Wildlife

James Lowen

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.

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.

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7 Oct 2014 (Red-)back down to earth

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.