Norfolk birding never fails to disappoint, there are always surprises, beautiful scenery and a great range of birds. However sometimes there are some days that are so breath-taking that the images of the days become firmly sculpted in stone on your memory and will remain there for a long time. Yesterday was one of those days. We centred our efforts around Haddiscoe, but the experience was about as far from the quick stop off to scan from the bridge that alot of birders only give themselves at this site.
Admittedly to begin with we did scan from the bridge but seeing a few birders out on the marsh and having to suffer the horrendous traffic rattling by soon had us aspiring to get out into the wild. The day had already gone well - a redhead
Goosander heading down the river and a
Peregrine perched on pylons, but as we walked along out from Waveney Forest the experience became far more authentic. The first great bird of the day was a
Bittern flushed from a frozen bank at close range given stunning views as it did a slow loop into the reed. Then a flock of 21
Bearded Tits, mostly males disappearing in and out of the reed stems. Real drama then followed when i noted a loose flock of broad winged waders taking to the sky but in a strangely resigned fashion, i was just in time to raise my eyes to see a
Peregrine, dink, twist and smack straight into a hapless
Lapwing, the spirit of J A Baker
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...fetime-the-peregrine-by-ja-baker-1688881.html coursed through my veins as it calmly repositioned its kill and slowly flew off to a private area to gourge. Can there be a greater seering operatic spectacle than Peregrines effortlessly taking down prey?
Inevitably another scan from the bridge revealed little again forcing us to take to the wilderness once more. A perched
Kingfisher dappled by reeds and afternoon light, proved another highlight and fairly soon we had relocated the
Rough-legged Buzzard - typically conserving energy by keeping to one or two gate posts but at times being mobbed by
Short-eared Owl and
Peregrine with
Hen Harrier and
Sparrowhawk in the foreground.
It was at this point that our real stroke of luck occurred, although it doesn't need saying, if you are on someone else patch, get to know The Man. So take a bow Rob Murray, it seemed he watches Haddiscoe all day every day and absolutely loves every second, on top of this he was delighted to show us some of the patches hidden treasure. So after sating ourselves on the raptors we found ourselves hastening through dark forest rides hoping to catch the finale of the day. Against red glowing patches of evening sky we found the ''Peninsula'' just as the first shadowy figure whizzed past our eyes. The evening commute had just begun and in total we had
35 Woodcock leaving their roost to feed out in marsh, a staggering figure to us but nothing compared with the 56 Rob had had a couple of days previously! As I say some great memories but having to locate Woodcock by the sound of their wings beating before seeing them zip out into a sea of reeds will be hard to surpass.
