Feb 7th Strumpshaw Fen

Pheasant in the snow!

A different landscape awaited me at Strumpshaw this morning. Though it was drizzling with rain (no change there then), parts of the reserve had a thin covering of snow on the vegetation and along the paths for a couple of hours while I was there. During my walk, I decided to explore this rapidly vanishing white world. It has been about 6 years now since I last walked in the snow at Strumpshaw, though back then it was a few inches thicker than it is today and remained for several days. Today's snowy scene may not be as impressive as it was back then, but it is still nice to see the heads of reeds wearing 'hats' of snow.



Snow at Strumpshaw Fen!

Snow covered reeds

Icy berries

More snowy scenes

Icy Thistle heads

Robin (not on a snowy branch!)

As well as the snow, I also saw a few good birds, too. A pair of great spotted woodpeckers were having a dispute above my head as they chased one another through the treetops, calling aggressively at each other all the while. I even heard a few distant woodpecker drumming from the other side of the woodland trail. Bullfinches were being elusive as usual, though I could hear them calling somewhere close by. However, I did manage one really bad photo of one. What I really wanted to photograph, though, was a robin posing on a snowy branch. Annoyingly though, they were being rather unusually camera shy and kept flying away before I could take the shot. At least the snowdrops looked pretty in the snow.


Snowdrops in the snow



Blackbird

Bullfinch (the only shot I could get!)

Great Tit

Marsh Harrier at Fen Hide








Icy scene from Reception Hide this morning!

Thanks to spells of rain, sunshine and even hail throughout the morning, the snow was gradually washed away and disintegrated into nothing. By lunchtime, only a few blobs of white could be seen hidden in the undergrowth. When I started my shift at the Reception Hide, there was a thin layer of ice, but that disappeared within minutes. After the ice melted away, I noticed while scanning the broad that there were a lot of gadwall, a few shovelers, mallards and teal, but what really caught my attention were three pintails. Two males and one female to be exact. Ever since I have been volunteering at Strumpshaw, I can not recall seeing pintail here before. So I was extremely pleased in seeing the three of them on the broad briefly before a marsh harrier flew over and scared them off.



Pintails

Coot

Shovelers

Teal and Shoveler

Gadwall

Greylag

Snipe

While my highlight were the 3 pintails, the real crowd pleaser turned out to be a snipe, which flew in amongst the short cover of reed in front of the hide shortly after the pintails left. I was constantly finding it for visitors who wanted to see it. Despite the cover of vegetation it was in was relatively short, it didn't make it any easier to find as it was never in the same place for long. The marsh harriers were also performing well for the visitors as they patrolled over the broad and the surrounding reed beds, providing close views. Occasionally, a buzzard would join them in the air. So, a very different and more enjoyable Wednesday this time around.

Marsh Harrier

Buzzard