Wensum Valley Birdwatching Society Newsletter July 2004

In the words of David Frost “Hello and welcome”.

I hope that you have all had a good Spring and are enjoying the Summer. I just hope that you are finding enough free time to get out and do some quality birding. Personally I seem to be finding it harder and harder to find time to get out – maybe its because I don’t manage my time as well as I once did!

THANKS

A word of thanks here to all of those involved in organising and leading trips and meetings (and in particular the May meeting when Ray, Alwyn and myself were absent) and again, to all those who have been kind enough to look after the catering arrangements and organising raffles. Also to those who have submitted articles for the Newsletter.

FIELD MEETINGS

Since the last Newsletter members have enjoyed a dawn chorus at Sparham Pools on May 1st, an evening meeting at West Raynham on June 3rd, an outdoor evening meeting in the Brecks on June 17th and a full day meeting at Minsmere on June 27th.

Colin Wright has kindly penned a few lines about the dawn chorus as follows: -

“We met at the car park at the unheard of time of 4:15am. Although not quite light the birds were already in full song, especially the Garden Warbler and Chiff Chaff. Overall we saw, or heard, 57 different species which included the Tawny Owl, Blackcap, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Barn Owl, Tree Creeper, Goldcrest, Osprey, Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler, Reed Bunting, Whitethroat, Sand Martin, Reed Warbler, Cetti’s Warbler and Nuthatch. Well worth getting up for – especially the hot bacon butties for those who stayed the course.

Alwyn reports on the West Raynham and the Boughton Fen/Brecks Trips: -

“Outdoor meeting at West Raynham – June 3rd
Thirteen members attended the evening outdoor meeting at West Raynham on Thursday 3rd June despite the damp, dull weather conditions. A total of 42 species were noted including a Garden Warbler feeding its brood; distant views of a Sparrowhawk, Gadwall, Shoveler, Tufted Duck and Great Crested Grebe on the parkland lake. Swallow, House Martin, Swift all flying around near the lake. Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Reed Warbler, Whitethroat, Mistle Thrush in full song. Oystercatcher on the grazing meadows. Kingfisher in flight along the river and Cuckoo in flight. The evening drew to a close with excellent overhead views of 4 Woodcock roding and a Barn Owl hunting over a meadow

Outdoor meeting at Boughton Fen and the Brecks June 17th
The cool weather did not deter 17 members from enjoying an evening’s birdwatching at Boughton Fen and in the Brecks around the Cockley Cley area.

At the first site excellent views of Woodlark were had as the bird passed overhead in full song and a couple of Mistle Thrush were observed drinking at a nearby cattle trough. Other species present were Skylark, Pied Wagtail, Linnet, Lapwing, Red-legged Partridge and Oystercatcher. We moved on to another Breckland site and enjoyed excellent views of a Tree Pipit, a new species for some observers.

Boughton Fen was rather quiet and although it did not produce some of the species we had hoped to see we did have Sedge and Reed Warbler, a Turtle Dove, Barn Owl and Reed Bunting.

We finished the evening at a well-known site for Nightjar. Several males were heard but only two lucky members managed to get a fleeting view of one bird in flight. However a pair of Woodcock were seen, {with the assistance of a powerful lamp} as they appeared along the track about 50 meters away. Another very enjoyable evening and thanks to Ray Gribble for leading the trip.”

Outdoor Meeting at Minsmere – 26th June
Sixteen members attended this trip. I think it fair to say that it was enjoyed by all. The weather was kind to us. Slightly breezy at times in the more exposed places, but overall the weather was ideal. A total of 69 species were seen. Good views were had of Bittern in flight, excellent views of Hobbies catching and feeding on dragonflies. Bearded Tits carrying caterpillars (obviously feeding young). Ruddy Ducks (“put down thy musket son”) and to cap off a really good day Dartford Warblers on Dunwich Heath. Our thanks to Ray who yet again proved his leadership qualities despite a somewhat delicate tummy (which he assures me was not down to a dose of gluttony although I am not so sure!).

INDOOR MEETINGS

On April 15th I showed a few slides to illustrate a talk which I had intended should have the title “A Muddly of Poor Slides”. Muddly was supposed to be a play on the word “Medley” but unfortunately from the moment of conception to the moment of truth the title went through a number of both deliberate and accidental changes and finally ended up with the title “Birding in Exotic Places”. I must apologise to those members who were sitting at the back of the hall and who had difficulty in hearing me speak. Normally I sit or stand at the back of the hall and switch off the fan-assisted heater. On April 15th of course I was at the front of the hall and overlooked the amount of noise that the fan heater makes. My apologies.

On May 20th Peter Ransom kindly gave a talk entitled “Birds and Other Wildlife of East Anglia”. The talk, I am told, was an extremely good illustrated talk enjoyed by all those present. Thanks go to the club members who so ably assisted on that particular evening.

There was no indoor meeting in June

HOLIDAYS

I am still waiting for most of you to let me have articles concerning your holidays. Allan Hale has however been kind enough to let me have an article concerning a trip to Ecuador. I set it out below and many thanks to you Allan for your contribution.

“An Alternative View of Ecuador

During February of 2002, Ray Gribble, Malcolm Rains and myself went on a birding trip to Ecuador. This article paints an unorthodox picture of the trip, hopefully demonstrating that a trip report doesn’t have to consist of a long string of bird names that are mostly unpronounceable.

The birding itself was unique. I have been a birder for more years that I care to remember, and over the years I have tried many ways to persuade a bird to leave dense cover – some more acceptable than others. Never before have I employed a man with a machete. But this was Ecuador and many aspects of the trip were different to anything I had experienced before.

The weather was particularly interesting in that we had everything, every day. Of the 15 days we were in Ecuador, we had rain every day except one, we had sun every day except one and we had fog every day except two. We experienced everything from hot sunshine to violent tropical thunderstorms and from near-freezing mountaintops to sweaty rain forests. And we think that the UK is unpredictable!

On a more personal front, Ray came in for a lot of criticism regarding his difficulties in putting us on to the birds that he found. “Where is it?” we all asked, but he always made hard work of the answer. A typical response went something like: “See the tree with the lichen on it? Well, go to the second fork on the left hand side, go up the thickest branch and then when you get to the red flowers, look left about two feet and…no, lets start again. Take the fence post that leans to the left, now look at four o’clock from it and…oh bugger, its flown away!”. Even our guide asked why, if there was a huge uniquely coloured tree with an obvious “V” in it, Ray would start his instructions with the tiny sapling in front of it.

Picture the scene. A tropical rain forest where we were surrounded by thousands of trees with millions of leaves and Ray said “The bird’s just below those two leaves!”. Its not often that Malcolm and I are lost for words but this was one of those occasions. As was the time he waved his arm in all sorts of directions, like a windmill in a gale, and said “Its over there”.

Another gem from Ray: “See that tree? Well if you look upwards and………..
“Is that all?” enquired Malcolm
“Yes” replied Ray. To this day we don’t know where he was looking, let alone what at.

Once when Ray was told for the umpteenth time that his directions were rubbish, he complained that it was our fault because we didn’t give him advice on how to improve. I remonstrated fiercely that I had. Only two minutes earlier I had told him to “Blankety-Blank (censored) pull yourself together”. Ray found this neither constructive nor helpful. Further training is clearly required.

This problem occasionally worked in reverse as well. I remember us all looking at a Common Xenops. Malcolm and I were soon on to it, but Ray had difficulty finding it. Our guide said, “Ray, you’re looking in the wrong tree. Ray, its further to the left. Ray, you’re on the wrong tree. Ray, RAY!!!”. But Ray was particularly single minded, continuing to look the wrong way. He never did see the bird!

At one stage Ray was heard to mutter “You wouldn’t think we have been friends for 45 years after all the stick I get”. The reply was predictable, “It only happens when you deserve it”.

Ok, I’ve been cruel enough to Ray, so now its Malcolm’s turn! His love of food is legendary so it came as no surprise when he over-ate. Particularly devious though was his method of stealing Ray’s dessert. Knowing Ray is diabetic Malcolm always managed to convince him that the dessert contained too much sugar for him. Always the gentleman, Malcolm then polished it off (to save waste, of course!). He is probably the only person I know who needs five meals a day.

Malcolm’s colour blindness also gave him the odd problem. For birds in dense cover, our guide used a laser pen to direct a spot of light on to an adjacent leaf or branch to illustrate the position of the bird. The guide was getting increasingly frustrated with Malcolm until he realised that since the beam was red, Malcolm couldn’t even see the beam of light, let alone the bird! (Which incidentally was the magnificent Ocellated Tapaculo).

My favourite quote from Malcolm was when he was walking through an extremely humid rain forest with perspiration dripping off his every extremity. “Bugger this” he said, “I’d rather be in a Jeep in Africa!”.

Margaret (Malcolm’s wife) would be appalled to learn that he wore one pair of socks for eight consecutive days. I therefore ask you all to use discretion and keep this information confidential (some hope of that!) should you ever meet the lady.

Since he was bitten by a dog in China, Malcolm has understandably enjoyed a somewhat uneasy relationship with our canine friends. This resulted in an amusing incident when two dogs took a dislike to him. Malcolm’s antics were nimble and agile as the dogs were nipping at his feet. His fancy footwork rivalled that of any ballerina. Another of his claims to fame were when he nicknamed our driver, whose name was Patricio, a rather unkind “Patsy”.

We were due to spend the last few days of our trip in the rain forests of the east of the country. To get there we had to fly to the city of Coca, then by boat to our lodge. The evening before we were due to fly, we had bad news: there was civil unrest in Coca and, since the rebels were threatening to take over the airport, the Government had closed it. We were given two options, cancel the trip (not really an option as far as we were concerned) or travel overland and by river. With this option we were offered an extra day for free but we were unable to delay our flight home from Quito so we couldn’t take that one up.

Anyway, off we set on the journey. Eight hours by coach, half an hour by boat, an overnight “half way” stop, six and a half hours on another boat, a half hour walk and finally another half hour in a dug out canoe. The whole journey taking almost two days!

The rest of the afternoon and the whole of the next day was memorable for the quality of birding, but with the evening came more bad news. The rebel activity had escalated and orders were given to evacuate the lodge where we were staying. There were about twenty guests in total. A helicopter had been chartered to get us three out.

The rest would return by the previous two-day journey but in reverse. This well laid plan also fell by the wayside when the Government closed all the air space in the area.

Because we had to get a flight out of Quito we had to get back in a single day. So started the journey of hell. Half an hour in the dug out, half an hour walk, almost nine hours in a boat, half an hour in a different boat and finally five and a half hours in a minibus. Interesting thing was that the longest boat trip caused those with weak bladders some distress because the boat made its first stop after five and a half hours. This was to avoid any risk by going ashore in a danger area.

Another hazard was that the boat clearly needed extra depth of water versus the one we came on. This resulted in us going aground more times than I care to remember. It was all quite hairy at times.

The river was called The Napos. It represents one of the upper tributaries of the Amazon, yet with over two thousand miles to go to reach the sea, it was already nearly half a mile across.

Incidentally we saw 508 species of birds in two weeks. Highlights were many but I shall always remember a Hummingbird drinking from a feeder whilst perched on our guide’s finger, the White-Winged Brush Finch so close we couldn’t focus on it and the Grey-Breasted Crake singing from the grass almost between our feet! Having finally got round to mentioning names of birds, we were amazed at some of them. Many were bordering on the ridiculous – we though Supercilliared Hemispingus took some beating!

Allan Hale

PS: I was near perfect of course. Except perhaps when I called “Kingfisher” when it was a White-Winged Swallow. And perhaps when I was having a pee and missed a Black-Winged Ground Dove. And also when my fear of heights lost me one of the Hummingbirds. And also when……….oh dear I’ve run out of time so I must close here!

TRIP REPORTS

Do remember to let Jenny Evans either have your name, address, telephone number and email address, or any trip reports that you might have. Please let Jenny know the places that you have information on.

E-GROUP

Many thanks to those who have contributed to the E-Group. The amount of traffic passing through my computer just illustrates how popular the E-Group is. Please send in sightings or interesting news to WensumvalleyBS@yahoogroups.com

BIRD SIGHTINGS

Again, on Bill’s behalf, a short note to thank those who have contributed. Bill has let me have the following report for insertion in the Newsletter: -

“Bird Reports for March & April 2004

March saw many of our breeding birds returning to their nesting sites. Two Oystercatchers were seen at Sparham Pools displaying on the large island on the 3rd. 2 Little Ringed Plovers were reported at Swanton Morley Lakes on the 27th. One Green Sandpiper was seen at the same site. The flock of Goosanders at Sparham Pools reduced to 3 by mid-month, then went on their way. Common Buzzard were reported from Old Costessey and Sennowe Park with 5 there on the 21st. A male Merlin was reported in the Lyng area on the 3rd. March was another good month for Barn Owls with records from Gressenhall, Lenwade, Sparham Pools, Mill Street and North Tuddenham. This record is interesting because the sighting was of a very dark phased bird (possible continental race). Only one record was received for Little Owl which was seen at Mill Street on the 25th. A Water Pipit was seen at Taverham on the 15th, and a Stone Chat was in the Gateley area on the 28th. Mid-month brought a flurry of Chiffchaff records from nine sites, the winner for first seen came from Costessey on the 15th. A flock of c200 Starlings were reported to be in the Taverham area, and up to 6 Siskin stayed in the Mill Street area all month. Four Redpoll were seen at Billingford on the 27th.

In April an Osprey was seen at Sparham Pools on the 28th and a female Merlin was reported from Fustyweed. 2 Grey Partridges were seen in Lyng on the 11th. Many migrants returned to the valley in the third week of April, namely Common Terns at Sparham Pools, Three Bridges Farm, Lyng Easthaugh and Fustyweed. Turtle Doves were seen at Fakenham and Sparham Pools. Cuckoos were seen at three sites in the valley and two sightings of Lesser Spotted Woodpecker were received from Lyng, 2 were seen in Richmond Place and 1 was seen feeding on Peanuts. Sand Martins, Swallows & House Martins arrived in the valley in fair numbers by the third week of the month. Large flocks of Fieldfare & Redwing were reported from Elsing and Lyng and a mixed flock of both species numbering c650 birds were seen at North Tuddenham. Warblers arrived from their wintering sites during the first two weeks of April, sightings for Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Whitethroat & Willow Warbler were received from members from many sites within the valley. The Cetti’s Warbler returned to Sparham Pools on 15th and I also received records from Lenwade on the 18th and Lyn Easthaugh on the 12th. A Nuthatch was seen at Sparham Pools on the 2nd, and a Treecreeper reported from the same site on the 15th. Brambling were recorded at Fustyweed and Sparham Pools and records of Siskin were received from Fustyweed, Lenwade and Mill Street. Sixteen Yellowhammers were seen in the Gressenhall area on the 4th.

I have received some late records for January, not that I mind them being late as I will accept records from anybody any time. These records are all from the same source: -
3 Tree Sparrows at Great Rybrough on the 17th, 1 Peregrine Falcon at Lyng Easthough on the 24th, Sennowe Park produced 1 Goshawk, 2 Sparrowhawk and 1 Buzzard on the 25th.

MEMBERSHIP

Do remember to keep bringing your friends to the meetings. Not just indoor meetings, but also outdoor meetings. They don’t have to be proficient birdwatchers. All who are interested are welcome.

LOTTERY FUNDING

Alwyn will make an announcement about this at the next indoor meeting

WHAT’S ABOUT

Plenty.

Lots of Summer “visitors” – most noticeably Warblers and Waders. The countryside and the coastal belt is alive with song at the moment. Do try to get out and enjoy it. All too soon some of our Summer visitors will start heading south (the earliest noticeable southerly movement will be Swifts). It seems to be suddenly a case of “here today, gone tomorrow”. Adult Cuckoos also make an early departure. This always leaves me wondering how a juvenile Cuckoo knows the route to its Winter quarters. There is so much that we don’t know.

Hobbies seem to be in fairly good numbers in East Anglia. There have been several sightings along the Wensum Valley and so this is obviously a bird to look out for. Late summer last year saw large numbers of these wonderful birds of prey hunting in the Valley so do keep those eyes open!

GOOSANDER

Alwyn has kindly contributed an article, which I reproduce here: -

“The recent records of up to 21 possible Goosander at the Norfolk Wildlife Trust Sparham Pools Reserve (TG073178) in the Wensum Valley prompted me to investigate whether this was a significant increase in numbers.

In 1973 10 were recorded at what was then Sparham Gravel Pits and 26 were recorded at Swanton Morley G.P.

I have no further data until January 1985 when 5 birds were seen in the Valley although their location was not disclosed. Only 2 red-heads (either females or juveniles) were recorded the following year in the Lyng/Lyng Easthaugh area in January and in December at Sparham Pools. Probably the same birds were recorded at Lenwade and Lyng in January 1987 and one bird lingered until 28th March at Sparham and Lyng Eastaugh G.P.

My next record is 26th November 1992 when 2 birds being seen briefly at Sparham Pools and 2 redheads were seen at Lyng Easthaugh G.P. in February 1993.

Interestingly I have not been able to find any further records of the species until January 1996 when 6 redheads were recorded on the river at Sparham. On the 2nd and 3rd January 1997 a redhead was seen at the Heigham Water Works in Norwich and slightly later one was recorded at Ringland and at Lyng on the 8th. Later the same year 4 redheads were recorded at Sparham Pools on 24th December.

This trend of fairly low numbers continued in 1998 when the maximum count of 4 was recorded at Sparham Pools in the latter part of the year and only one was seen at the same site in February 1999.

In 2000 between January and April there were maximum counts of 8 at Lyng Easthaugh G.P., 3 at Lenwade and 5 at Sparham Pools5. During the latter part of the year birds were recorded at Sparham G.P. but no numbers were given. During the early part of 2001 the maximum numbers recorded at Sparham Pools were 8 in January, 3 in February and 7 in March. Between November and December that year the maximum county was 2 at the same site.

It is in the early part of 2002 that the number of birds seems to increase significantly as the maximum counts at Sparham Pools (identified as a favoured site by the editor of the Norfolk Bird and Mammal report) were 12 in January, 10 in February and 13 in March. In November there was a maximum of 2 but in December as you might expect this had increased to 12.

More recently the maximum count at Sparham was 11 in December 2003, 19 in January and 11 in February 2004.

Reviewing the records it seems that there has been an increase in numbers in recent years, does this correlate with the increase in number of birdwatchers in the valley or the development of fisheries in the suitable pits?

Sparham Pools seems to be a favoured site but where are the birds going to when they are not at Sparham?

We don’t seem to be getting records from other sites in the valley very recently so are the birds leaving the valley or choosing inaccessible sites?

If anyone has any information that could help answer these questions I would be very pleased to hear from them at alwyn.Jackson@tesco.net or on 01362 637752.

AND FINALLY

I think that’s about it for the moment folks. Enjoy the rest of the Summer and the early Autumn. Please keep sending articles in. Maybe something interesting has happened in your garden (birdwise I mean!).

Don’t forget the Rutland Water Bird Fair in August.

Thanks for reading. I look forward to seeing all of you at our indoor meetings and on our field trips.

Best wishes.

David Pelling