I hope you've all had a great Christmas. I wish we could say the same for the reserve itself, here at Strumpshaw Fen. This winter has already been a wet and soggy one with flood after flood forcing us to close paths. This continued into December. But on Dec 22nd, we were hit by the highest tides in the reserve's 47 years. There were very few places at Strumpshaw that wasn't completely underwater. We had to close the entire reserve for a few days (though we were closed on Christmas anyway).
As winter isn't over yet, we expect more floods well into the new year. So please keep an eye on our Facebook page for the very latest. Bring your wellies, just in case! Currently the reserve is open with the Woodland Trail and Fen Hide both accessible. We will reopen the access to Tower Hide as soon as we are able to do so.
I know, I know. It is not a very great way to start this month's highlights report. So let me lighten the mood a little before we begin. When I arrived on the morning of Dec 18th, I witnessed a brilliant sunrise over the meadow trail while walking along Sandy Wall. in the opposite direction, was an enormous rainbow that stretched across the pink-orange sky. The colours were bleeding into one another. Both ends sat upon a large cloud. It was like I was staring into heaven. Absolutely breath taking! It goes to show that there's more to Strumpshaw than floods and birds. It is a canvas for nature and you can come and enjoy it too, if we're not underwater of course.
Otters have been a real star species this month. They've been seen almost daily. This includes at reception, where I was watching one feast on an eel that was dropped by a heron some time earlier. It happily munched away for quite a while in the open. After the otter left, the heron found its own eel. A very large one. So large, in fact, that it took a lot of effort and struggle to swallow it. At one point, its bill got stuck into the eel while trying to peck it to death. Even after freeing itself, it took a few attempts to down it whole, once it stopped the eel's tail from wrapping around its head.
Kingfishers have been on the quiet side this December, but we did have a few sightings from reception. Bearded tits have been very vocal from Fen Hide, while water rails have been making the most noise recently and you may see one skulking along the edges of the reed beds. There's been some great marsh harrier action with around 36-38 coming in to roost every night. As for starlings, it is a bit hit or miss at the moment.
If you want to see birds, Buckenham was THE place on the Mid Yare Valley to be in December. One species had sneaked under my radar until after I had finished last month's report was Taiga bean goose. I was delighted to hear that two Taiga bean geese were discovered on the reserve from Nov 25th - Dec 1st. A short stay, but at least we had a pair. We didn't get any Taiga bean geese last winter. You may think that this is a vast improvement, however, this species has been declining at the reserve for years now and it is a species of real concern right now, not just at Buckenham, but worldwide.
Taiga bean geese are just the peak of the wildfowl iceberg at Buckenham. Thousands of pink-footed geese and a flock of Russian white-fronted geese that's fluctuating between two to just under two hundred birds and the ever growing number of wigeon, teal and waders, such as lapwing and golden plover can also be seen on the daily at the marshes. We also had the elusive Chiloe wigeon (an escapee that has been a few times at Strumpshaw) spotted there on Dec 20th.
On Dec 1st and Dec 10th, a juvenile goshawk was seen flying over the marshes. We don't get many records of this terminator of the bird world around these parts, so it was not just nice to know that they existed here, but to get photo evidence as well.
And so 2023 comes to an end. Though the floods will likely continue into the new year, we can't wait to see what 2024 will bring and to see what highlights that you will find to put on our sightings board. Keep an eye out for the annual end of year report, which I will hopefully finish off for you all to enjoy reading very soon. Happy New Year, everyone!