Skip to main content

Only the brave

No matter how many times I walk the well-trodden paths that criss-cross my local patch, nature can still throw up something new. At Surlingham Church Marsh early this morning, the temperature beginning to climb above freezing, I witnessed a pair of Jays mobbing a perched Common Buzzard. I have never seen this behaviour before, although from a Corvid of any kind not exactly unexpected. My presence appeared to be the final straw, the raptor taking flight and disappearing further into the small pine wood. Elsewhere on the reserve, a hunting female Marsh Harrier was hopefully a sign of things to come prior to Spring, and Siskins aplenty called overhead and amongst the Alders. Walking the holloway from the church down to the river, the first Snowdrops were braving the frozen ground and providing a welcome splash of purity and colour.

This afternoon as the sky took on a golden tinge above the copse opposite, I took this as my signal to walk the marsh path down to the river. I was rewarded with an unusually silent Green Sandpiper, flushed from a dyke. Only my second here; the first passing through during the brutal Beast From The East of 2018. Soon after a Water Pipit thankfully called as it flew north towards Buckenham, also my second record here. My regular Barn Owl needed no encouragement to get out early and hunt, these are tough days with more to come. The satellite Corvid pre-roost have moved to the edge of the parish boundary, but numbers appear as strong as the start of the month. Small pockets of Wigeon banked over the river before settling to roost, and in the gloom the commuting Black-headed Gulls snaked their way downriver in absolute silence.

Having recently come across this, it would be selfish not to share. Solan Goose

Comments

  1. Caroline Gill23 January 2019 at 01:49

    A beautiful post about a place that is close to my heart. We seem to have seen fewer barn Owls in Suffolk the last two years (though others may have been luckier, of course). I wonder how long it is since the last Coypu...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jim27 January 2019 at 06:12

    Many thanks for your kind words Caroline. On the Coypu, I believe the last one was recorded in East Anglia in 1989, trapping having ceased around 1981.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Everything is about edge

Hardley, where it is often confusing to define where the garden ends and the marsh begins. Tumble-down houses and rickety shacks, away from any bus route and Team Sky sorts wrapped in lycra, this is a village that by choice is cut off. The secret is out, and pre-storm Ciara as many as 10 large lenses littered the river bank firing at will. Their target- Winter ghosts. First, the classic Scooby-Doo type, as a Barn Owl responds to an ill-advised squeak in the grass and heads towards the onlookers. Another quickly joins the hunt, their formation a picture of double-edged stealth. But these year-round residents are not the key objective today, that honour is given to the Short-eared Owl. 3/4 of these can be seen from the staithe at the minute, floating like giant moths over the tussocks and edges.  In a recent article in The New Yorker, Jake Fiennes states "Everything is about edge". Hedges, ditches, scrub, forgotten tracts of land that link nothing and no-one. Fiennes, now ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Grey Phalarope- a new patch bird

The 7th of April was another bitterly cold Spring day, hats and gloves in prime position on pegs and in bags ready to be deployed. A few brave Garganey have been reported north of the river, but it was a bird from the north itself that had me rushing for the thermals and the telescope late in the day.  I was thankful for the local Whatsapp group who were quick to report that a Grey Phalarope had been seen on Rockland Broad. This tiny Wader would have come in on the northerlies over the last few days, although to grace one of the broads is a real surprise, since most stick pretty close to the coast before moving on. Indeed, my experience of the birds has usually been on a sea watch in the Autumn, waves crashing and foam flying, my eyes straining to pick them out as they fly low just above the surf. They are fantastic birds, and now one was here on the patch. I had a brief panic when I realised my scope was in my car at the garage (thankfully I do have a much older spare) but once th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wood's End and Surlingham, 13/03/11

Decided it was time to search for a Lesser Pecker within and around the patch, ideal habitat alongside the Yare and plenty of deadwood. I should say now that the search was fruitless, but did throw up some good habo and a few decent birds for the area. Wood's End had a large flock of Siskin in a small conifer plantation, and a Nuthatch called from within. A Common Buzzard called overhead, and was seen again from the pub- I will keep an eye on this a potential breeding site. Great Spotted Pecker showed well, and my second Brimstone Butterfly in 2 days passed through- stealing a march, or so I thought! My first was seen from the staffroom yesterday, not all bad on the Western Front then. Surlingham was looking pristine in the sunshine, and approaching the lagoon I could hear Lapwing- usually across river at Wood's End- and then a familiar call which I almost ignored, but then realised where I was.....Redshank! Never actually saw it, but still a new bird for the patch. A pair of S...
3 comments
Read more