King's Dyke and Eldernell 5 December 2004
Gordon Hamlett reports
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PBC Trip Report King's Dyke and Eldernell 5 December 2004 Gordon Hamlett reports |
What a fickle lot our club members are! You take them out to Eldernell, try to show them the Tree Sparrows on the feeders, and a Gadwall on the lake and what happens? As soon as the first Short-eared Owl put in an appearance, there were 'oohs' and 'aahs' all round, bins and scopes were trained and that was that. No interest in anything else for the rest of the afternoon.
OK, so you go with the flow and point out every flypast by an owl and what happens next? That's right, there were so many fly-pasts that by the end of the afternoon, people were becoming so blasé that they didn't even lift their bins.
The trip started off at King's Dyke, a new reserve for many of the 30 or so members that turned up. Here we were very lucky to have a talk from Philip Parker, the head honcho in charge of the reserve. He explained the plans for expansion of the reserve and talked about the workings of the brick factory - now the largest in Europe.
This is an excellent all-round reserve. As well as the bird life, in summer, you can often get really close up views from the hide of water voles, grass snakes and assorted dragonflies. Reed Buntings on the feeders were new for some members and a couple of Green Woodpeckers flew past really close, fortunately just after I had said what a good spot this was for them. Predictions don't often work that well. A few of us saw a covey of ten Red-legged Partridges fly up in front of us as we returned to the car park.
The car park at Eldernell was already full when we arrived so it took a bit of time to sort out the parking during which there were distant views of three Shorties out towards March Farmers.
We set off towards Lord's Holt and it wasn't long before the first owl appeared. To be fair, they were lit up brilliantly in the oblique winter light. Three or four were hunting around the reed bed and the action soon hotted up as a ringtail Hen Harrier came out of the reeds, its white rump showing Persil-white as it quartered the ground. Owls mobbed the harrier, Crows mobbed the owls and a Kestrel just decided to make a nuisance of himself and have a pop at anything that moved. One sight that caused a lasting impression was the sheer number of birds on the washes. Seemingly devoid of any significant numbers, several times during the afternoon, thousands of Lapwings and Golden Plovers shot into the air, no doubt trying to avoid the attentions of a hunting Peregrine. We never did track down the hunter though; you have to be very lucky to find one particular bird when so many are in the air.
We did find one strange raptor perched just beyond Lord's Holt but the combined talents of the club's 'experts' couldn't identify it. One of the first rules of birdwatching is that you shouldn't expect to put a name to everything that you see. As well as the waders, there were plenty of Wigeon, Teal and Pintails to watch. Two more Green Woodpeckers flew past and there was a flock of about 50 Fieldfares. Several more Shorties flew past, one coming very close. We saw at least ten Short-eared Owls in total.
Darkness descended as we returned to the car park and the last dregs of coffee. A Tawny Owl hooted in the distance though, surprisingly, no-one saw a Barn Owl. One final 'treat' was watching all the Christmas lights. The residents of Coates seemed to be in competition with each other to produce the most garish house. Some of the decorations have been in place since Halloween though to be fair, most of the pumpkins have now been taken down!
Footnote: If anyone wants a key to the hide at King's Dyke, they can email Philip Parker at philipparkerassociates@btconnect.com
