Sunday 18 March 2012

Cantley Ibis's

An enjoyable trip to Cantley this morning albeit in very poor light and light rain, revealed finally the quartet of Glossy Ibis that had been nye on impossible to see at Burgh Castle/ Berney. Parking at the car park at the end of Station road and walking west for 50 yards then 50 yards south down a concrete road, looking west initially from a gate, I could see the 4 excellent Glossy Ibis feeding by the pool. I went back to get the camera and saw OFB (and later Steve S & Dot). We both went back but unfortunately the Ibis' had flown back quite away. Someone kindly let us look through his telescope at a very distant gate in the fields and an excellent Crane was walking behind it and then beside the gate. The Ibis' then flew in close and fed on the grass by the pool, just 50 metres away then they stood in a line in the water, before flying south and eventually settling on a field behind a farm. On the way back, OFB and I stopped by an ivy clad Oak tree and spotted a confiding Little Owl perched on a horizontal branch, we took it in turns to photograph it. Keeping the aperture to a 5.6 (with a 1.4 converter on) and dialing in a +1 exposure compensation in the bad light. In a field just north of here we also saw a big flock of some 340 Fieldfare and 10 Redwing too. After lunch, I photographed 2 Wheatears, a female and a 1st year male (having had time to look at the pics this evening) on the North Denes Mobile caravan park just south of swimming pool road and just south of here on the grass just east of the netposts. A trip to Kessingland later was not very pleasant and was a complete waste of my time with 2 Oystercatchers seen on the beach by Benacre Pits, the only birds seen.

2 comments:

Paul Woolnough said...

Mid Yare valley (Strumpshaw to Cantley) the place to go over the weekend.

Saturday - three firsts for the area: glossy ibis, crane and merlin (perhaps overlooked given pergrines are regular) all three from the start of the concrete road north of Marsh Farm.

Sunday on way to Lizardland from Buckenham end a ringtail hen harrier over road north west of Cantley.

Lizardland trip hardly worth the petrol. Roads clogged with mother's day Sunday motorists.

No Hopton black redstart, no blackcap in Scores and no garganey.

Two wheatears at North Denes trumped by six, four males, at Cley Monday over my long lunch break. Cley speciality spoonbill year ticked.

Found only my second Cley Square rock pipit on pool east of coastguards near wheatears. Water pipit much more likely around here, unlike Lizardland where rock pipit is annual and water pipit a bogey bird!

More patch ticks possible in Lizardland than Cley (10km) Square. 224 species Lizardland against 288 Cley Square

Peter Ransome said...

Thanks Paul, Cantley was certainly the place to be.