2024 was a bit of wet year, wasn't it? The year began stormy with plenty of floods. And then the rain just kept coming throughout spring and well into summer. And by the end of the year, more storms and floods. However, there were some sunny days here and there, especially in August, and the wildlife at Strumpshaw did emerge out of the wet to enjoy what sunshine we had.

The question is though, what kind of year did we have in 2024? Despite the rain, there were a few success stories and some great sightings here and there. As we move into 2025, it is that time of year to look back at all the wildlife highlights and survey results as required by our staff, volunteers and you, our fantastic visitors. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a round up review of 2024 at Strumpshaw and the Mid-Yare valley.

Winter (Jan - March)

Winter 2024 was dominated by storms that fell several of our trees throughout the woodland trail and there were many floods, more than usual and we were forced to close paths and even the entire reserve. It got warmer by February and by March, spring had pretty much arrived.

Due to these floods and storms, they brought along with it a red-throated diver, a species that normally spends winter around the coast but this one had gotten lost and spent many weeks in January and February along the river Yare travelling between Strumpshaw and Cantley and pretty much became a resident for most of 2024. The last time we had this species in the Mid-Yare region was in November 2023. Could this be the same bird? It is hard to say.

Over at Buckenham and Cantley, a ruddy shelduck was discovered amongst the other geese species on Feb 7th. We don't know if this was an escapee from a collection or a visitor from Eastern Europe. What we do know, however, was that it was easy to spot due to its reddish colour.

Also from Buckenham and Cantley were 12 Bewick's swans (Feb 3rd), a spotted redshank (which travelled between the two reserves on Feb 10th) as well as 306 white-fronted geese, 3185 pink-footed geese, 4605 wigeon, 5263 lapwing, 1680 golden plover, 601 teal and 19 pintail. There was no further sign of Taiga bean geese after two appeared in late November 2023.

We had plenty of bird of prey action this winter. This included 20 or so marsh harriers coming into roost in January, a male and a female hen harrier seen together in front of Reception on Jan 14th, a short-eared owl on Jan 3rd (and at Buckenham in Feb and March) and a merlin on Feb 12th. Barn owls, especially, were very active most mornings. By early March, the sky was full of raptors, up to 20-30+ birds soaring high above the reserve at the same time, most being displaying marsh harriers and buzzards, a couple of red kites, a peregrine and the odd kestrel and sparrowhawk.

Other interesting birds of note include a whooper swan (Feb 11th) and a spoonbill (March 7th).

Spring

Spring was a bit of a washout. Though there were some warm sunny days in May, there was an awful lot of rain still. On some days, a months worth would fall in a single day! Despite this, migrants were arriving as normal. in fact, in some cases they were a few days early.

Other than the usual migrant species, there were very few rarities compared to 2023.The rarest sighting that spring 2024 had to offer was an American golden plover which stayed at Buckenham for a couple of days between the 4th and 5th of May. It looks fairly similar to our European species, but has more black in it's plumage, especially on the underside.

We also had a few other highlights as well, including on April 12th, a ring ouzel flying over the Lackford Run. A Channel wagtail (a rare subspecies of yellow wagtail) appeared at Cantley on April 28th, while a merlin spent a good chunk of early spring at Buckenham until early April. Strumpshaw's woodland trail provided a firecrest that was heard singing in the canopy for a couple of weeks since May 4th. We also had a rare sight of a pink-footed goose out on the broad outside the reception on April 29th, though it appeared injured.  

Spring 2024 provided a few osprey sightings, especially in May and June, often carrying a fish over the river and occasionally flying by the hides. A few other noteworthy highlights included a honey buzzard on the 18th, a turtle dove (apparently) also on the 18th and a mandarin duck on the 24th. But the most unusual sighting in May was a peacock that decided to pop over from Strumpshaw Hall to stroll around the roof of the reception building on May 17th.

2024 Firsts Of The Year

Chiffchaff (singing - Feb 24th), blackcap (Singing - Feb 24th), sand martin (March 22nd), willow warbler (March 31st), swallow (March 23rd), house martin (March 22nd), sedge warbler (March 24th), hobby (March 15th), reed warbler (April 8th), grasshopper warbler (April 8th), garganey (March 16th - Cantley), osprey (April 12th - Rockland), whitethroat (April 12th), garden warbler (April 12th), whimbrel (April 12th), wheatear (April 12th), cuckoo (April 13th), little ringed plover (April 5th - Strumpshaw, March 15th - Buckenham), spotted flycatcher (April 27th)

Strumpshaw Nests & Territories

Crane - Since Feb 13th, at least 4 or 5 cranes had been seen and heard on the reserve. Only one pair decided to stay and breed at Strumpshaw and for the second year in a row, they successfully hatched a chick. Unlike in 2023 though, they decided to stay put instead of taking the chick to Buckenham where they ended up losing it. The chick grew in size and was seen on July 15th along the Fen Trail almost ready to fly. A month later, there was a sigh of relief when it was seen with its parents on the marshes of Buckenham all grown up.

Bittern - Another decent year for our bitterns. They were warming up their vocal chords around Feb 24th with the odd grunt before the first boomer was officially heard on Feb 26th. About 5 booming males were recorded in the Mid-Yare with at least one booming well into June. Just like 2023, we had one very successful nest seen from Tower Hide. We also had one nest at Cantley.

Marsh harriers - We recorded 14 breeding females and 20 nesting attempts, 6 of which failed. Out of all the nests, 10 chicks successfully fledged.

Bearded tits - About 13 pairs. Due to the bad weather, surveying these birds was very challenging and we don't have a complete idea on how many were successful.

Cetti's warbler - 37 territories (singing males)across the Mid-Yare

Reed warbler - 89 territories

Sedge warbler - 79 territories

Cuckoo - 5-8 calling males

Spotted flycatcher - at least two pairs and 4 young fledged.

Buckenham & Cantley Waders

Another bad year for our waders. The wet weather really had its toll on their eggs and young and many pairs failed.

Lapwing - 42 pairs (29 at Buckenham and 13 at Cantley) but only 7 young.

Avocet - 19 pairs (12 at Buckenham and 7 at Cantley).

Redshank - 57 pairs (29 at Buckenham and 28 at Cantley)

Snipe - 6 drumming males.

Summer

The rain continued into the summer and we didn't see decent hot weather until late July and August. Rain or shine, though, we had some of this year's best highlights turn up around the Mid-Yare. We had a Caspian tern flying between the Tower Hide and Buckenham on June 19th. This was the first record on the reserve since 2012 when one of these large gull-sized birds with a carrot for a bill last appeared here.

From June until late August, we had several osprey sightings as they made regular appearances  along the river. In late August to mid-September, 2-3 garganey were outside the Tower Hide. In early August, a spoonbill was seen flying over the river and we also had an unusual report on June 20th of an Alexandrine parakeet that came to roost at Strumpshaw.

Autumn

As summer moved into autumn, the wet weather started returning and the floods started causing some path closures.

The autumn migration was also well underway with the first pink-footed goose skein returning on Sep 13th, while the first redwing didn't show until Oct 2nd and the first fieldfare was seen in the area on Oct 16th. White-fronted geese got to Buckenham a couple days later on Oct 18th. Bramblings and redpolls were both here by Oct 15th, while siskins were seen around Sep 22nd.

We also had a few hawfinches in the Mid-Yare this year along with the odd whinchat, ring ouzel and wheatear. A yellow-browed warbler was reported on Oct 8th around the feeder area in the yew tree there briefly. Two Taiga bean geese were noted on Sep 28th, but the sighting is unconfirmed and we have yet to have any reports since.

The real highlight of this autumn was a lesser yellowlegs at Buckenham on Oct 25th. This American equivalent of our redshank, but with yellow legs instead of red ones. It was likely blown from the other side of the Atlantic by the hurricanes battering the American coastline at the time. It was seen for at least a couple of days before disappearing completely.

Winter (Nov-Dec)

The final two months of 2024 were full of floods and storms and few highlights of note wildlife wise. From Fen Hide, water pipits were making an appearance throughout November, including one with a ringed leg.

Around 40 marsh harriers have been counted coming in to roost in December and there have been at least one female hen harrier seen flying over the reserve on some days. Our starling roost numbers were on the smaller size than hoped, but we did get around 15,000 swirling around outside reception during November.

Swallowtails & Butterflies

Despite the weather not being the most favourable for swallowtails at times, they did emerge 8 days early than in 2023 (which was May 21st) with the first one flying over the Lackford Run on May 13th. They were seen a lot more frequently than the year before, especially from the reception area. However, our butterfly survey team only managed to record 5 in total during their swallowtail and butterfly transects. This is only one better than 2023 but still a worrying figure to look at. The last swallowtail of the year was seen on Aug 5th.

Our swallowtail caterpillar survey team had better results. In 2023, we only managed 104 caterpillars, the 2nd lowest count since records started in 2011. In 2024, it was a much improved total of 236. However, the worrying part is that their food plant, milk parsley (which is just as rare as the butterfly) is becoming fewer and harder to locate.

The first butterfly of 2024 was a brimstone on Feb 15th (five days earlier than in 2023). Between April to September, our butterfly transect team has counted a total of 465 butterflies (a huge drop from 2023 when they counted 655). This included 76 peacocks, 75 gatekeepers, 60 brimstones and 58 red admirals. The biggest losers during these transects though were small tortoiseshells, which just like common blues were absent during these surveys. This doesn't  mean they aren't around completely, just it means everyone needs to keep an eye out for these beautiful insects a lot more next summer.

Insects

We had a new species discovered at Strumpshaw on April 22nd in the form of a maggot of a rare and unusual Cigarillo Gall-Fly. It is the rarest of the four gall fly species found in the UK and lays its eggs inside reed stems that are under shade.

The first of our Clarke's mining bees emerged a month early on Feb 16th around the usual bench at the start of Sandy Wall. Meanwhile, the first damselfly seen on the reserve was a large red damselfly on April 7th and the first dragonfly was a hairy dragonfly on April 13th. During the summer, the usual species from Norfolk hawkers to scarce chasers were showing well. We also had the odd lesser emperor in June and July.

Fen Raft Spiders

For the second year running, fen raft spiders were reported at Strumpshaw. This rare spider was introduced to the Mid Yare Valley as part of reintroduction project in 2012 and after 11 years, they finally arrived to the reserve. In June, the first one was seen from the bridge in the meadow trail and another with an egg sac at the first sluice gate along the Fen Trail.

Our team wanted to see how many fen raft spiders were at Strumpshaw and Buckenham. A survey was launched in the autumn. We discovered 54 females in total, 4 of which had egg sacs. We also counted 125 nests, 43 of them had spiderlings. This is all very positive news and hopefully the numbers will only continue to grow.

Plants

In 2024, I decided to personally look more closely at the flora of Strumpshaw. Though I'm not an expert on plants, I attempted to find out what grows on the reserve and where. I discovered many species including wild strawberry, marsh cinquefoil and bog bean. The first to flower was snowdrops on Jan 4th, while the first primrose flowered Feb 15th. Sadly, for the second year in a row, there was no bluebell display in the woods.

In the summer, my search took me into the meadows. It was a bit boggy there and I discovered more grasses than anything else, but I did see some orchids (though there appeared to be more near the boardwalk along the Lackford Run). However, no sign of any marsh helleborines in the meadows yet again. We did manage to get one twayblade to flower in the woods at least.

What I've noticed (and have noticed in the last few years) is that many plants have declined from the reserve. Some were now reduced to a few flowers (at least of what I can find close to the paths). Could this be caused by bad weather or munched by deer? It is hard to be certain as my observations are not official data.

And that was 2024. Of course we also had otters and kingfishers constantly being seen throughout the year and we had other notable sightings including a few dark plumaged pheasants that were confused for red grouse and regularly seen along the Sandy Wall, where a large number of lizards and the odd grass snake were seen basking along the border. All in all, it has been a challenging year with some success but with plenty to be concerned about. As we move into 2025, I start to wonder what exciting things will turn up over the Mid-Yare and if things will bounce back. Will the cranes be back again? Will we see a continuing rise in fen raft spider numbers? Will something unbelievably rare turn up?  Keep an eye on my monthly highlight reports to find out. Happy new year!