James Lowen
Wildlife
Wandering back to the car, I watched a couple of Wood Larks fluttering over the heathland – short-tailed and melodious of voice – and heard a Dartford Warbler scold me, unseen, from its gorse haven. Marvellous.
The morning had more to offer, however. Squeezing into a packed Bittern Hide at nearby RSPB Minsmere, I managed brief and rather distant views of Suffolk’s first juvenile Little Crake since the year I was born. The sight was somewhat underwhelming, and the hide as crowded as the rather unpleasant Baillon’s Crake twitch at Rainham a few autumns back. I may try again when the crowds ease back. A couple of flying Bitterns were fun, but after an hour or so, it was back north of the county border for a family afternoon on the beach. At the end of the beach trip, news broke of Norfolk’s first Steppe Grey Shrike. Not (yet) being a hardened Norfolk lister, and having seen a bird in Northants in 1996 when they were ‘proper rare’, I was in no rush to head to Burnham Norton. Indeed, I left it a full 48 hours before pootling that way. Views were initially distant, but this cute little number soon worked its way towards an appreciative crowd, feeding along a fenceline. Still a little far away for anything other than record shots – but even bad shrikes are good, so this was a fun half-day out.
Wildlife
Sunday 5 October promised to be clear, calm and chilly: perfect weather for experiencing the Red Deer rut on Suffolk’s Westleton Heath. By pure coincidence, a book called 52 wildlife weekendsrecommends this very trip for the first weekend in October. I arrived just after first light, and was greeted by swirls of mist levitating off the hoary heather. Making my way to the RSPB viewpoint – two mini-marquees – I enjoyed three small herds of deer, each with a roaring stag at their head. Part-belch, part-bellow, the vocalisations of the heavily-antlered males made clear that they were boss, and that their harem was not up for sharing.
Birding Shetland was such an experience that returning to East Anglian birding has felt rather like a bumpy landing. How, I found myself musing, could I regain the enthusiasm to scour woods and scrub for, at best, a single Yellow-browed Warbler when they were one of the commoner birds oop north?
The answer was to spend some quality time with a photogenic subject. Working in Lowestoft on 3 October was a perfect excuse to try my luck with a juvenile Red-backed Shrike at Ness Point. And boy, did s/he perform! O, the innocence of youth! This shrike was feeding from brambles and tamarisks lining a busy coastal carpark, and was clearly oblivious to human traffic. By concealing myself between parked vehicles and waiting until the shrike’s foraging circuit came within range, I managed some rather nice images. And then went to work, smug grin on face.
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