Norfolk part 3

Tuesday's weather forecast was quite good, probably the best of the week, so two winter Norfolk speciality species were on our quarry list for the day. The first being Rough legged Buzzard, and there had been reports of two over Chedgrave Marsh, an area I was not familiar with at all. No matter, we had what seemed like good directions on the report. We got a little lost despite the satnav, and ended up stopping to buy a map to check the grid reference. Close inspection of the map made the directions of where to park and where to walk seem a little less intelligible so we parked in the forest carpark to walk through the trees to the marsh. Within a few minutes of starting out we caught a brief glimpse of a stoat and seemed to be surrounded by Goldcrests all the while. On reaching the flat meadows that fronted the marsh the "view from the mound" instruction seemed to make no sense whatsoever. The only raised ground was the bank that ran along the watercourse for miles, so we walked over the meadows to the bank which revealed 100s of acres of reedbeds.

 

  

  

Although trying to find anything in these huge reedbeds and even huger skies seemed a little daunting, the single Marsh Harrier we had seen early on helped buoy up my optimism, but my enthusiasm was not apparently infectious. Distance is very difficult to judge in this landscape, and reaching the nearest windmill took rather longer than I had anticipated. The wind didn't help, the waving reeds meant it was less likely to pick up Bearded Tit on the way, however, spirits were raised by a Chinese Water Deer bolting along the path for a little way before leaping back into the reedbed. I'd not seen one before and I was irrationally pleased. 

After a while we spotted a couple of Marsh Harriers in the distance, and then, all of a sudden a higher circling raptor proved to be one of the Rough Legged Buzzards we were after, its white tail with a black trailing edge showing well in the sunshine. If you have never seen one, here it is.....

 

...yes it was a long way off, but easily identified through the scope and we watched it for quite a while surprised by quite how much time it spent hovering. There was quite a lot of Harrier activity in the same sort of vicinity which was actually the adjacent Langley marsh  below Burgh Castle. On the damp meadows between us and them were another pair of Egyptian Geese, a few Shellduck, a Mute Swan and a Little Egret. We didn't get the chance to explore this area further as after lunch we were off to Hickling Broad to try our hand at catching up with Cranes coming into roost.

Interestingly, on our way to the raptor watching point, there was very little wildfowl around at all, the two hides providing only Coot, and the screen onto the main broad adding a few Tufted Duck and a Great Crested Grebe into the mix. From the raptor point (which is an excellent raised hide with 360 degree viewing) we did in the end get two views of distant Crane flying past, I don't know where they were roosting, but it wasn't here. The trip was worth it though, well if Marsh Harriers are your thing, as in the early evening gloom we saw a total of 9 floating over and dropping into the reedbeds for a well deserved sleep. They were still coming in when we left, but the light was making them very hard to pick up.

 

  

  

  

In front of the hide a Great Crested Grebe kept displaying although I never saw what to, maybe it was just rehearsing on its own.

Just as we approached the carpark, two Blackbirds came chasing through, alarm calling furiously. For an  instant I assumed a territorial dispute until I saw the pursuing Sparrowhawk. I wondered if the second Blackbird was chasing the first in the hope of turning off quickly and diverting the Sparrowhawks attention to the one in front. Quite a good tactic if thats what it was.