David, Roger and I left home
just be 06:30 and after picking Ken up at Corby headed for Santon Downham in
Norfolk. Our journey was a little slow
around Cambridge but we arrived on site at 08:50, having seen just a Red Kite
near Brigstock in Northamptonshire.
It was bright and sunny on
arrival and we walked north along the Little Ouse River from St Helen’s Picnic
site in very pleasant conditions. We
hoped that we might locate a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker but there was no sign
although we did have a good selection of commoner birds. A male a female Mandarin flew over as we walked
back to the car park and we also saw a Green Woodpecker, a Jay, two Marsh Tits,
a Treecreeper, two Grey Wagtail and a couple of Siskin during the walk. There were two Great Spotted Woodpeckers
drumming, at least three Nuthatches calling and circa forty Fieldfares flew
over but unfortunately the visit didn’t produce the target bird.
From Santon Downham we drove
to a Goshawk site near Cockley Cley and just after arriving had some nice views
of a male circling over the forest. Not
too long afterwards an immature female gave even better and longer views but
then it went rather quiet. We also had a
Sparrowhawk, at least ten Buzzards, a Curlew flying over and a Great Spotted
Woodpecker.
Our next target was Stone
Curlew and we decided to go to Weeting Heath to see them as I had been lead to
believe that there was also a Fiercest and Crossbill present. When we arrived we found out that there
wasn’t a Firecrest and that just two Crossbills had flown over one day
recently. We went to the western hide and
found a single Stone Curlew on the heath.
We scanned around in search of others but didn’t find any and the single
bird also disappeared and we felt we had been lucky to see one. There was no sign of the two reported
Wheatears but we did have another Marsh Tit and a Nuthatch and a Brimstone
butterfly was also observed.
With little else we moved on
to Lakenheath Fen hoping for Bittern and Bearded Tit. When we arrived on site information determined
that we should visit the Washland Viewpoint first as there were two Garganey
and a couple of Great White Egrets reported.
On arrival news was that the Garganey and the Great White Egrets had
disappeared and after a good scan of the area we headed off to the Joist Fen
Viewpoint.
We hadn’t gone too far when
David indicated that he could hear Lesser Redpoll calling and then three flew
into a nearby bush and whilst watching these I picked up a single
Brambling. As we continued along the
path we were out of the wind and it was quite warm and it was not totally
surprising that we saw two Peacock butterflies.
It is a fair walk to the watch point and particularly when we just saw a
single Buzzard and heard a couple of Water Rails and few Cetti’s Warblers on
route. On reaching the watch point there
were at least six Marsh Harriers but very little else. David and Ken had gone to view the fields
from the footpath alongside the Little Ouse River but I soon got a call from
David saying they hadn’t seen anything and were heading back to have another
look for the Garganey.
Roger and I followed on and I
got a nice photo of Kestrel that was perched on a post after catching a vole or
mouse but otherwise we had seen just a few Little Egrets when David called to
see if we were on our way back, saying the Garganey were showing quite
well. Roger and I stopped and scanned
the washland from the footpath and soon located the male Garganey but we
couldn’t find the female.
Male Kestrel
As we approached the centre
other birders informed us that a Willow Tit had been showing well on the feeder
in front of the centre but it had disappeared when got back and didn’t put
another visit before had to depart.
It had been a bit of a mixed
day with the highlight being the views of the Goshawks and of course male
Garganey are always nice to see but only seeing one Stone Curlew and dipping on
other species was disappointing.
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