Been a While

Good title on three counts.  Firstly it’s been a few weeks since my last posting.  For this the blame can be put on the push to finally finish the interior decorating so freeing up spring and summer to do as we please (I’m sure more jobs will be added to the ‘to do’ list).

Secondly.  It’s been many years since I last visited Cley Marshes Nature Reserve up on the Nth Norfolk coast.  Founded in 1926 this is the Countries oldest Wildlife Trust reserve.  430 acres of freshwater reedbeds, man-made scrapes, ditches and wet grazing meadows this is a famous site for turning up rare birds.  Only separated from the volatile North Sea by a (now un-maintained) shingle bank the reserve has flooded four times in recent years due to storms, taking a couple of years to recover from the salt incursion each time.  One day it will inevitably be lost for good.

And finally you have to go way back in the mists of time (well 1998 to be precise) for my last sighting of the feature bird a Long-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus).  This rare vagrant from North America turns up annually in the UK.  The specimen at Cley has been present since late October and last Friday I decided to go see if I could locate it.

Dowitcher spotted and it has a long bill!

Let me apologise here for the quality of these highly cropped and processed images of the Dowitcher.  In my defence the bird was always very distant, right at the limit of my 600mm lens, and the light was pretty poor, the promised ‘sunny spells’ were few and far between!  However it is what it is and I’m just glad to come away with something resembling the bird.

Shh! Don’t wake the sleeping Wigeon

Always on the feed

I wonder what will become of our visitor from ‘across the pond’?  It’s a 1st winter bird and is doing alright for itself.  It was constantly feeding, head down going like a demented sewing machine!  Come breeding season (not long off) will it stay or tag along with other species and head north?  One thing for sure it could be a bit lonely for other Dowitcher company.

Nice comparison shot. From left, Redshank, Dunlin, Dowitcher, Dunlin

Let’s have a look at a few other sightings.

A beautiful and elegant wader, the Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta)

A pair of Shelduck (Tadorna tadorna) enjoy a rare moment of sunshine. Soon they will be off to start a new generation down the nearest rabbit burrow!

5 Spoonbills (Platalea leucorodia) flew close by the hide taking me by surprise, I fluked this one shot

Not all birds were as distant as the Dowitcher. This smart drake Pintail (Anas acuta) was just a few yards away

Spring still seems some way off, two weeks of rain, snow showers (yikes) and low temperatures forecast.  Soon it will be butterfly time.