David, Malcolm, Roger and I had decided to have a day in the Brecks and Roger Picked David and I up and drove to Malcolm’s, who then took on the driving duties for the day.
Cavenham Heath was to be our first location and we arrived at around
08:20 having seen very little on route.
The sun was shining, and it was already feeling quite warm and two Grey
Partridge got the day off to a good start.
There was a Mistle Thrush singing, which we then saw in one of the
fields close to where we had parked. As
we walked along the footpath we scanned the heath and soon found two Eurasian
Stone-curlew. David then thought that he
heard a Grasshopper Warbler and so we stopped for a while but there was no sign
and it didn’t sing again. As we moved
two birds flew over, which we identified as Woodlark and they rather
conveniently landed on some overhead wires before dropping onto the ground to
feed. They weren’t at all bothered about
our presence or a couple of dogs that went by with their owner. As the birds seemed at ease we fired off a
couple of shots both on the wires and on the ground before leaving them still
feeding.
Woodlark
Woodlark
Woodlark
As we moved further along the path we found three more Eurasian
Stone-curlew and two Northern Wheatear before David found a male European
Stonechat, which like the Woodlarks was quite obliging, although the light
wasn’t as good. I then picked up a
Woodlark in flight some distance away and we then heard one calling and
eventually found another two. As we
walked back along the track we found another male European Stonechat but hadn’t
seen anything else by the time we got back to the car.
Male European Stonechat
Male European Stonechat
From Cavenham we headed for Lakenheath Fen and after parking and entering
via the visitors centre we walked the short distance to the Washland
viewpoint. As we reached the viewpoint
we could hear at least one Sedge Warbler and we began scanning the wash land
for a Garganey. There was a good selection
of birds on the water that included Common Shelduck, Northern Shoveler,
Gadwall, Eurasian Wigeon, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe and Coot
but there was no sign of the Garganey.
David then cried Common Tern but when I looked there was a tern over the
Little Ouse that I thought was a Little Tern, which proved to be correct. We hadn’t seen it the board in the centre and
so I called the centre to make them aware.
As I watched the tern I picked up a second bird and we had rather nice
views of both before they flew off down the river, which they had done several
times before. A party of RSPB staff then
arrived and managed to get on the birds before they disappeared down the river
and not seen again. One of the wardens
indicated that he had worked on the site for almost six years and these were
the first he had seen and wasn’t aware of any other records.
The warden advised us that the Garganey had also been seen from the bank
on New Fen, where they had done some extensive habitat management. We had heard a Common Cuckoo calling on
several occasions and so made our way along the bank towards New Fen. There were several Sedge Warbler singing and
we saw at least two and David and I heard a Common Grasshopper Warbler reeling,
but Malcolm and Roger couldn’t hear it and we were unable to locate it.
When we eventually reached New Fen we settled down to scan the area of
reedbed that had been cleared but there was no sign of the Garganey but we did
see Northern Shoveler, Mallard, Eurasian Teal, a Little Grebe, a Great
Cormorant, several Northern Lapwing and four Redwing and I found two Common
Snipe along one of the channels, As we
were about to move on I picked up a Eurasian Bittern in flight and called out ‘bittern
in flight’ and we all managed to see it before it disappeared into the
reeds. A wet area on the other side of the
river held two Eurasian Oystercatchers, along with Canada Goose, Greylag Goose
and Mute Swan.
As we walked further along the path there were two Little Egrets on the
far side of the river and as we watched our first Western Marsh Harrier of the
day, Malcolm picked up a Hobby hawking high to the south and as we watched the
bird we found a second. A Eurasian
Curlew was then observed over the fields to the north just before we went
through the gate to reach the Joist Fen viewpoint.
From the viewpoint we saw three more Western Marsh Harriers and a couple
of Common Kestrel and heard a Water Rail.
It was now very warm and with lunch beckoning we started to make our way
back along the southern path. David and
Malcolm, who were ahead of Roger and I, heard two Eurasian Reed Warblers but as
we stood listening neither revealed themselves before we continued to make our
way back. As David and I approached the
centre a Common Kingfisher flashed by and when Malcolm and Roger got back a few
minutes later they had heard a Common Whitethroat.
Eurasian Wren
After some lunch we decided to go to Lynford Arboretum and we arrived in
the car park at around 14:00. We walked
down the path towards the far meadows seeing a Eurasian Treecreeper and then a
Eurasian Nuthatch a little further along.
David was sure he had heard Eurasian Siskin on several occasions and as
we were nearly back we eventually saw a male in song flight and then saw it
with a female briefly.
Our final port of call was to be Cockley Cley and as we pulled up in the
parking area there were two Eurasian Stone-curlew in the field. Three other birders present hadn’t seen our
target bird, Northern Goshawk, and we weren’t surprised. As we scanned the area we had a single Common
Buzzard and two Red Kites and there was a Eurasian Curlew in the field
opposite. As we were about to go Roger
said what’s this it’s not a Common Buzzard and when we got on the bird we
realised he had picked up a Northern Goshawk, which then flew around for
several minutes causing mayhem amongst the local pigeon community.
Feeling very pleased with our day, we set off for home but made our final
stop at Blatherwycke Lake in Northamptonshire adding Mandarin Duck and Red-crested
Pochard to our day list, which had reached eighty-seven and included six
year-ticks. An excellent day’s birding
in some rather pleasant weather with the temperature reaching 27°C.
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