MID YARE VALLEY: North Burlingham woods

Late August 2022

When trying to think of a nice buggy-friendly walk I remembered the woodland at North Burlingham that I had intended to visit for a while. We had a pleasant stroll around, seeing some impressive bracket fungi including Beefsteak Fungus and Giant Polypore. I spotted a Roe Deer in a field adjacent to the wood, and also spotted some Gooseberry plants, a species I don't see very often. There was also some nice mature Oaks, including one being fed on by Caliroa cinxia larvae.

EAST NORFOLK: Roe Deer & Hoopoe

Mid-April 2019

Adam & I met up in North Walsham for a look around a few sites in East Norfolk. We started by heading for a lake that sometimes attracts Ospreys on passage - no luck this time but we did see a pair of Marsh Harriers. The winds had been stifling the arrival of migrants, and a walk along the dune scub at Waxham turned up nothing better than a Blackcap, although we did see the two Ring Ouzels that had been present in that area for a while. Good views of a Roe Deer were the highlight of the visit.

Neither of us had seen a Hoopoe for several years, so we decided to head to Winterton, stopping briefly on the Horsey straight to see the Tundra Bean Goose and Great White Egret. At Winterton we walked quite a way down the south dunes, seeing only a pair of Stonechat and some Skylarks, before hearing that the Hoopoe had last been seen near the toilet block. Deciding to check the north dunes we were on the verge of giving up when someone gave us a thumbs up and pointed in the direction they had come from. A few more minutes searching and we located the Hoopoe, which showed well until accidentally flushed by some walkers.

On the way back we called in at a site that used to hold Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers on the off-chance, but there was no sign of any, albeit by then it was mid afternoon so this wasn't a surprise.

BRECKLAND: A Yare Valley outing

8th April 2015

On Wednesday a select bunch of Yare Valley birders embarked on a birding day out to the Brecks. Whilst I can't compete with Jim's erudite trip report (http://jimsbirdingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/the-end-of-beginning.html) or Ben's excellent Firecrest photos (http://bensbirding.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/brecks-and-strumpshaw-update.html), this is my brief summary of the day.

Ricky & I left Norwich just after six and travelled to a forest ride deep in the Brecks where we met Jim & Ben. We were hoping to locate some Golden Pheasants at a site that Jim had seen several in the past. We couldn't hear any calling, which we took as a bad sign, but nonetheless set off patrolling the rides and looking down the gaps between conifers. With no sign of any Goldies we eventually gave up, although good views of a Woodlark were of some consolation.

Jim previously lived in Suffolk, and his local knowledge allowed him to smuggle us across the border into Suffolk without alerting the border patrols. The omens were bad when I got out of Ricky's van to find that he had parked on an already-decaying dead squirrel. At this site too there was no sign of any Golden Pheasants. The highlight for me was Brittle Cinder fungus (Kretzschmaria deusta), whilst for the others probably a Nuthatch. With the smell of disappointment (or was it that squirrel?) in the air, we headed back into Norfolk.

We were running out of accessible Golden Pheasant sites, so we decided to switch focus to some other Breckland species. Santon Downham wasn't heaving with birders, but neither was it heaving with birds either. We saw some Mandarins, including one high up in a tree, plus Brambling, Lesser Redpoll and three drumming Woodpeckers, all Great-spotted. As we were preparing to leave Ben picked up a distant Goshawk over some nearby woodland.

As the day brightened up we headed to another Breckland site where we got some excellent views of a displaying Goshawk, which we all enjoyed very much. Afterwards we headed to East Wretham, having a good chat with the warden before saying goodbye to Ricky, who had to go to work. The remaining three of us headed off to Lynford Arboretum. We did spend a bit of time around the gate, seeing Brambling, Siskin and Nuthatch, but no Hawfinches. Having heard several Firecrests we finally got great views of one as it foraged amongst the Bluebell leaves, behaviour I'd never seen before from this species.

Leaving Lynford we did a bit of minor-road birding. Three Red Kites tussling over a field would have been a nice sight in itself, but they continued towards us and passed low over the car to give cracking Gigrin-eque views. A little way away we saw three Stone Curlews in a field. We all remarked that it was nice to see what they looked like without them being wobbled by heat haze.

Our final stop of the day was an area of forest where we hoped to see Willow Tit. We walked down the main path full of expectation. As it was we managed to save ourselves the trouble of writing out a pesky description for the rarities committee by not seeing any. We did see a Roe Deer. It stared back at us for quite some time, but as it turned away first we claimed victory over this denizen of the woods.

Despite missing out on the Golden Pheasants and Willow Tits we all had a good day out, thanks to Jim for composing our itinery, and to Jim & Ricky for sharing driving duties.