Category: Birds

I’ve talked about the Common, or Eurasian, Crane on the Sciencebase site before, there are increasing numbers of this bird to be seen on our East Anglian patch, and that’s a very positive, natural thing.

There is something quite primaeval about the species. Snapped here with a 600mm Sigma zoom on 2/3 crop sensor Canon 7Dii from about 370 metres. I didn’t know ahead of the visit that they were even there and snapped them when I saw them and left them to their own devices.

Aperture f/8 shutter speed 1/1579s, ISO 1000. RAW image imported with Rawtherapee, denoised and sharpened in Topaz DeNoize AI, and final output tweaked with PaintShop Pro. Cropped to 40% original pixel-width.

UPDATE: October 2023. Despite recent heavy rains the patch of farmland, on which birders (Ian and Brendan) had ticked 160+ species, has remained unflooded so far this season. I suspect the drainage along the fields and/or the adjacent travellers’ site have been fixed. So, it was fun while it lasted and maybe it will happen again, but it seems that for the timebeing we are not going to have quite the birding on that patch as we did last winter and the previous couple of seasons, unfortunately. So much for creating a protected birdlife area.

Over the last year or more (2020-2022), a patch of farmland known, as Bullock’s Haste, which lies on the outskirts of our village has been perpetually flooded. Incredibly, over two winters it has attracted a greater and greater diversity of bird species who have spent time there feeding, preening, and roosting.

Two friends dedicated to the citizen science cause of birding (Brendan Doe and Ian Ellis) have observed and catalogued (on eBird) more than 150 species there in that time. I cannot claim to have seen even a fraction of that number there, although I have seen a good many of the “ticked” species in various other places and several of them at this site. There are a few other named spotters on the list who have ticked several species, but Doe and Ellis have done the bulk of this excellent work.

Here’s the list as it stands, in alphabetical order. I have removed terms such as Eurasian, European, Northern, and Western from these vernacular names to simplify things. You can visit the eBird list to get alternative formats. As you will see, there are a few fairly rare and unusual visitors on the list:

Arctic Tern
Barn Owl*
Barn Swallow*
Bewick’s Swan*
Blackbird*
Blackcap*
Black-headed Gull*
Black-tailed Godwit*
Blue Tit*
Brambling
Bullfinch*
Buzzard*
Canada Goose*
Carrion Crow*
Caspian Gull
Cetti’s Warbler*
Chaffinch*
Chiffchaff*
Coal Tit*
Collared Dove*
Coot*
Corn Bunting*
Cuckoo*
Curlew*
Curlew Sandpiper
Dunlin*
Dunnock*
Egyptian Goose*
Fieldfare*
Gadwall*
Garden Warbler
Garganey
Glossy Ibis
Goldcrest*
Golden Plover*
Goldfinch*
Goosander
Great Black-backed Gull*
Great Cormorant*
Great Crested Grebe
Great Spotted Woodpecker*
Great Tit*
Great White Egret*
Green Sandpiper*
Green Woodpecker*
Greenfinch*
Greenshank*
Green-winged Teal
Grey Heron*
Grey Partridge
Grey Plover
Grey Wagtail*
Greylag Goose*
Greylag Goose (Domestic type) x Canada Goose (hybrid)
Greylag x Canada Goose (hybrid)
Hawfinch
Hen Harrier
Herring Gull*
Hobby*
House Martin*
House Sparrow*
Iceland Gull
Jack Snipe
Jackdaw*
Jay*
Kestrel*
Kingfisher*
Lapwing*
Lesser Black-backed Gull*
Lesser Redpoll*
Lesser Whitethroat*
Linnet*
Little Egret*
Little Grebe*
Little Owl*
Little Ringed Plover*
Little Stint*
Long-tailed Tit*
Magpie*
Mallard*
Marsh Harrier*
Meadow Pipit*
Mediterranean Gull
Merlin
Mistle Thrush*
Moorhen*
Mute Swan*
Nuthatch*
Oystercatcher*
Pectoral Sandpiper
Peregrine Falcon*
Pheasant*
Pied Avocet
Pied Flycatcher*
Pied Wagtail/White Wagtail*
Pink-footed Goose
Pintail
Pochard*
Raven
Red Kite*
Red-crested Pochard
Red-legged Partridge*
Redshank*
Redwing*
Reed Bunting*
Reed Warbler*
Ringed Plover*
Robin*
Rock Dove*
Rock Pipit
Rook*
Ruff
Sand Martin
Sanderling
Sandpiper
Sedge Warbler*
Shelduck*
Shoveler*
Siskin
Skylark*
Snipe*
Song Thrush*
Sparrowhawk*
Spoonbill*
Spotted Flycatcher*
Spotted Redshank
Starling*
Stock Dove*
Stonechat*
Swift*
Tawny Owl*
Temminck’s Stint*
Tern*
Tree Pipit
Tufted Duck*
Turtle Dove*
Water Rail*
Wheatear*
Whimbrel
Whinchat
Whitethroat*
Whooper Swan*
Wigeon
Willow Warbler*
Wood Sandpiper*
Woodcock
Woodpigeon*
Wren*
Yellow Wagtail
Yellowhammer*
Yellow-legged Gull

*Species I’ve recorded in Cottenham

UPDATE: 11 April 2022 – Little Gull has turned up

We ate the Spoonbill to extinction in the British Isles in the 17thC. But re-creating lost habitat, conservation work, and a reintroduction scheme is seeing their numbers crawling back.

North Norfolk is a good place to see them these days, but they’re also spreading their wings. Four have been present on one of our fenland nature reserves for weeks now, we saw them on a dull day back in the middle of winter. Kingfisher’s Bridge Nature Reserve.

Out of covid isolation at last, I thought I’d pay them another visit and was told by a birder (might have been a warden) that they weren’t around right now. Ten minutes later, two flew off the main lake and right over my head.

We do like to be beside the seaside, especially the North Norfolk seaside. We took the opportunity for a couple of days of long walks there. Sad that our pooch is no longer with us, but it meant we managed almost 20 miles of tramping over two days.

We did attempt to spot the juvenile White-tailed (Sea) Eagle that is jaunting between Cley and Stiffkey at the moment. It is a released bird from the Isle of Wight reintroduction scheme.

Regular readers will know I’ve mentioned the Glossy Ibises that have seemingly taken up residence on our patch during the last year or more. There were three on the flooded farmland adjacent to Earith roundabout for a long time last winter. These are African/Mediterranean birds that seem to be spreading their wings more and more (see also Great White Egret, Little Egret, Cattle Egret). The Glossies we’re seeing here may well be hopping across from a breeding colony in Southern Spain, while the GWEs may be feeding on red crayfish in the lakes of northern France and then hopping across The Channel.

Anyway, there are now seven Glossies feeding and preening at RSPB Berry Fen just up the road from Earith. Happily, they were “showing well” from the footpaths in the sunshine today.

A pair successfully bred in Cambridgeshire in 2022 raising a single chick. This was a first for Britain and is almost an open secret among the local birders. Sadly, as far as I know, they didn’t breed in 2023 nor 2024.

Paid just our second visit of the year to Lackford Lakes Nature Reserve in the hope of seeing the Siskins that had been reported there this week. We stopped off at the ringing hut where two of the Suffolk Wildlife Trust team had netted various birds (Treecreeper, Blue, Great and Marsh Tits, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Robin, and others) and were carefully recording the recatches and ringing any new catches for their conservation efforts.

So, what did we see on the day? 46 species not in order of sighting but loosely grouped:

A Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) flew into Berry Fen when we visited a couple of days ago to settle among the eight Little Egrets feeding there. In so doing it spooked two of the six Glossy Ibis that were feeding on the edge of a flooded area and they flew off to join four others of that species.

Apparently, there were fifteen additional Cattle Egret in a flock on the same patch the day after we visited, which is the largest recorded gathering of this species in Cambridgeshire. A county record, in other words. The bird is ostensibly an African species that has been extending its range over the last decade or two because of habitat opportunity and climate change.

UPDATE: There were a record 57 Cattle Egret at this site at the beginning of November. I have also now seen four at RSPB Ouse Fen on the Reedbed Trail side close to Over.

UPDATE: Four Spoonbills at Kingfisher Bridge Nature Reserve during November 2021. 15 February 2022: Spoonbill at Smithy Fen.

Back in the early 1990s when we visited Botswana and Zimbabwe we saw lots of egrets and then were very surprised to see one or two on the North Norfolk coast in subsequent years. Little Egrets are, almost 30 years later rather commonplace. Similarly, the Great White Egret is seen in many parts now and a sighting is no longer considered particularly notable. I heard that part of the reason is that there is an abundance of red swamp crayfish in the lakes of northern France which have provided a food source and hopping off point for this species. The presence of at least a couple of dozen Glossy Ibis on our patch during the last year or so, may similarly be due to individuals spreading their wings from a known breeding colony in Southern Spain. The experts may know more, but I don’t think anyone knows for sure.

The Wheatears are on the move, there were a couple of females that took a pitstop along the Cottenham Lode on the outskirts of our village while on passage south. They were first spotted on 18th August by friend Josh C, and Mrs Sciencebase and myself saw them on the 21st, although it was drizzly so I wasn’t carrying my camera. Here’s a male I snapped in May 2017 in Aldeburgh. Suffolk, Le Cul-blanc.

By the way, the name Wheatear has nothing to do with wheat, ears, nor ears of wheat, even. It’s from the 16th Century name meaning “white arse” as the bird famously has a white rump. The French call it the Cul-blanc. They used to be caught and roasted as seaside snacks on the South Coast in the 1700s. Apparently, half a million every year. I think I’ve seen fewer than a dozen in my whole life…but imagine a time when a bird that seems fairly rare was so abundant…makes you wonder where they all went…ah.

About a week ago, the birding wires were buzzing with news of a rare visitor to the British Isles – a European Roller (Coracias garrulus). It’s the only Roller to breed in Europe and you usually find them around southern Spain, the Mediterranean coasts and into the Middle East, Central Asia, and Morocco, rather than the British Isles. But, here was one perching on overhead powerlines that cross a farm alongside a busy stretch of Suffolk road.

Now, Mrs Sciencebase and myself love a bit of nature as you probably guessed by now, but we don’t tend to “twitch”, we rarely go out of our way to see a bit of wildlife, although it has been known.

Usually, we’d combine an off-patch twitch with another trip and so when Mrs Sciencebase mentioned she’d like to visit the Suffolk Wildlife Trust site at Lackford Lakes on our joint day off I agreed and then let her know about the Roller. Fortunately, the short, fast route we’d normally take had roadworks, so we took a diversion that just happened to go along the aforementioned Suffolk road near Icklingham.

We stopped off, just as had done perhaps 100 other birders, set up cameras and scopes and took a good long look at this beautiful and exotic bird that has some of the characteristics of the Jay, the Bee Eater and the Kingfisher, all rolled into one, as it were. When it wasn’t perched on wires or hiding in the hedgerow it was generally flying past us at about 200 metres distance. But, just as we were giving up on getting a decent shot it flew on to the wires about 100 metres away, sat for a while, did couple of barrel roll flights (hence the name) and then headed back to the hedgerow, so I did get a couple of half-decent in-flight photos of this quite exotic and unique bird.