Wildlife with Hugh

An afternoon trip to Wicken Fen turned out to be one of the highlights of the winter so far. Wicken Fen is one of the UK’s oldest nature reserves and is situated around 15 kilometres north east of Cambridge. At precisely this time last year, just before dusk, two male hen harriers flew in to roost. It had to be worth another try.

It was a weekend of wetland bird surveying for the BTO’s nation-wide WeBS monitoring scheme. On Saturday I was completing the WeBS in Chichester Harbour. The area covered was between Itchenor and Dell Quay. The count started in Itchenor. The tide was rising, and at a wader roost site the amount of available land was decreasing. As we counted, more and more waders continued to fly in and pile into the ever-diminishing area of land. What originally started out as just 13 visible redshanks and 20 grey plovers ended up being over 200 redshanks and 400 dunlins in addition to the grey plover! One of the grey plovers was in full, spectacular, summer plumage. Unusual for December!

Braving the wind at Farlington Marshes on Sunday 8 th December proved worthwhile. The day started with a goldfinch atop a teasel by the side of the car park and a large gathering of brent geese on the water in the corner of the harbour. By the entrance gate a group of long-tailed tits flew one at a time from left to right. Despite the proximity to the road their calls could still be heard. A group of greenfinches were on the move and trying decide which bush to land up in. Looking to the east a marsh harrier was quartering over the reedbed, and with the distance involved we had opportunity to look at the structure of the bird and use this to confirm its identity. We got another, far closer, view of this harrier towards the end of the outing, more on that later.  

On the 1 st of December I was leading an event at Fishbourne Channel. At this time of year this area plays host to a vast number of wetland birds. Amongst the typical inhabitants several more unusual individuals had turned up. Sunset at Fishbourne Channel earlier this year.