Strumpshaw in Norfolk Post 2

 Strumpshaw in Norfolk Post 2

Monday 31st May 2021 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞

Well, I was going to call today's expedition 'Tales from the River Bank' because for most of today's walk we followed the curves and meanderings of the River Yare as it heads towards Cantley, but really, other than a few boats passing by there isn't much to tell!  

However, when we cast our eyes in the opposite direction we were looking over many acres of marsh land which was alive and bustling with bird life and also quite a few Chinese Water Deer.  

It's just such a shame I hadn't got a better camera but if you look 
carefully you can see his tusks.

When we first noticed solitary deer grazing we mistakenly thought they were roe deer but one of the info boards soon rectified our mistake, and then when we got home google supplied even more details.  We learnt, that as the name suggests, these deer are not a native UK species, it seems they were introduced from China in the nineteenth century, and now they're here they favour wet marsh habitats and when necessary they are strong swimmers.    All of the ones we spotted (6 in all) were ginger/brown in colour and had large fluffy ears and small black noses that almost made them look like foxes when only there faces were visible.  We also learnt that the males possess some rather threatening tusks in place of canine teeth which they use for displaying and rutting with other males in the breeding season.  

We also managed to spot a little bird who we'd heard plenty of but who had proved to be quite elusive and that was a Reed Bunting.  His shout is loud and he often flits about at speed so I was quite pleased to catch a snap !😃

All in all, we had a lovely tranquil walk but not at our usual pace!  All this wildlife watching has well and truly slowed us down but I think it's fair to say our views on the marshes today were quite breathtaking at times.

Additionally, I think it will also spur us on to treating ourselves to better spying and photographing equipment!

Tuesday 1st June 2021 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞 (+ Friday 2nd , Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th)

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Well, what should we do today was our big decision, and in the end we decided on a visit to Norfolk Wildlife Trust's Cley Marshes which are situated on the coast near Sherringham.  However, to get there it was a 40 mile ish drive and because of the school hols the traffic was quite bad and slow in places, so although we thought it was worth the effort today it did influence us into making the decision not to drive out to the coast again during this tour! 

Cley Marshes are Norfolk Wildlife Trust's oldest nature reserve and it's been in their possession since 1926. It seems it was the first Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve in the country and apparently it started a national movement towards the setting of the many more we have today.  

When we arrived at the Visitor's Centre we were given a map and shown were we could walk because part of the reserve and some of the hides were closed due to ground nesting birds but that still left plenty of scope to walk around the marshes and also along a long section of shingle beach that provided an ideal place for us to watch the waves while we picnicked.  

There was also quite a lot of buzz and anticipation about the place along with many 'twitches' setting up long scopes and aiming them at a specific tree where a little bird was perched.  One of them  called 'come and look because you might never see one of these again' '!  So we joined the others and peered through our binoculars to see a male 'red backed shrike'!   Apparently these birds are rare here now and are usually only seen if they've gone a bit off course in their migration, but no chance of a pic because he was just to far away😔 .

Shell Ducks

And that has to be said for most of the other birds we saw because the resolution on my camera just isn't good enough but I think I'll be remedying that because I plan to treat myself soon🎁!

We also saw loads of other birds that are far to numerous to mention but that was possibly due to the fact that Cley has such a mixture of habitats that include both saltwater and freshwater along with large areas of reed beds and lots of grazing marsh.  But to name a few of the less common of today's sightings we saw red shanks and spoonbills, along with several Marsh Harriers and other Hawks that we possibly didn't identify properly.  

Wednesday 2nd June 2021🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞

Another hot sunny day but on this one we were quite determined we weren't going to get caught out by the traffic chaos so we decided that another gentle walk down into the RSPB bird sanctuary was in order.  And it was a lovely outing because, once again, we spied deer, lots of nesting birds and even some bonking damsel flies 😍.

Mrs Duck with her Ducklings snuggled underneath her
along with what seemed to be 3 abandoned eggs in the nest above her.

And the swans that had nearly attacked us the other day were now messing about in the water
with their babies!  But now instead of 5 cygnets there were 6!

We spent quite a while in the park and once again picnicked on the river bank, but once we got back to the van it was all hands on deck because we'd decided to go back home to Ripley (Butterley Bank CCC) tomorrow so our awning needed taking down and as much packing up as possible needed to be done.

Thursday 4th June  ⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅

This morning, last nights bit of packing paid off because we were fully loaded and ready to head 'home' by 10am, and really our decision to finish our 'holiday' a bit early had been influenced by several things.  We'd been at Strumpshaw for nearly 3 weeks so we'd more or less ran out of things to do locally and the general busy-ness of coastal places had put us off venturing out .  Additionally, the weather forecast was predicting rain for the east coast on Friday so we may have been cabin bound anyway, and finally, my new e-bike was waiting for me so I was very keen to get back and try it out!

Our drive home was completely uneventful and maybe even a little boring but that's just the way we like it, and once there it didn't take us long to get pitched, put our awning up and then very soon after our feet!

Friday was taken up with fetching and setting up my bike, shopping and other mundane chores that have to be done when you've been away for a while, and then for me, it was back to work at the Mass Vaccination Centre in Derby on Saturday and Sunday.  

So there we are!  Another week has gone and probably for me no more blogging until at least towards the end of June when we should be finding ourselves on the CCC's Springhill Farm CS up on Fylingdale Moore between Whitby and Scarborough.  

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