Out of County Birding

Jackie and I were invited by birding friends to stay and do some birding with them and how can you refuse an offer like that. So on the afternoon of the 19th we found ourselves being shown around their local patch, we had the usual common species which you would expect in an urban area Blackcaps, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Swallow over.  Though when we were passing a field with Alpaca three birds took flight calling, Yellow Wagtails our first of the year a good start.

20th April

After discussion over dinner the previous evening it was decided as Lakenheath was less than an hour away that should be our starting point the next day.  When we arrived it was cool but the morning mist had burnt off and the sun was doing its very best to warm things up.  With seeing Yellowhammer and Kestrel just outside the reserve we were off to a good start and almost the first bird seen on the reserve was Lesser Whitethroat another year tick, was followed quickly by good numbers of Reed Warblers all singing well. Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps in the first plantation then a couple of Whitethroats along the railway brought us to the New Fen Viewpoint.  Looking over the reed bed there was little action the local male Marsh Harrier had a little display and soared over his territory so we moved on after a short while.  Walking on we hadn't gone far when we heard "Cuc-Koo, Cuc- Koo" and the Cuckoo flew in and landed in a nearby tree before flying across the Fen.  The next sighting was our third raptor of the day with a pair of Sparrowhawk leaving the trees and soaring off over the reserve.  Jackie was the first to hear it and she pointed it out to the rest of us, a fishing reel like sound coming from the plantation on our left, our first Grasshopper Warbler of the year.  I heard the pinging call of a Bearded Tit in the reed bed but had no sighting but we did have more Reed Warblers and Reed Buntings.  It was then that I looked up and there in the middle distance the bird of the day flying in was a Common Crane it circled then turned and headed off north.

Common Crane over Lakenheath © Nick Hull

This brought us to the Joist Fen Viewpoint at the far end of the reserve.  From here there was several Marsh Harriers up displaying they seemed to be in every direction, though while we were watching one particular male displaying Jackie picked up a very distant Hobby.  Our return walk added only Garden Warbler to our year list. 

After a big lunch we headed of not too far away to a favourite location of ours for Stone Curlew and we were not disappointed.   Once we got our "eye in" we found at least 5 birds dotted around, though the heat haze made the more distant ones difficult to see properly.  We also recorded singing Woodlark and several Wheatear scattered around this superb piece of Breckland. 

On the journey back we popped into Fowlmere a small Fenland reserve but we found it very quiet, though we did get a little lucky as a Barn Owl was resting just inside of the nest box opening giving a quarter side view not a bad finish to our day.

21st April

We began the day at Paxton Pits in Huntingdonshire, this local reserve is an old gravel extraction site that runs lays along the side of the Ouse.   The reserve's 'piecè de résistance' is Nightingale, numbers usually reach double figures but on the day of our visit only four had returned but it was still early in the season.  We recorded the usual early migrants Chiffchaff, Blackcap plus Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat, Willow Warbler and Swallows.  There was a good number of nesting Cormorants in the trees around the lake, all making their groaning nesting sounds.  Flying over the lake and along the River Ouse there were a few Common Terns which had only just arrived on the reserve.  But we were here for the Nightingale and we weren't disappointed we saw one and heard it sing before being chased into cover by a Robin.

Next was a visit to Grantham Water where we stopped at the café for lunch where we could check out the many Common Terns and gulls out over the reservoir.  Otherwise it was quiet here and we headed off to Sandy the RSPB's HQ, here we saw nothing bird wise to add to our list but we did find eleven species of butterfly on the reserve. We also had a male Sparrowhawk take what we think was a Linnet at the woodland pond and we watch it pluck its prey before flying off out of sight to eat it.

Orange Tip © Nick Hull