A Bit Of A Twitch (Part Four)

We have seen in the first three parts of this blog how I had fitted in a decent amount of birding around family visits and holidays to the East coast of England. I had been to Lincolnshire, Suffolk and Essex, all birding hotspots. I am lucky to have such good friends and family that indulge my passion for nature in all its wonder.

I had one final holiday with family to indulge myself in. This time I was heading to the right place at the right time. Where better in the United Kingdom, indeed maybe the world is there to migration watch than North Norfolk. I am not a rarity chaser has I have said many times, but the last weeks of August and the first of September, anything can and usually does turn up at such birding hotspots as Cley Marshes and the RSPB Nature Reserve of Titchwell Marsh. Both were on my hit list for the weeks stay. We also had a meet up with our good friend, and jolly good birder, Karen “The Bevmeister” whilst we were there.

The caravan park where we stayed near Sheringham was called Woodlands. It was indeed a stunning setting. It looked ripe for Tree Creepers, woodpeckers, Nuthatches and the like, but alas my birding there was consigned to mainly Blackbirds, Woodpigeons, Blue Tits and Jackdaws. We did see one Grey Partridge wandering the freshly cut fields on one walk. We hoped this wasn’t a bad sign for what was to come.

I needn’t have worried. Our first nature reserve to visit was one of my all-time favourites, Strumpshaw Fen. Strumpshaw is a stunning nature reserve. It has everything you could ever hope for. Riverside walks along the broads, woodland treks and reedbeds packed full of wildlife. We met our friend Karen there. We were both rather excited as we both knew there was an enigmatic bird on site. The Wryneck is Britain’s rarest breeding woodpecker, with just a handful of breeding sites, but numbers are swollen twice a year as it migrates from South to North and back again. It is still quite a rare sight, and it always sets off a twitching flap if one turns up on a local patch. Sure enough we found where it had been sighted by the gaggle of bird watchers armed with optics and long lenses. It hadn’t been seen for an hour, so there was much wandering up and down the path. We chose to walk to the far end where we had been told it had been seen last in the visitor hut. Rather disappointingly it was not to be seen, but there was a nice Kestrel hunting the field near us, so we sat and watched that and ate our lunch. We headed back along the path, to be confronted by the gaggle of birders again, waving to us to stop and pointing to the path. There hidden in the long grass was the Wryneck! We sat down on the path and were treated to an hour of unbridled birding pleasure as this wonderfully coloured and downright weird woodpecker did its thing, and collected ants from just ten feet in front of us. It was also made even more surreal by the fact there were about ten people watching us, watching them, watching the Wryneck. It was only the second Wryneck I have ever seen, the first a chance encounter at Newport Wetlands a few years ago. Trust me; you will never get bored of Wryneck watching. The vigil was ended when an Osprey flew over low and spooked the Wryneck back into the undergrowth … you really couldn’t make this up!

Not content with seeing the rarest woodpecker in Britain we followed that up with finding one of the rarest caterpillars of the rarest butterfly in Britain. Swallowtail butterflies are almost confined to Norfolk these days. The wonderfully green caterpillar was sat on a convenient reed stem by the path as we walked around. We did spy two Swallowtails still on the wing as the day drew to a close; I have failed to see any on my previous two visits to North Norfolk. The air was alive with dragonflies. Migrant Hawkers, Ruddy Darters and a Brown Hawker (another first for me) all competed for insects we disturbed as we walked along. A Beautiful Demoiselle was sat photogenically on a bramble leaf as we left the hide to head back to the car park.

The last time I was at Strumpshaw Fen I saw my first Chinese Water Deer; they came up trumps again, with two appearing from the far reed beds from the hide we were sat in. Wonderfully magical looking creatures, with eyes that can melt any heart! We watched a Marsh Harrier rise on the late evening thermals, looking for a last meal of the day, we knew it was time for us to do the same and head out of the reserve. It had been a breathless day.

There was another breathless day to come …. (to be continued)