Saturday 6 October 2012

Sculthorpe moor


This was a new reserve for Ken and Tim, and both agreed it was a great place to visit. It is run by the Hawk and Owl trust and has many hides and lots to see, it is also a good place to go to get away from a strong wind and see some good birds. We had views of Marsh tits, a bank vole venturing out from it's hole to snaffle s grain of seed and scuttle back. The juvenile bullfinch above was the boss of the bird table and seemed quite unperturbable. The highlight here though was this early migrant from Scandinavia a superb Brambling. The resident Golden pheasants and Willow tits managed to avoid us.

Common Buzzards & Red at Abbey farm




Abbey farm at Flitcham is a cracking place to visit any day of the year and this was no exception, the Buzzards on top and the female Marsh harrier below were the highlights of our visit coming in quite close to the hide, the harrier made a pass at the large teal numbers on the river there sending them all into a panic.

Snettisham





 Tim joined Ken and myself for another foray into Norfolk, we had been told it would be a seven metre tide which should have covered all the mud and brought all the waders ashore. The tide was definitely high but not quite high enough but still gave us a spectacular show in the various lights as we watched

North Herts

After a long day yesterday we stayed close to home and started at the Sandon raptor area, we were not disappointed with a kettle of ten common buzzards haging in the wind and a further two on the ground together with a pair of red kites which they had skirmishes with when they took off.
We also had a party of six Jays give us a fly past.
Next stop was Fowlmere which was quite unremarkable except for two brief sightings, firstly a late Hobby and soon after an Adder crossing the path.

October at Holme






Ken &and I went up to Holme in the hope of finding some rarities, we had a great start with a distant Short eared owl but after that had to satisfy ourselves with the usual fare of birds for the time of year, picture one is Black tailed godwits, two is a Grey plover, three should need no introduction and the others were all pink footed geese in spectacular numbers.