Marsh
Yesterday I took the day off work - which is easier if you work for yourself - and went birdwatching on the Norfolk coast with my birdwatching friend Dave, who also works for himself. It really was the most fantastic day. Dave's a much more experienced birder than I, but we share a similar pitch of enthusiasm for the feathered and have been threatening to do this for some time. So we booked ourselves into a nice B&B in Dersingham for the night and spent what added up to seven solid hours over two separate reserves, in gorgeous bright sunlight but with the coastal wind battering us for dramatic effect and testing our outdoor garb. We're talking marshes. Wading birds, waterfowl of all types, seabirds and yes, lots of ducks! First stop was Titchwell Marsh RSPB Reserve, featuring lots of lagoons and reedbeds. Then onto Cley Marshes, a Norfolk Wildlife Trust site that also offers pools and wet grassland and looked spectacular in the late-afternoon light. The picture above was taken at around 6.30 when about 150 sandwich terns had settled onto a small island for the night, only to take to the air en masse occasionally, which was a sight in itself. Both reserves were well kept, with modern, unobtrusive boardwalks, neat hides at regular intervals and good signage. The visitor centre at Cley is environmentally friendly (see: below), with a wind turbine and a sloped, planted roof which collects the rainwater to use in the toilets. It costs just £4. At Titchwell it was £4 per car in the car park, or you could display your RSPB membership card (which we did).
I'm a bit of a novice birder (Dave's been at it since childhood; I only got into it about ten years ago, fascinated by the swallows in Galway), but it's a friendly cult. Clearly, on a weekday, you're going to meet committed twitchers on the boardwalks, but this was educational for me. I loved the camaraderie of discussing the identity of a patchy looking wader from one of the Cley hides - was it a spotted redshank, or a ruff that was midway between winter and summer plumage? (Dave later decided it was the latter) - with another chap in fleece, hat and sensible walking boots. There are those who are very male about it and live to tick off "lifers" (ie. birds they have never seen before), but others who just enjoy pottering about and watching birds. Dave and I were as captivated as the other birders by the marsh harrier swooping elegantly above the dunes at Titchwell (the hardened birder calls it a "marsh" and has no need to say "harrier"), and when Dave saw his first shore lark on the pebbly beach, it was a genuine thrill. But one of the most exciting moments of our long day took place in the car park at Titchwell, when the world's most tame robin actually came up and pecked a raisin out of my hand! This is a long-held ambition of mine - to have a bird feed out of my palm - and it was a good omen for the rest of the day. This photo was taken from within one of the hides at Cley.
We bought homemade rolls and Tunnock's caramel wafers and a hunk of sheep's cheese from a small village post office and ate those as we walked. We listened intently to a Bill Oddie-type in a Titchwell hide, who said "bins" for binoculars and was clearly an advanced breed of twitcher - if you closed your eyes, it could have been Saxondale! I really enjoy breathing in the air of such dedicated gentlemen. There were quite a few old couples we passed and said hello to, but birdwatching does seem to attract a greater number of men, many of them with telescopes and massive cameras and tripods. You don't catch these men referring to bird books in mixed company, but Dave and I were far more relaxed, and consulted ours regularly. After our seven solid hours in the salty air, we drove back to Dersingham and ate a hearty meal. We wrote down every single species we saw, in the bar, including all the common ones, which we still hold dear, and our grand total was 47. (I have put an A in brackets after each one I saw for the first time yesterday, and a D if it was the first time for Dave. Just for the record. It may help you to re-live our excitement.) In no particular order, then:- Blue tit
- Great tit
- Wood pigeon
- Shore lark (aka horned lark) (A, D)
- Swallow
- Marsh Harrier (A)
- Lapwing
- Pheasant
- Carrion crow
- Rook
- Blackbird
- Magpie
- Garden warbler (A, D)
- Cormorant
- Robin
- Kestrel (a number of these, hovering above the roadside)
- Teal
- Gadwall (A, D)
- Wigeon
- Pochard
- Shelduck
- Shoveller
- Pintail
- Tufted duck
- Mallard (and, as duck lovers will have spotted, that's nine species of duck - we pretty much only needed to see an eider and a smew to complete the set)
- Brent goose
- Greylag goose
- Canada goose
- Black-headed gull
- Sandwich tern (A)
- Avocet (A)
- Oystercatcher
- Redshank (A)
- Ruff (A, D)
- Curlew (A)
- Ringed plover (A)
- Coot
- Moorhen
- House sparrow
- Wren
- Chaffinch
- Goldfinch
- Greenfinch (the finches were at the seed feeders outside the visitors' centre at Titchwell - it was like being in my back garden!)
- Brambling
- Dunnock
- Black-tailed godwit (A, D)
- Mute swan
posted by Andrew Collins @ 2:29 PM
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19 Comments:
top stuff, a grand day out. Birders etc get a bad press but most of them are decent and friendly and even the spoddy ones will give you a go on their 'scopes. My only complaint as an urban birder is to get to cool sites like you did, you really need a car. I've tried public tranport and it almost impossible . last time I went out I saw nowt all day only to come home to watch some long tailed tits nest building outside my window who then got scared off by a sparrow hawk! ps. can't see the what the fuss about the sound quality on your podcast it's fine for me, they must all be listening in recording studios .
Aah, lovely. And all crowned with a Tunnock's Caramel Wafer. What more could you want?
I have to say, that sounds like a pretty perfect day to me too...
Andrew
It sounds like you had a great time. I too love birds but am a bit rubbish at identifying them unless they are obvious. But who cares? I remember seeing avocets for the first time at Minsmere - what a thril. And puffins on the Farne Islands...and Arctic terns. Wow.
I agree with BTLP - a lot of birding places are hard to get to unless you can drive. Top marks to the Wildfowl & Wetlands Centre at Barnes. We need more urban birding places.
If you want birds (and red squirrels) eating out of your hand, there is a park on the outskirts of Helsinki where they will mug you for food and crawl up your leg (the squirrels that is).
Maria in Kent
The greatest days are made of the simplest things. Yesterday was a bit special.
While I do love a wafer, to me the Tunnock's Caramel Log takes the biscuit, so to speak. Not so available outside Scotland but worth the search.
Maria, I've been to the Wetlands Centre in Barnes and had a fantastic day there too. You're right, a car seems necessary for many reserves. I suppose that's the nature of more remote sites.
Excellent post Andrew, back to the old days with info on your bird watching activities - more of this please!!!
Didn't realise you were a keen birdwatcher. I'm only a garden birdwatcher, but it sounds like a relaxing way to spend a day.
Now we can review you on iTunes calling you a left-wing, do-gooder, bird watcher. Tell me we can add trainspotter to that and I think we're sorted.
(I find it amusing that the right-wing press use "do-gooder" as an insult. I think perhaps they're giving a little too much away when they do that.)
What a relaxing read. And those landscapes! I could almost smell the salty air.
I can't tell a rook from a jackdaw from a crow - what's a quick way to differentiate without having a book at hand?
Jackdaw: grey, black cap, much smaller than a crow and rook. The rook has a lighter bill (it appears to have a white face), and a raised crown. The crow's head is flat. Don't mean to be rude, but the crow is much tidier looking than a scruffy rook.
That's a massive generalisation, AC. Racist.
This article brought to mind one of my favourite ever newspaper headlines, which was "Four Kestrels Manoeuvre in the Dark".
Incidentally, I found out today that you can get to your Wikipedia entry by typing 'Andrew Collings'. See, even Wikipedia's confused!
five centres also if you see lots of crows together they'll be rooks! you are more likely to see rooks and crows than jackdaws and ravens and if you do see a raven they are a lot bigger. Also people shouldn't get hung up on names if you see a bird you like, spend sometime watching it if you never learn it's name you won't have wasted you time.
Oh! I am suffering from shore lark envy. Thank you Andrew - this might just act as a nudge to get myself out of the city this weekend - it's good to be reminded about the finer things in life.
I have to say, your friend does look a bit like JD out of Scrubs..
It's an annoying habit I have, if I think someone looks like someone famous I just have to tell them...
Sorry..
Andrew may have been into birding for just ten years (a decent stretch by anyone's reckoning!) but he's as fine a birder as any you'll meet - don't let his modesty fool you.
Knowing the Latin names and natural history of the individual species is nice, but what really matters is taking the time to just watch them. Who can fail to be moved by the sight of a marsh harrier, sorry - marsh, as it quarters the reed tops with those lazy, show-off wing beats?
Norfolk is stunning, and you are guaranteed to see glamorous species, but I live in the middle of a town, and was greeted this morning by a chaffinch in full song at the top of a fruit tree. That's as good as it gets, mate.
If you spend enough time watching birds, you will automatically develop a working knowledge of trees, wild flowers, butterflies and moths, and all the other components of our precious ecology. You may even be able to aspire to the lofty title of 'naturalist' - and we could certainly do with a few more of those about.
Andrew and I noticed what can only be described as an infestation of a single plant species on all the verges and waysides of Norfolk. It turns out that it is a long forgotten cultivated vegetable, introduced by the Romans and called Alexanders (Smyrnium olustratum). It's an attractive plant, but it seemed to be doing a good job of obliterating every other roadside species. It could well be that the recent mild winters have allowed it to run riot, as it originates from the Mediterranean.
Dave
You know, I've never been into birding (is that what it's called?) but I feel completely persuaded having read this piece. Sounds like a grand day out, and cheaper than going up the Emirates. Now all I have to do is persuade a fellow novice.
Andrew - lovely to read your account of a good day's birding in Norfolk (which is one of the best counties for it). We don't have quite such fabulous locations here in Cheshire, but it's been pretty interesting even in the garden during the last couple of weeks as the Spring migrants have finally started to arrive. Yesterday morning there were willow warblers and blackcaps singing all around the house. But no cuckoos yet!
And, of course, every day out is enhanced by a Tunnock's wafer for lunch. (Tunnock's wafer - one letter short of being a new species of waterbird?)
Looking at those photos reminds me of that 'Dr Who' story from ther 70's where the alien comes out of the marsh!
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