Sightings at Pensthorpe – 23rd October 2024

Wensum Valley Birdwatching Society visited Pensthorpe on 23rd October 2024. Here’s their report.

Ray, Sue and I arrived at Pensthorpe at 8.30 with fog lights on and a hope that the heavy morning mist would lift. After all the forecast for 7am was VG on the visibility front (V Poor in reality) although 95% humidity and 10deg C.  Not looking good for raptors. It did finally clear by about 10 and by 1ish  we had clear blue sky, the temp was up to 15 deg and it was a glorious autumnal day.

En route we met Chrissie: she showed us pictures of the polytunnels being prepared at the new location for the head-starting of both Curlew and Corncrake: up in North Norfolk with great views!

The birds were very quiet initially (no: they were quiet even though Ray was due new hearing aids and Sue had forgotten hers!) but did get noisier as the mist lifted. On the driveway, we heard the rattle of a Mistle Thrush before we saw it , saw a Treecreeper fly on to the trunk of a tree and then saw a flurry of what must have been newly arrived Blackbirds in the bushes to the right of the driveway by the gate. They kept flying over towards the conifers; at least 20 and mostly blackbirds but in the murk there may have been some Redwings in there as well. This was birdwatching by moving silhouette…..  Wensum wetlands had big numbers of Teal, a couple of Heron but we could only find a handful of Lapwing and no other waders. Walking onwards we had a flyover of 50 Pink foot. Old Squaw lake boosted our Little Grebe numbers by 6; the Woodland hide added more tits and Chaffinches but we never found the hoped for Siskins and Redpolls. We did find a rather untidy Marsh Harrier high in a distant tree. Coming to the Wader scrape numbers were down and pushed to the far right as construction work was on-going. We saw our solitary Wigeon here. I thought I’d seen a “big white bird” fly down just out of view on the bank behind the far hide and then spent a long time trying to re-locate it. Finally, it reappeared as a Cattle Egret escorting a black cow with a Heron lurking the other end.  [At Sweet Briar marshes the heron follows the cows which disturb the frogs.]

Finally back to the café where we added House Sparrow and a beautiful Grey Wagtail to our list and our first 2 soaring Buzzards over the car park.

A very enjoyable morning after a pretty unpromising start.

Cath, Ray and Sue

Take a look at their recorded sightings below…