Friday 01 April

Well, we are into April now and the summer migrants should be starting to return with a vengeance! The weather wasn't so kind today as I went around the valley, with dull dreary skies and a strong blustery wind.

lesser celandine

Whilst I love birds, I try to keep a keen eye out for other wildlife. One thing I am absolutely rubbish at is flower id. I have been trying to find lesser celandine over the last few weeks, and thought I had found some last week whilst returning from work. But I found the leaves were the wrong shape when I checked my field guide later on. But today, I pleased to finally find some.

One bird I have been waiting to return over the last few weeks has been blackcap. I had visited Titchwell RSPB reserve of the North Norfolk coast on Tuesday and, to my slight satisfaction, found they weren't there either. They did , however, have willow warblers singing, so I was delighted to discover that they were now down Gaywood Valley as well. I counted a total of 3 birds for the day.

Then, a little further on (and feeling rather smug), I heard a blackcap singing in Willow Corner. I stopped a while to try and see it, but it remained elusive and I had to make do with its song.

I also managed to add three new species to the Gaywood Valley list. An lone Egyptian goose was seen on the far side, and a pair of coots were seen on the long pond - a bird I have always been surprised never to have seen yet! - and another bird I had expected to see before now was a linnet that flew overhead. This trio now brings the patch list to 86.

A bird that I have seen here before, all be it only recently, is mute swan. There was one on the Gaywood river today and I stopped to take some so-so pictures. But I was a little surprised to find two more on the long pond and couldn't resist getting some close up shots, with this one being the best of the lot.

mute swan

 

Passed with flying colours!

In complete contrast to my previous visit to the Gaywood Valley, spring has truly sprung and warm weather has settled across the whole country. I was finally able to leave my gloves at home and spend an enthralling day looking at the wildlife.

There are more chiffchaffs around now and are actually calling. This is one of the best sounds of spring for me - a demonstration that the cold days of winter are passing, with the promise of the warmer days to come. A superb male yellowhammer was present, standing out like a sore thumb in the bare branches of a hawthorn. I didn't hear it singing today, but did hear it a few days ago in a different location.

When I entered the valley itself, I was greeted by a pair of roe deer bounding through the reeds ahead of me, a pair of hares playing kiss-chase very slowly around a field to the right, and a pair of muntac deer grazing to the left. Spring has most definitely sprung!

There was also plenty of insect action with both small tortoiseshell and peacock butterflies seen flying around and also red-tailed and buff-tailed bumblebee queens foraging for suitable nesting sites.

I went and had a look at the long-tailed tit nest that I found on my last visit and found it fully finished and fully lined. It was too difficult to see if anything was inside and I saw no sign of the pair that built it. But as I was looking, I heard a commotion behind me and turned around to see two kingfishers fighting. I don't know if you have ever seen this, but they fight the same way they fly - very, very fast!

There was wildlife everywhere I looked, with birds, insects, mammals, flowers and trees all showing signs that spring has finally sprung in West Norfolk. In my last blog I said that spring should try harder. Well it has done just that and surpassed my expectations with flying colours. I had intended to spend a couple of hours down the valley, but ended up spending a wholly enjoyable 4 and a half hours instead!

Spring: Must try harder

I have been reading the many tweets about spring arriving in various parts of the country with envy. We are still firmly in the grasping hands of winter in this part of West Norfolk and everything seems to be about two or three weeks behind everywhere else. Spring had appeared to start about a month ago, with much singing from the birds and I had even saw a greenfinch displaying in the middle of February, but the return of the cold winds caused everything to come to a grinding halt and spring had firmly recoiled.

The weather the day before had been bright and sunny and there was even a little bit of warmth in the air, but today it had returned to it's wintery, chilly (and a bit misty) norm. Winter isn't going to give itself up easily! True, the daffodils have finally bloomed, but there is still scant evidence of spring truly arriving yet. Three beautiful bramblings hiding in some silver birches in Redpoll Row, and two female lesser redolls close to the long pond were further confirmation that winter hasn't ceded defeat just yet.

But there was also some evidence that spring is, at least, trying to wrest winters grip away from us. A pair of trilling long-tailed tits came in quite close to me as I walked past a small bramble and I stopped to have a close look at these lovely birds. And to my surprise, I found they were actually putting the finishing touches to a nest of moss and cobwebs at the back of the bramble.

Then, on the opposite side of the trees where I had spotted the lesser redpolls, my attention was drawn to a small bird zipping about the outer branches of a birch. And (for me) this was the 'official' start of spring as I had found my first chiffchaff of the year.

So spring is definitely springing again, but it has a fight on its hands from winter. If I was writing a school report for spring, it would be: Good attempt, but must try harder.

Sunday, 27 February

It rained all day yesterday, which can only be described as a "dirty" day. The clouds were dark and low, it was raining, cold and windy. So it was nice to wake up to a nice crisp new day this morning, with the sun out and some warmth managing to permeate through. This put me in high spirits and with the crocuses about to burst open, it was clear that spring was in the air. Unfortunately, no one bothered to tell the wildlife, and I found a very quiet Gaywood Valley today.

There was a great deal of singing during my last visit, and I have even seen courtship displays from several different species of birds recently. But not today. I did manage to hear a distant reed bunting, several greenfinches, wrens and dunnocks singing, but that was more or less it. Everything else seems to have gone quiet again. There seems to be a great deal of Spring activity starting already in the south, but it seems to have retreated from this part of Norfolk for the moment!

It was nice to see a group of three roe deer came bounding through the reed bed at one point, and quickly disappeared into another the moment they realised I was there, and two muntjac deer were grazing happily on the other side of a drainage ditch a little further on.

The little owl is still missing, but I did see a barn owl hunting as I passed through on my way back from work a couple of days ago.

Friday 18th

I had a good three hours down the Gaywood Valley this morning. I wrapped myself up against the biting easterly wind and went to see what I could find. I had visited the valley on a very windy day last week, only to find that the birds had more sense than me and had tucked themselves away well undercover. It wasn't so bad today, but I still didn't expect to find anything much.

I found my concerns well founded as I started, with just the occasional 'regulars' to test my pencil control in my freezing fingers. The warmth of last summer seemed so far away as I braved the cold wind, but it was almost warming to hear many of the birds singing now. A sure sign that some warmth will soon be returning once again.

The main valley area was farmland 5 years ago, but it has since been left to return to nature. There are reasonable sized reed beds that follow the drainage ditches around the former fields and sedge and rush tussocks are now growing unchecked in the more boggy areas. This place has such potential for the future and the only thing that could make it any better would be if there were some wader pools - and I know the Internal Drainage Board, who now own the land, have plans to dig some in the next year or so!

There is a line of silver birches that line one side of the valley that I have personally named Redpoll Row, after seeing a small flock on several occasions earlier this year. There weren't any there today, but there was a lovely brambling mixed in with some chaffinches using the small stand of hawthorn growing just behind.

Just a little further forward from Redpoll Row is Willow Corner. This is so named because 1-there is a willow copse and 2-it was a regular singing spot for a willow warbler last summer. I walked around the corner, yearning for the warmer weather again, when just in Bullfinch Bend (no prizes!) I came across a singing male reed bunting and another reminder that warmer weather isn't too far away.

After Bullfinch Bend, there is a long path that leads to what I have cunningly called The Top End (it's not the top end now, but it was when I first started birding the area), where a flock of swallows were seen last autumn flying overhead, then coming around to skim the grass between the taller vegetation that lines the path and then pulling back up high to swing around and repeat the process again and again. No surprises, then, for guessing that I now call this part of the valley Swallow Straight.

It was the main place last year for the summer migrants and contained good numbers of reed and sedge warblers, whithethroats, willow warblers and chiffchaffs. It isn't so good in the winter, however, and it was very quiet as I walked along. Then, just before reaching the Top End I noticed what I, at first, thought was a gull. But it banked slightly as I looked away and I managed to notice it was a very white gull, if a gull it was. So I looked properly, and felt I had been rewarded for my suffering in the cold throughout the winter with a little egret that was flying overhead.

It looked like it was getting ready to land, but I lost sight of it when it dissapeared behind one of the many thickets of hawthorn that grow in this area of the valley. This is the first time I have seen little egret in the valley, and is yet another example of the Gaywood Wow Factor - something you can only get from having your own Local Patch.

I then went on a hunt to see if it had actually landed somewhere, but failed to find any further sign of it. Time was running out by now and I started my walk back towards home, warmth, and dinner. There is a spot along this route where I regularly see a little owl, but there hasn't been any sign of it for a couple of weeks now. I stopped for another look today, but it was notable by it's absence once again. I know there are reports of owls dieing because of the cold weather, and although I have seen it since then, I am still a little concerned about it.

To make up for the dissapointment, though, there was a stunning male bullfinch glowing in the middle of a hawthorn hedge. A beautiful bird and a great way to finish what turned out to be a really good mornings birding.

Right. Toad-in-the-hole, here I come!

Introduction

The Gaywood Valley is situated on the edge of Kings Lynn in Norfolk and is only a recent discovery for myself. I have been birding for 25 years now and have never managed to find a suitable place that I can call my local patch. I have investigated many places that should be suitable, but have always found that they aren't good enough, either by lack of actual birds, or too difficult to get to to be able to bird regularly.

I have been lucky over the 25 years to have either volunteered or worked on some of the best birding sites in the country, but it's not the same as having your own 'personal' patch. I have always wanted somewhere to call 'my own' - a place where no one else regularly records the wildlife. A place to carry out transects for butterflies and bees, to explore the vegetation and actually use some of the books I have spent my hard earned cash on, but have never used. And to just generally get involved with as much survey work as I can manage.

I haven't worked in conservation for over ten years now and can't afford to keep taking the bus up to the north Norfolk coast. So I needed to find somewhere local, but knew of nowhere to go. I was on holiday early last year and, desperate to find some fieldwork I could do, found the BTO Atlas website and found that there was a free tetrad right on my doorstep. I didn't think I would find much there as it didn't look promising on my OS map, but went for it anyway. And boy, am I glad I did!

I first visited the tetrad on the very last weekend in May, setting off without much expectation of recording anything much other than the usual fare of house sparrows, starlings and blue tits, and maybe the odd blackcap and chiffchaff along the way. But what I had not expected to find there were birds that I thought I would have to go travel further afield for, such as willow warblers and whitethroats and, to my great astonishment, reed buntings and reed and sedge warblers. That was it, I was hooked and new I had found my long awaited Local Patch.

If I was astonished on my first visit, I was staggered on my second visit to add lesser whithethroat and a reeling grasshopper warbler. As far as I was concerned, I had found Nirvana! I have had some fantastic encounters since last May and many, what I have come to call, Gaywood Wow factors. So I have finally taken the plunge into blogging to share these experiences and maybe(?) enthuse someone else to get out there and find there own Patch and to serve as proof to never give up.