13th May - Cley Marshes NWT, Norfolk

After the rain, wind and cold of Friday, Saturday morning was a little calmer, but still overcast and unseasonably cool.  Breakfast was had once again watching the antics on the lawn.  What was completely unexpected was a Spoonbill fly over, where it was going was probably clear, but where had it come from, the Wash?  We were treated to to species of partridge on the lawn, first was a brief appearance of a pair of Red-legged Partridges.

Red-legged Partridges are also known as the 'French partridge', the Red-Legged Partridge was introduced to the UK from western Europe during the 1700s as a new gamebird.  The "English partridge", the Grey Partridge is the resident bird, once the most popular sporting bird in Britain, very few estates now shoot greys, concentrating instead on Red-legs, which are much easier to rear in captivity.

Probably the same pair that appeared on Thursday then turned up, I dismissed them at first thinking they were the Red-legs, so I was pleased to get some good views in good light.

We had heard one or maybe two calling just after dawn outside the room, a characteristic rasping call sounding like "kerr-rick" advertising their presence.

Partridges form pairs early in the year, and these birds will stay together until the autumn.  They are highly social birds, and after breeding it’s quite normal for two or even three families to join together to form sizeable coveys of 20 or more birds.

Partridges lay the biggest clutches of any birds, with 14 to 15 eggs usual, and even bigger clutches often recorded.  Only the female incubates the eggs, but the male is invariably close by.  Both sexes are attentive parents, and where predators aren’t a problem it’s not unusual for all the chicks hatched to be reared.

Cock grey partridges can be remarkably brave (or foolhardy) in defence of their young, and have been recorded flying at stoats, weasels and even humans.  The young can feed as soon as they leave the nest and are capable of their first proper flight at 15 days.  Young chicks require a high proportion of insects in their diet: it is the lack of insects in the modern countryside that has led to the birds’ widespread decline.

The Grey Partridge has an orange face and a distinctive black horseshoe-shaped patch on its belly. It is grey-brown above with a grey chest and orange-brown stripes down the flanks.

Breakfast finished we set off towards the east and the famous Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve at Cley, it has been a while since i have been here and if I am honest it is not aplace that I have ever seen a large number or quality of birds.  

The reserve was purchased in 1926 to be held 'in perpetuity as a bird breeding sanctuary'. It provided a blue print for nature conservation which has now been replicated across the UK. In 2012 an appeal helped purchase a further 57 hectares linking the two NWT reserves at Cley and Salthouse together, creating a single coastal reserve of more than 300 hectares.

When I first started coming to Cley there was only a small car park and i would usually park in the beach car park.  Today there is an excellent visitor centre with a very nice café.  We parked, paid our dues and set off anticlockwise around the marsh.

Reed and Sedge Warblers sang from the reed bed, staying well down.  Today wasn't so windy as Friday but it was still cool and overcast and there was hardly any insect life to search for.

We took the board walk to the central hides, the board walk was flanked by the reeds and Swifts skimmed across the top of the reeds and our heads.  From within the reeds a male Reed Bunting was delivering its three note territorial song.

There was very little on the pools in front of the hide, the only waders being Avocet pairs and a few Redshank.  Later I was annoyed to hear that a pair of Temminck's Stints were reported.

On the left hand side of the hide we could hear the calls of an Avocet and looking out we could see that a herd of cows were walking along the edge of the pool and that one cow had decided to cross the pool, this was bringing the cow into close contact with the Avocet's nest and the Avocet was frantically trying to draw the cow away with a distressed display in the hope the cow would go after the Avocet.

The cow did not appear to be in a hurry, but eventually it made its way away from the nest and out into the open water of the pool.  Eventually the Avocet calmed down and made it's way back to the nest.

And settled back down on the nest which we had to presume had eggs, but we couldn't see them.

Drama over we left the hide and made our way back to the circular path, this took us to the beach road which we crossed and then climbed up on to the sea wall.  Here we met three birders who had seen a Short-eared Owl come up from the marsh and head towards one of the channels.  We waited and scanned, but saw nothing, then as we started to walk off they picked it up again and we watched probably the most distant Shortie I have ever seen.  The hope was that we would pick it up as we walked around the reserve, but of course we didn't

From the beach road you turn n to the beach of pebbles.  A lot of this area has been roped off to allow safe places for the Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher and Little Terns to nest.  Pebbles are always a hard slog to walk, but fortunately there were some places of grass.  

A view across the marsh shows the dullness of the day, off in the distance is the famous Cley Windmill.

A pair of Stonechats were calling from the grassy area.  Here the female.

A Wheatear flew up from the shingle and onto one of the fence posts.  The last couple of years have seen me struggle with spring Wheatear so it was nice to get some good views here.

As always it would keep itself always about the same distance away from us, dropping from the posts and flying low to another.

My favourite from the small collection.

There is a set of screens that look south over the marsh and an open pool.  Once again little about, Swift and Swallows hawked low over the water and there was a group of Black-tailed Godwits sheltering alongside an island.

An Oystercatcher standing alongside a clump of white sea campion.

A view from the screens looking towards Salthouse Marsh

We were back on the shingle and pebbles and there was also more sectioned off areas for nesting birds.  An Avocet was alarmed by our presence and we were not sure why.

Clearly we were seen as a threat but it wasn't clear why, then as we walked away I noticed four olive green speckled eggs in a scrape amongst the shingle.  Satisfied that we were not the treat she thought we were she moved back and checked the eggs before settling down on them.

Strangely though as she settled down she seemed to leave two of the eggs on the outside.

The nest itself was within the roped off area, but very close to the fence, it was also unusual to see an Avocet nest in such an open location, lets hope it is successful.

A path divides the marsh with Arnold's Marsh to the east, we walked across pausing to scan the pools.  Swifts, Sand Martin and Swallows flew back and forth low over the reeds.

As soon as Helen asked me if they get Bearded Tits here I heard one call, eventually we managed a brief glimpse as a pair flew across the top of the reeds and then drop down out of sight.

So it was back to the visitor centre and some lunch.  Later that afternoon back at Magazine Wood whilst it was still overcast there were several Swallows hawking around the trees and across the lawn.  I managed to catch one, its that time of year.

And so the long weekend was over, pleasing to get Common Crane and Bittern, and the Hobbies were superb, just lovely though to get away.