Red-necked grebe at Thorpe and Whitlingham

A scarce bird for the Norwich area has been attracting birdwatchers to two different wetlands by the River Yare.

The red-necked grebe was on St Andrew’s Broad at Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Thorpe Marshes nature reserve on 14, 15 and 16 January, before moving to Whitlingham Country Park.

Red-necked grebe at Whitlingham Country Park, 29 January 2025 (Drew Lyness)

“The grebe’s stay at NWT Thorpe Marshes helpfully coincided with the monthly guided walk on 16 January”, says Chris Durdin, from Thorpe St Andrew, who has been leading guided walks on the nature reserve for more than ten years.

Ann Greenizan from Trowse was on the guided walk. Ann says: “It was a privilege to observe this winter visitor to this location, being so close to Norwich. Chris pointed out the red-necked grebe on the open water. The group watched it dive repeatedly before it swam away from us."

Alison Ward of Norwich said: 'it was exciting to see something rare on our doorstep – it shows the value of local nature reserves.”

Many other birdwatchers came to see the red-necked grebe as word spread. One of these was John Sharpe from Norwich, a former RSPB colleague of Chris's and currently vice-chair of Norfolk Wildlife Trust. John is an advocate for ‘zero carbon birding’, and was pleased to see such a good bird locally – he came to Thorpe Marshes by bike.

Red-necked grebe at NWT Thorpe Marshes, 15 January 2025 (Drew Lyness)

Isabelle Mudge. NWT’s Wilder Learning Manager was on the guided walk. Isabelle said, via email: “It feels like we were very fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time! Another sighting that puts Thorpe Marshes on the map 😉"

Red-necked grebes are similar to great crested grebes when in winter plumage. “The yellow base to a rather stout bill is a good identification feature,“ says Chris. “It helps that many adult great crested grebes are already in their spring plumage.” The red neck in the bird's name refers to its breeding plumage.

“Though red-necked grebes are fairly regular in Britain in winter, especially by the coast, they are never numerous – the British Trust for Ornithology estimates 50-60 wintering birds. I expect it was the recent cold weather that brought this bird inland to Norwich,” said Chris. Red-necked grebes occasionally breed in the UK.

The most recent records of red-necked grebes in the Norwich area, according to Norfolk Bird Reports, are a single bird at Whitlingham Country Park on 31 December 2013, one day only, and a longer staying bird, also at Whitlingham Country Park, from 17 January to 20 February 2010.

This winter's red-necked grebe moved from Thorpe to the Great Broad at Whitlingham Country Park on 17 January and was still there until at least 9 February.

This blog is an expanded version of an article first prepared for Just Thorpe St Andrew magazine. With thanks to Drew Lyness for the photographs of the red-necked grebe. More reports of wildlife from NWT Thorpe Marshes are on www.honeyguide.co.uk/thorpemarshes.htm 

Chris Durdin, 12 February 2025

Rare Plants

I have been reading Rare Plants by Peter Marren, the latest (no 14) in the ‘British Wildlife Collection’. What struck me was how few I’ve seen of the book’s rare plants within the UK, but how many were familiar from holidays overseas.

In a way this isn’t surprising: geography dictates that the UK is on the edge of the range for many species. It’s also a reminder that when searching for an identification of a plant overseas, sometimes the answer may be within a UK field guide. This blog describes just a few of the plants written about in Rare Plants, along with encounters of them on Honeyguide wildlife holidays.

Strapwort Corrigiola litoralis in Extremadura.

Strapwort Corrigiola litoralis, a rather obscure member of the pink family, is in a list of 35 Critically Endangered native plants. It is found, in the UK, only at Slapton Ley on the south Devon coast, where it is dependent on disturbed patches of bare gravel. Being dependent on disturbed ground is a theme that crops up for several rare or scarce species – for example, all those dependent on arable habitats. This reminded me of finding and puzzling over this species in Extremadura in March, at first an unknown flower growing on disturbed ground by tracks or quiet roads on the plains. I couldn’t find an ID in Iberian references, and found the flower instead in the Fitter, Fitter & Blamey that I use at home. Strapwort is on Honeyguide’s Extremadura flowers web page, for flowers we see here — mostly on our March holidays – that are tricky to find in field guides. More recently we found strapwort at Castro Verde in Alentejo, Portugal, in November 2023.

Goldilocks aster, an autumn-flowering species.

There is a photo in the Rare Plants book of goldilocks aster Aster or Galatella linosyris on Berry Head, Devon, described as one of several natural rarities from limestone headlands on the west coast. This was another that prompted a ‘I know that flower’ thought. Most recently it was pictured in our Spanish Pyrenees holiday report from October 2024. This curiosity always looks a bit scruffy: the same could be said of the photo above from La Brenne, France in September 2023.

Field eryngo. Left with Graphosoma italicum; right at Castang.

Field eryngo Eryngium campestris is so commonplace in much of Europe that it’s a surprise to read that this flower is also on the Critically Endangered list for the UK. The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) says “In Britain E. campestre is currently considered to be an archaeophyte [an introduced species in ancient times] but it has been thought to be possibly native in Kent and Devon.” Predominantly southern in distribution, one wonders if this species may become more common as the climate changes. The photo reminds us of good times at Castang in the Dordogne, where field eryngo is common.

Sea daffodil, Tarifa, 8 September.

A sprinkle of records in recent decades of sea daffodil Pancratium maritimum in south-west England might also be put down to climate change, though the current thinking is that these are either deliberately released or naturalised from gardens. Though autumn-flowering, we see masses of leaves and a liberal sprinkling of seeds of sea daffodils on the beach at Plakias, Crete, every spring (and Menorca, and just about every Mediterranean beach). It is pollinated by long-tongued hawkmoths, which might be a constraint to its spread.

LImestone woundwort and St Dabeoc's heath, both from Picos de Europa.

Two flowers have a connection to our Picos de Europa holiday. I remember looking at limestone woundwort Stachys alpina in the Picos and thinking that – as a British species – I really ought to know this. Delve a little deeper and in the UK it’s only found in one place in the Cotswolds and in Denbighshire (a good excuse for not knowing it from ‘home’) and its status – native or otherwise – is uncertain.

St Dabeoc’s heath Daboecia cantabrica has been known from Ireland for several centuries. With that scientific name, it’s no surprise that we find it in the Picos de Europa. Recent research, published in British Wildlife, has shown that the strawberry tree Arbutus unedo, once thought to be native to a few places in western Ireland, could well be an archaeophyte, brought in by ship-borne traders as long ago as around 1500BC. Might St Dabeoc’s heath have arrived in a similar way?

Tongue orchid Serapias lingua, Dordogne.

Not surprisingly, Rare Plants features several orchids, such as those with just a foothold in the UK. Examples include the critically endangered red helleborine, military orchid and monkey orchid. However, it was the accounts of tongue orchids that caught my eye, previously entirely absent from the Uk, yet three species have been discovered in Britain during the last few years. The first was small-flowered tongue-orchid Serapias parviflora, first seen in 1989. The book has a photo of a typical ‘swarm’ of the (or greater) tongue-orchid Serapias lingua in a field near Tiptree, Essex, in 2017. Long-lipped tongue-orchid Serapias vomeraceae was found in Kent in 2020. The consensus seems to be that these occurrences are natural and wind-assisted. What next? Perhaps sawfly or woodcock orchid?

You’ll see that the cover picture of the Rare Plants book is lady’s slipper orchid. This has a long and complicated history in the UK, too long to summarise here, and it is well-known for being exceptionally rare as well as being as glamorous as they come. I’ll simply note here that they are a feature of wonderful wood-meadows in Estonia.

Rare Plants (here on NHBS).

Chris Durdin

Conservation donations from Honeyguide in 2024

Honeyguide’s conservation donations in 2024 totalled £5705 (£4530 in 2023). This blog summarises the donations during the year. Our running total for donations is at the end of this blog. 

Most of the donations come from £40 per person included in each holiday’s price, topped up by Gift Aid for those who are eligible. In several cases there are additional donations from Honeyguiders included within the sums sent; for Valencia in March there were two additional donations from group members.

Little bittern caught, ringed and released by ringing group Pit-Roig in Valencia, March 2024 (photo by Julie Durdin). More photos here from this holiday.

·  February, Extremadura: £330 sent to SEO (BirdLife Spain) in Extremadura.

·  March, Valencia: £630 sent to bird ringing group Pit-Roig

·  April: Crete and Lesvos combined: £1370 sent to Hellenic Ornithological Society (HOS, BirdLife Greece).

·  May/June, Danube Delta: £500 sent to SOR (BirdLife Romania)

·  June, Picos de Europa: £930 sent to Zerynthia, a butterfly conservation NGO in Spain.

Marsh fritillary Euphydryas aurinia beckeri, on acanthus-leaved carline-thistle, Picos de Europa.

·  June/July, Bulgaria’s Western Rhodopes: £450 sent for survey and monitoring of Rhodope lilies (more information here.).

·  August, guided walk at Hickling Marshes raised £125 for Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Another guided walk in August, at Plumstead and Holt Country Park, donations totalling £400 were kept as useful unrestricted income in the Honeyguide Charitable Trust.

·  September, Falsterbo: £550 given to BirdLife International’s Flight for Survival campaign.

·  October, Spanish Pyrenees: £820 sent to SEO Aragón (BirdLife Spain)

Honeyguiders in a field of Rhodope lilies, 29 June 2024. Honeyguide has funded survey and monitoring here since 2012. 

Part of the ethos of Honeyguide Wildlife Holidays has always been to contribute to the protection of the wildlife that we enjoy, put into effect by donations to conservation projects and organisations linked to our activities. These donations were all through the Honeyguide Wildlife Charitable Trust, through which we can claim Gift Aid and increase our charitable activity.

During the year, the Honeyguide Wildlife Charitable Trust received a bequest from the estate of the late John Durdin. The Trust’s trustees are considering how best to use this money, though for practical reasons it may be some time before this happens.

The £5705 donated this year brings the running total for all donations to £155,517 since Honeyguide started in 1991.

Chris Durdin

Barbershop singing: December 2024 (Oh What a Month!)

December 2024 was a very busy time for barbershop singing commitments, probably my busiest barbershop time ever, so much so that I thought I’d write a kind of illustrated diary about it. Perhaps – who knows? – this blog might encourage someone to take up this splendid hobby, so I should add that it’s not usually this busy.

Fine City Chorus at Norwich's Railway Station, 21 December.

This all comes about from singing with Fine City Chorus (FCC), Norwich’s barbershop chorus. Six of the eleven events in December were for the full chorus, three were for my quartet Mustard and two were an octet (or thereabouts) of FCC singers where a venue more naturally takes a smaller group. There were also three routine rehearsals.

1 December was the first, for the full chorus, a joint concert in Gorleston-on-Sea with the G&S Singers. One singer belongs to both groups, which is the connection. The concert also featured an opera singer.

There was the usual FCC rehearsal on 4 December, Wednesday evening, followed on 5 December by the biggest group we sang to, a pre-Christmas event for the  Wissey U3A (University of the 3^rd Age) at Holme Hale near Swaffham. Here, as usual this time of year, we sang a mixture of Christmas songs and our usual repertoire.

100+ in the audience at Holme Hale U3A.

The following day, 6 December, Mustard quartet had a return visit to Churchfield Green, retirement housing in Thorpe St Andrew. Mustard’s Christmas songs are the same as FCC’s, but our quartet’s repertoire is very different, including Beach Boys and Beatles songs. ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas’ is a favourite opening gambit for both chorus and quartet this time of year and ‘Feliz Navidad’ (click on the link to hear FCC singing it) is another well-received upbeat number.

7 December was the most unusual of the month’s commitments, as the chorus was engaged by a new housing development to provide entertainment at an open day. It poured with rain, hardly anyone came, so we sang three songs for the staff on duty and ourselves then called it a day. Sunday 8 December was a rehearsal day for Mosaic, Norwich’s mixed chorus.

Tuesday afternoon, 10 December, was another U3A group, this time in Wroxham, following their Christmas meal, two slots of about 30 minutes. 11 December was an FCC rehearsal night.

Attentive listeners at Wroxham U3A.

12 December was an after-lunch engagement for the octet, singing to retired police officers and partners at the Old Feathers on the Loddon Road out of Norwich. The connection is one of our members, Brian Pincher, who has a great knack of making any event into a great fundraiser for FCC’s charitable good cause of the year.

Friday 13 December was far from unlucky: it was another small event that an octet also did last year, in a library in Earlham, Norwich. How lovely to see a library busy as a community hub and to have children lying on the floor as they watched us singing. Father Christmas also came along, which may have had something to do with it.

Fine City Seven at Earlham Library.

On Sunday 15 December we took part in a carol concert at St Matthews, close to FCC’s rehearsal ‘home’ in Thorpe Hamlet. This lent itself to singing some of our Christmas carol repertoire such as ‘Silent Night’, ‘Away in a Manger’ and ‘Oh Holy Night’. Here we also did a one-off version of ‘Can You Feel the Love’ (from the Lion King) to showcase how the different singing parts contribute to the sound. It started with leads (the melody line) then added tenors, basses and finally baritones to make the complete four-part harmony sound of barbershop. Then, towards the end, parts dropped out one by one, leaving just the leads singing.

Drone footage from St Matthews (not really, there's a balcony).

On 18 December, a Wednesday evening that would normally be rehearsal night, instead we had accepted an invitation to sing to Wymondham Bridewell Women’s Institute. It was a packed room, a warm reception and some wonderful food.

At Wymondham Bridewell WI.

The Friday evening before Christmas was the date for Mustard quartet’s annual pre-Christmas pub tour. The main aim here, while taking barbershop on the road, is to raise funds for FCC’s charity of the year, this year Norfolk Accident Rescue Service (NARS). Ian, Mustard’s bass, knows a lot of pub landlords and we must give credit to his research and itinerary. This year we had special guests, women’s quartet Splash!, featuring FCC’s Musical Director, Carol Logan. We either took it in turns to sing, or split up and sang in different part of the pubs.

Splash! quartet joined Mustard on our tour of Norwich pubs on 21 December.

Thank you to our hosts and all their friendly customers at The Maids Head Old Catton, The Woodman Pub & Carvery, Old Catton, Duke of Wellington, The Brewery Tap Norwich and finally The Gordon, Thorpe, the last an impromptu addition to the schedule. We find singing in pubs has more pros than cons, and what works varies. There are always people who really appreciate it, and some who say they look forward to our annual visit. Others, inevitably, just want to keep chatting with friends and singing against background noise means picking the right spot makes a difference. People’s generosity is amazing: seeing the notes go into our collection boxes is heart-warming. This year we had a card reader, which helped especially in one pub which is cashless. While Bob from Mustard was busy with the card reader in the The Brewery Tap, we pressed Tom, another FCC lead, into quartet service for a rendition of ‘Deck the Halls’. The pub tour raised £358 for NARS.

Saturday morning, 21 December, was the final event for the full chorus, at Norwich’s railway station (photo above). Singers’ partners helped to hold the charity collection boxes while we sang to those waiting or passing through. This event alone raised £180.

Fine City Chorus in informal gear - just our special scarves - at the railway station.

And finally, Mustard’s third commitment, at a Christmas event at Sprowston Sports and Social Club. We came on to give the brass band a break. The Club’s President kindly sent round a tankard which soon came back full of generous donations to NARS to the tune of £152! This Sunday afternoon sing, on 22 December, was the last of 11 sing-outs, plus three rehearsals – quite a month.

Mustard quartet and a usurper at Sprowston, 22 December: left to right Bob, Chris, Adam and Ian.

How did we do for donations? We raised £2420 for NARS in 2024, including more than £1400 raised in December. 

***********

Anyone reading this who would like to try barbershop singing is welcome to get in touch. For women singers there is our sister chorus Norwich Harmony, who also meet weekly in Thorpe Hamlet, plus our mixed chorus Mosaic who meet about every six weeks.

To encourage new members to join, Fine City is running a free singing course for men called ‘Come and Sing’ on five Wednesday evenings in 2025, starting on 22 January. This free course, led by FCC’s musical director Carol Logan, will help you to discover your voice and enjoy the benefits of singing in harmony with others. You’ll learn a song from scratch alongside the established singers, who’ll be singing it for the first time too. No previous musical experience is necessary. FCC is a friendly, inclusive group, and welcomes new singers.

• Where: Lionwood Infant School, Telegraph Lane East, NR1 4AN
• When: 7.30pm-9.00pm, Weds 22nd Jan - Weds 19th Feb 2025
• To book your free place: e-mail comeandsing@icloud.com or call 01603 759634

More information about Fine City Chorus: www.finecitychorus.org.uk/ and facebook.com/FineCityChorus/ 

Come and Sing, from 22 January 2025.

Chris Durdin

Honeyguide holidays without flights – some ideas

How to have a Honeyguide wildlife holiday without flying comes up fairly frequently, so this pulls together several discussion strands and ideas on this potentially wide-ranging subject. This blog cannot be a complete solution – but it’s a start.

Reasons for avoiding flying are various. Carbon footprint is the obvious one, especially if the alternative is using public transport, such as railways. Avoiding the hassles of the ‘airport experience’ another. There is also a perspective that ‘real’, overland travel is a better way to travel, to comprehend the distances of travel and to make the journey part of the experience, rather than just a means to an end.

Lille railway station, potentially useful for bypassing Paris.

Julie and I have done much of our travelling (UK and overseas) by public transport. Sometimes this is combined with a locally hired car, or hired bikes, or day excursions with a local operator. It takes a bit of organising, and can work well for a couple or family. Things can and do go wrong, though: finding solutions on the hoof is OK for yourselves, but far from ideal if travelling with a large group. So far, after trips to Avignon in the south of France, La Brenne (also France). Mallorca and Denmark, I’ve concluded that none of these have been obvious candidates to increase by the scale that you’d need for a Honeyguide group.

Lots to explore in La Brenne, and the flat landscape lends itself to bikes.

Some Honeyguiders have joined groups locally, having made their own way there. Usually this means a rendezvous with a group at an airport, though meeting where we stay is the other obvious option. Quite often these are Honeyguiders living in Europe, though not always. For example, twice UK Honeyguiders have driven to Honeyguide holidays in France, combining a group holiday in the Cévennes or Dordogne with a longer stay elsewhere.

Here are some other examples. Several Honeyguiders have made their own way to Santander airport to meet a Picos de Europa group. Two were from New Zealand as part of a wider visit to Europe. Another came by public transport from near Biarritz in France. From the UK, Julie Durdin has twice travelled with Brittany Ferries from Plymouth to Santander. On a third occasion, she caught the bus from Santander to Bilbao to meet a Spanish Pyrenees group. Julie also came on the train via Nîmes and Barcelona to Valencia in March 2024.

Train travel is usually smooth, but not on this occasion. This is a Deutsche Bahn train that stopped, with people waiting for the next train.

It's possible to go by train to Copenhagen, our rendezvous for Falsterbo. One option is the Harwich to Hook of Holland ferry, then east from there on trains. I’ve done this: it can work with an overnight stay in Hamburg, though be aware that Deutsche Bahn (train company in Germany) has a poor reputation for reliability. One year a minibus from a Falsterbo group detoured via Malmö in Sweden to pick up two Honeyguiders who’d come by train and ferry from Germany.

If you're in Copenhagen, it's a chance to see the waterfront at Nyhavn.

Getting to a Mediterranean island is more complex. For the Balearics, there are two companies that run ferries from Barcelona to Mallorca and Menorca. Our Menorca base is close to the island’s capital Mahón, so a pick-up shouldn’t be too difficult.

Much to see in Barcelona on route to the Balearics, including the Sagrada Familia.

A general comment is that many train routes go through Paris, with Eurostar arriving at Gare du Nord. Travelling onwards, the next step is usually crossing Paris to one of the other mainline stations, such as Gare d'Austerlitz. This can prove smooth – or can go wrong. Eurostar also goes to Lille, and if your TGV route can go south from there it can avoid the complications of Paris. Lille is a pretty and compact city, and an overnight stay is usually cheaper than Paris.

Not so long ago, many enjoyed a Norfolk break and other UK activities during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 and 2021, naturally with no flights. It feels like these have run their course, though with a few requests we could do it again. 

A reminder that the above are simply examples from the recent past, and any Honeyguider can make their own suggestions for linking up with our current programme of holidays overseas. Travel just needs to be practical and to fit in with the main group.

For anyone who comes up with this kind of plan, holiday prices will be adjusted to take out the flight component. Please remember that without a flight you are not buying a flight-inclusive package, so you will not get an ATOL certificate and customer protection via the ATOL system. More information about this here.

Chris Durdin

South of Salamanca

Honeyguide’s South of Salamanca holiday is in a part of Spain which is nearly unknown as a nature holiday destination, despite its amazing landscapes, diversity and rich natural heritage. It’s adjacent to the better-known Extremadura, which – rightly – attracts interest and bookings fairly easily. A continuing challenge is to highlight the attractions of South of Salamanca, just to Extremadura’s north, and a similar distance west from Madrid.

Spanish sparrow in the snow (VB).

I started, writes Chris, by asking our guide in the area, Vega Bermejo, who grew up in England, how she came to be living in the area and why she loves it. 

“Having lived several years in a large Spanish city I was desperate to move to the countryside.  I had driven through the area the summer before, and about 15km from our present house, had said to Alfonso “I wouldn’t mind living around here!”

“Just a few months later, unexpectedly, I was contacted by a cousin who knew of a house for sale, relatively close to where I had spent my summer holidays as a child with my father's family, who were from Salamanca. Alfonso and I went to see the house and the land … and we moved in within months."

“Surrounded by rolling hills close to the Sierra de Bejar and Gredos, the sound of cranes as they come in to roost on the shores of the reservoir a stone’s throw away, bee-eaters perching on the wires in our village and black vultures circling overhead, fields full of orchids and tiny daffodils in the spring, lizards and turtles, butterflies of all colours and sizes throughout the year, huge old holm oaks providing homes to a myriad of lifeforms: these are all part of the reason I love this area and why I decided to share it with those who can appreciate it.“

"The climate in our holiday area is slightly cooler than Extremadura as it’s partly on the Castilian plateau. It’s a curious mix of Atlantic and Mediterranean habitats, which have generated regional endemics of flora such as Linaria nivea and Antirrhinum meonanthum and have both northern and southern species of birds such as Spanish sparrow and bluethroat, and butterflies such as two-tailed pasha and lesser spotted fritillary."

Linaria nivea, left, and Antirrhinum meonanthum, right (VB).

Vega is involved with protecting crop-nesting Montagu’s and hen harriers. The Junta (regional council) is involved, which is good though Vega works with a team from the local group of SEO (BirdLife Spain). Years vary, and happily 2024 was a good one, mainly because of the abundant winter and early spring rainfall which meant that the crops grew well and there was plenty of food in the form of voles.

SEO Salamanca’s harrier campaign, in 2024, located 23 raptor nests from which 76 birds fledged. Of these, 16 nests were Montagu’s harriers, fledging 47 young: the rest were hen harriers. Montagu’s harriers are declining in most areas and have stopped breeding in the UK, but here it’s a thriving population, thanks to SEO’s hard work (supported financially by this holiday) and the cooperation of farmers.

Another project for Vega is that in this past year, supported by a grant from the European Union, she has been working on an inventory of flora and fauna for the Biosphere Reserve of Sierras de Bejar y Francia, in particular wildlife of touristic interest. So she is in a unique position to know and share wildlife of her local area.

Helen Crowder was with Honeyguide’s group in 2023. Helen says, ”You'd be hard pressed to find more diversity of wildlife than in Spain's under-visited Wild West, expertly led by Vega Bermejo, who also knows exactly where to go for delightful lunches and coffees!”

Blue rock thrush, photographed on the holiday in 2023 (Cheryl Hunt).

Tim Hunt was there in 2023 too, and he adds these notes in praise of South of Salamanca.

“The area has a wide variety of birds, butterflies and plants to offer in a comparatively unexplored area of Spain. The way of life has altered over recent years with population moving away and changes in farming methods. Your guide, Vega who lives locally, can take you to many and varied habitats giving you time to walk and explore with many super photo opportunities. Vega has excellent English having been brought up in Leeds!

“Accommodation at the Hotel Rural Salvatierra overlooks the reservoir in a quiet village central to the area to be explored. You can look at the holiday report from 2023 to get the feel for Salamanca – just look at those ocellated lizards! A real Honeyguide experience with many and varied coffee stops and superb picnics and lunch stops.”

Ocellated lizard (Cheryl Hunt).

Chris Durdin and Vega Bermejo, November 2024

From Down Under to East Anglia: 13-16 October 2024

This is a blog about days out for a party of just three. Honeyguider Ceri from Queensland, Australia was with our group in the Spanish Pyrenees during the first week of October, after which she was keen to see some of East Anglia while she was in the UK. In other circumstances I might have invited local Honeyguiders to join us. However, a dose of Covid meant that wasn’t wise: we restricted this to three of us, namely me, Ceri and Ann, who had all tested positive. Chris Durdin

Sunday afternoon, 13 October: I picked up Ceri from Norwich bus station then, after a late lunch, we met Ann and walked around the main broad (gravel pit) at Whitlingham Country Park. A close little egret was a good start, and other water birds like great crested grebes, Egyptian geese, numerous cormorants and tufted ducks were also easy to see, being well used to people here. Ceri appreciated a chance to compare gulls: lesser black-backed, herring, black-headed and common.

Monday morning, 14 October, started wet, though happily that soon cleared. It’s good to watch birds though the eyes of a visitor from down under. So the well-stocked birdfeeders at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen were a boon, with a procession of blue, great and coat tits. From Fen Hide there were good views of marsh harriers and the ‘ping’ of bearded tits. We walked the Woodland Trial (the Fen Trail was under water anyway) where we saw our first Chinese water deer of the day.

From Fen Hide, Strumpshaw Fen.

We moved onto nearby Buckenham Marshes, where there was immediately another Chinese water deer. Looking towards Strumpshaw Fen we could see two red kites. The big numbers of winter birds were still to arrive here, but there were rooks, jackdaws and starlings in groups. The scrape area had wigeons, shovelers, teals and lapwings.

Lunch was back at Thorpe St Andrew, after which we headed to NWT Hickling Marshes. We started again by watching bird feeders, this time with a greenfinch, chaffinch and goldfinches. Our route was alongside Brendan’s Marsh to Stubb Mill, now in sunshine. On the marsh a great white egret stood tall above the many wigeons, teals and lapwings. Volunteer Mike Dawson stopped for a chat and to pass on useful information. We followed a spotted redshank as it fed. On the field on the other side, two of the several flying stock doves settled long enough to be seen properly.

Common darters warming themselves on wood.

The sun brought out dragonflies, and on one gate we counted 30 common darters warming themselves: they also liked landing on us. There was also a willow emerald damselfly, a very confiding male migrant hawker and a lovely red admiral.

Koniks at Hickling, their ancestors brought from Poland a few decades ago. Stubb Mill is in the background.

Cranes had been calling and, exactly as we arrived at Stubb Mill, a stroke of luck – 17 flew past. Two could be seen in the distance on the grazing marshes of Heigham Holmes. A kestrel settled on the mill. Cranes continued to be vocal as we walked back, as were many red deer, as it was the time of the rut. On the way back, two more mammals: a hare that ran then somehow hid from view in a stubble field, and a close view of a muntjac.

Cranes at Stubb Mill, November 2021. 

Hickling collage. Top left, male migrant hawker. Right: common darter on a hat.
Bottom:left: a great white egret on Brendan's Marsh. Bottom right: more darters.

Tuesday, 15 October: south-east to Suffolk, starting at RSPB Minsmere nature reserve. Outside the visitor centre were impressively big parasol fungi. We walked along north wall to east hide, from where there were hundreds of ducks: wigeons, teals, shovelers, gadwalls, mallards, a few shelducks and two pintails. Waders were very thin in numbers, just a single dunlin, a couple of both black-tailed godwits and avocets.

At Minsmere: parasol fungus by the visitor centre, and wigeon among buttonweed on the Scrape.

On the beach, Ceri’s first sighting of the North Sea, we quickly saw groups of dark-bellied geese flying south. One group had a single pink-footed goose at its head, others had some cormorants joining the procession. Two birders were standing by one of the WW2 concrete blocks, one of which was my old friend John Grant, now president of the Suffolk Bird Group, clicker (for counting birds) in hand. They’d been counting since first thing and had already logged 700 brent geese. Later I heard that they finished for the day at 14:30 with 1,428 brent geese counted to be entered onto BirdTrack.

Sea watching with John Grant (centre, behind my telescope) on Minsmere's beach (Ceri Pearce).

At the sluice we turned to complete the loop around The Scrape. Three bearded tits dashed past, and the avocets were close to South Hide. There was a late-flowering marsh mallow. Back at the visitor centre, it was time for lunch and shopping.

For the afternoon, we drove the short distance to the National Trust’s Dunwich Heath. The ‘best-bird-near-the-car-park’ rule kicked in when a Dartford warbler sat on a scrubby bush. After that there were few birds to see, not even a stonechat, perhaps not helped by the grey weather. Ann noticed a common darter caught in a spider’s web, and we saw the garden spider circle then grasp the dragonfly. Western gorse and a few springs of bell heather were in flower. We found more parasol fungi, a fly agaric, birch milkcap and tiers of birch polypores. It was time to head back to Norwich.

The above mentions mostly bigger wildlife, so would be only fair to add that Ann, being Ann, was finding a steady trickle of mini-beasts from bees to galls to willow emerald egg-laying scars, and dozens of caddis-flies.

Dunwich Heath: birch milkcap (Ceri Pearce), death of a darter.

Wednesday 16 October: knowing Ceri was heading for York, nice though York is, local pride meant it seemed only right to give her a gentle tour of Norwich’s equally good highlights this warm October morning. Our route was Norwich Castle, Royal Arcade, the market and Guildhall, The Lanes, Elm Hill, Cathedral and Pull’s Ferry, then back via London Street to take in various old banks and Jarrolds, all done with plenty of time to catch a lunchtime train. A peregrine twice flew over us near the cathedral, where you could see its nesting box.