshank. Buckenam and Cantley have produced 5 flyover crossbills, spotted Redshank and Ruddy Shelduck.
Odes seen so far are the usual suspects, if a little earlier than expected-
Common, Variable, Azure and Large Red damselflies, Hairy Dragonfly and 4spot chaser.

I'll try to update more frequently, ie before my camera memory card becomes full.

Some pics as always below. These include some shots of a rather plucky pair of Treecreepers who decided that the reedscreen by reception hide would provide the perfect nesting material, even though there is a vast reedbed next to the screen!

A birds eye view of the Fen and a bit of Fudge for breakfast

Lots going on in the past week, its the start of survey season so early mornings are becoming more regular and now we have a good excuse to spend all day out in the field doing surveys. I will obviously not be writing about any of the rarer nesting species on this blog so at times it may go a little quiet bird wise but then again moths and soon odes and other insects will become the focus.

This weeks highlight was having to get a cherrypicker in to do some essential work at height. This meant that we could get a once in a life time chance to see the fen from above (it was high!) Due to work commitments I could only go up it in the workshop yard but it was a great view, changes the perspective of the reserve for me. lots of pics taken but due to bad light they have not come out too well, nor do they do the view any real justice.












Yesterday morning I finally managed to catch up with the Ferruginous Duck from fen hide. It was good to catch up with and I got really good views which made it better. I am not sure of a) the origins of the bird and b) the purity. I think it looks pretty pure to me however there are some things I need to check on, it seems to show quite a lot of black on its bill, should just be the nail, the head and eye colour look good to me, as do the flanks mantle and pure white undertail. It was displaying to the female Pochards but I guess that's ok with the lack of any of its own kind to flirt with! I may stick some picks on birdforum to see what the duck experts (or people that claim to be, but have never seen a Ferruginous Duck themselves) think.










Other interesting sightings for the week were Little Ringed Plover over the fen at 4.30 am on Saturday and this interesting looking Buzzard which was most probably a Common, however it did show quite an interesting variation- pale uppertail, good carpal patches, dark belly patch and had a long winged appearance, certainly got the heart beating when I saw it coming towards me!

Good week at Strumpy

Missed a Hoopoe yesterday and a male fudge duck today but these two cranes that flew over me during lunch mire than made up for it! They circled the fen for a short while, had a look at my handy work in the reedbed and then duely buggered off, not satisfied with the effort, ungrateful or what!

Lots of moths in the traps on Thursday morning, 26 species in total, including a new one for me- Mottled Grey- a rather dull moth but quite distictive all the same.

At the moment at Strumpshaw the following are singing in numbers, Blackcap, Willow, Grasshopper, reed and sedge Warblers as well as many chiffs, swallows, sand and house martins, add to that Marsh harriers sky dancing and you have a very nice spring scene. You gotta love April.