A Special 14 Days
Adam and I always like to see the unusual birds that visit are neighbourhood and as such we always read the local reports on what has been seen. It was therefore of great interest that we read that a Spoonbill had been seen on the River Cuckmere and what’s more it was easily visible from the road. Selling it as a family outing it was not long before we were all in the car on our way for our daily exercise. On arrival we could see the bird clearly and could not get ready soon enough. Walking along the path next to the road we could not get a clear image and when at the pub end the bird was looking the wrong way, we decided to walk to the other side but when we arrived it was very distant. We were just about to move again when the bird took flight, startled by some cattle, and flew towards us. We managed some good photographs of the bird in flight and also feeding in a small ditch.
A few days later we were at our favourite venue, Dengemarsh. There had been a Rose Starling seen and we were keen to get a view if possible. We were searching the dice of the road, along with several other keen ornithologists, when we were told that there had been several sightings of a Swallowtail. Immediately the attention of everybody present changed and the search was on for one of the rarest butterflies in the UK. It was not long before there was a shout and sure enough there it was, the most beautiful Swallowtail which Adam managed to take a few images of. When we were talking the pictures we did not realise how rare a find this truly was, there is one known colony in Norfolk and besides this they are very rarely seen.
Next thing we ‘heard’ about was a Black Winged Stilt which was at Castle Water but only giving very distant views. We decided to try our luck again, surely we could not see a Spoonbill, Swallowtail and Black Winged Stilt within the space of a few days? We were very lucky on the day with the weather as it stayed dry irrespective of the showers that were forecast. On the way to the hide we were treated to a fantastic aerial display from the local Peregrine Falcon that lives int eh castle. In the hide we made ourselves comfortable and scanned the water in front of us. We saw all of the usual birds Lapwing, Teal, Shellduck, Cormorant, Marsh Harrier and Little Egret until finally Adam spotted the stilt in amongst a group of Lapwing. The bird has got the longest legs we have ever seen and at one point flew from one part of the lake to another giving us a chance to catch it in flight.
We took many images of the Black Winged Stilt and hope that you like them as well as those of the Spoonbill and Swallowtail.
