Having completed the photo safari with David Tipling - see previous posts - and sitting in Cley car park with only half the day over, I decided to have a look around Cley reserve. Having had my fill of photography I decided to ditch the big camera I used on the safari and took my telescope instead, armed with just my little bridge camera. Its always a conundrum, whether to take the DLR camera or a telescope. Both are too heavy to take together so often I have to choose one over the other.
Because of time constraints, I had to go home that day, I had only had a couple of hours to see the reserve, not that long for such a large and complex place.
The mist that had been present in the morning decided to hang around, making birdwatching very difficult, especially on a reserve like Cley where you need a telescope to properly see some birds.
First port of call and the best area of the reserve are the fresh water scrapes, three shallow bodies of water over looked by hides. When I was first there it was fairly quiet with around five RUFF the most interesting birds. AVOCETS were present, although they were in loose flocks with only a few pairs about. There were some GODWITS about, and small numbers of GULLS nesting. SNIPE were around the edges amongst the tussocky vegetation.
However when I came back a second time after going round the rest of the reserve, everything changed. A SPOONBILL turned up - see pictures - on one of the scrapes. Then four YELLOW WAGTAILS were discovered on an area of grassland by the scrape, my earliest ever sighting of the species. Then everything was put to the air by a ring-tail HEN HARRIER, which passed over the scrapes. Someone in the hide confidently classed it as a sub-adult, but I couldn't be certain. It was certainly different to the resident MARSH HARRIERS and was a contrast of winter versus Summer, that had made up the recent season.
The path goes round Cley Marshes in a square shape. Away from the scrape hides the path goes along the East Bank, on one side of which is reedbed the other wet grassland. Water levels were high on the grassland where a few remnant winter ducks were still present. SKYLARKS were singing in the drier areas. East Bank leads to the sea, but just before that is Arnold's Marsh, a large brackish scrape. Large numbers of DUNLIN and RINGED PLOVER were present, with small numbers of TURNSTONE, and singles of BARWITS and CURLEW. Also present were several SANDWICH TERNS roosting on the scrape, the largest of the commonest terns, and my first of the year.
The mist made sea watching pointless, and there wasn't much else on the rest of the reserve.
So as always a good time spent at Cley, with plenty of birds present representing a good example of spring passage, its just a shame I didn't have more time.
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