anser2 Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 I left the house for the first time in a week this morning and boy was it cold. The car was not just frozen up , it was iced up and it took me the best part of half an hour before it was driveable despite the best efforts of a can of de icer. It seems to be that we are nolonger having a build up to a cold night. One night of frost and the temperatures drop well below zero. I still am not up to a flight yet but had to see how the new construction works to improve water circulation around the marsh were going. A few years ago we had a problem with botulism , but hope the digging of new channels and the clearing of some old ones will stop this happining again. This tiny unshot marsh holds nationaly important numbers of teal , avocets, ruff and spoonbills plus thousants of wigeon, hundreds of mallard and pintail. The main meadows were alive with teal plus good numbers of wigeon and mallard despite that most of the water was iced up. There was a constant shuffling of duck over the sea wall to feed on the flooded saltmarsh where a neabouring wildfowling club shoots and back. I had time to do a brief wildfowl count before my cold\flue bug started to get the better of me and i needed to return home. Well I hope to be getting out at the end of the week if I can master this damm bug and the duck hang around on the coast for a bit longer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew f Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 -7 last Monday that was cold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenboy Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Been below zero here all day , foggy now too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsonicnat Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Same here Fenboy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayano3 Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Was -4 on the car thermometer when I left for the marsh this morning. The temperature did rise until the sun come up and it turned cold again. Not looking forward to the 130 mile round journey to get my daughter back to Norwich tonight in this freezing fog. Peter. The area you are talking about sounds wonderful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted January 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 (edited) Ayano , Its a small estuary that is blocked by a sea wall and sluiced. The Marsh consists of a large scrape surrounded by reeds , a large reedbed with a deep large pool in the middle and a long valley that floods every winter. Being where it is so close to the sea and a number of coastal reserves it attracts up to 5 000 duck , has anything up to 600 greylag ( too many for the size of the site ) and pinks are a daily feature of the marsh sometimes by the thousand ,a handul of white fronts also occour at times. Good numbers of waders too. We have around 50 pairs of avocets breeding in spring along with oystercatchers , redshank , lt ringed plovers and stacks of lapwings plus about 40 pairs of mallard, shoveller, gadwall ,tufted duck and pochard a few greylag ad lots of nesting shielduck. Almost anything can drop in at migration time and this year we have had American GW teal, cranes, pictoral , wood and curlew sandpipers , little stints,spotted redshanks andanying up to 40 ruff and 450 black tailed godwits. A great place that shows that with the right management the conservation work has a great spin off for wildfowling. No wildfowling takes place on site , but many of the birds feed on the ajacent clubs ground. I work in summer in an ancient wodland reserve 15 miles away and the river that forms the estuary rises in the middle of my woods so its nice to be working at both the birth of the river and its journeys end. Some of the work we do in the woods will have a knock on effect lower down , for example cutting back the trees to allow light in to the sea trout spawning beds. Ps No fog yet in N Norfolk yet 18.06 Edited January 4, 2015 by anser2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony G Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Anser, that marsh sounds like a wildfowlers paradise Hope you have a good end to the season and recover in time for a few more flights Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted January 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Thanks Tony hopeing to get out next weekend all being well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayano3 Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Let's hope you are ok to get out next weekend peter. The fog around here lifted a bit so the journey was made a bit easier. We still had the ones who insist on using rear fog lights at the first sight of mist and forget where the switch is. The marsh sure does hold a nice variety of birds. Incidentally have you seen many oyster catchers as they seem to have all but disappeared from where I shoot ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenboy Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 I see quite a few oyster catchers when I walk the dog along the river Graham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayano3 Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 That's where they are. I hadn't realised but it was pointed out to me this morning on Andersons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berettacocker Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Ayano , Its a small estuary that is blocked by a sea wall and sluiced. The Marsh consists of a large scrape surrounded by reeds , a large reedbed with a deep large pool in the middle and a long valley that floods every winter. Being where it is so close to the sea and a number of coastal reserves it attracts up to 5 000 duck , has anything up to 600 greylag ( too many for the size of the site ) and pinks are a daily feature of the marsh sometimes by the thousand ,a handul of white fronts also occour at times. Good numbers of waders too. We have around 50 pairs of avocets breeding in spring along with oystercatchers , redshank , lt ringed plovers and stacks of lapwings plus about 40 pairs of mallard, shoveller, gadwall ,tufted duck and pochard a few greylag ad lots of nesting shielduck. Almost anything can drop in at migration time and this year we have had American GW teal, cranes, pictoral , wood and curlew sandpipers , little stints,spotted redshanks andanying up to 40 ruff and 450 black tailed godwits. A great place that shows that with the right management the conservation work has a great spin off for wildfowling. No wildfowling takes place on site , but many of the birds feed on the ajacent clubs ground. I work in summer in an ancient wodland reserve 15 miles away and the river that forms the estuary rises in the middle of my woods so its nice to be working at both the birth of the river and its journeys end. Some of the work we do in the woods will have a knock on effect lower down , for example cutting back the trees to allow light in to the sea trout spawning beds. Ps No fog yet in N Norfolk yet 18.06 and all us shooters/wildfowlers do is kill everything!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayano3 Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 The trouble is Berettacocker what you say is usually what Joe public think until they take the time to listen to us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony G Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 So you done the long walk today then Graham ? Any good ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayano3 Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Should have stopped in bed. At least I know my zippo hand warmer still works tony. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Weather the frost have made any difference to the wildfowl numbers " anser2" I don't know, but there are now more duck on the estuary now and the Pinks are now here in there 1000s. Going up the A47 to Norwich today there were cars in the laybys taking photos of them on the marshes next to the road , maybe you know or heard how many are round our way at the moment " anser2 " ? as the B T O normally do a bird count around now . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted January 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 (edited) I have not been down to the Boads for ten days so so not sure whats about. The BTO Webs counts will not be until mid month ( the middle sunday of each month). The weekly counts i do on the N coast are not conected with the BTO , but for the reserve trustees. Edited January 5, 2015 by anser2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 I have not been down to the Boads for ten days so so not sure whats about. The BTO Webs counts will not be until mid month ( the middle sunday of each month). The weekly counts i do on the N coast are not conected with the BTO , but for the reserve trustees. My brother was talking to P A the local birdwatcher yesterday while he was during a bird count down near the " Lumps " and he was saying there are now around 18,000 Pinks in the area, and Widgeon are increasing each week ............A bit late , but they got here in the end ( better late than never ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenboy Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 Weather the frost have made any difference to the wildfowl numbers " anser2" I don't know, but there are now more duck on the estuary now and the Pinks are now here in there 1000s. Going up the A47 to Norwich today there were cars in the laybys taking photos of them on the marshes next to the road , maybe you know or heard how many are round our way at the moment " anser2 " ? as the B T O normally do a bird count around now . I think a good few of those pinks belong to us MM , send them back please I need another to get a nice round ten for the season and its looking unlikely now ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 I think a good few of those pinks belong to us MM , send them back please I need another to get a nice round ten for the season and its looking unlikely now ! If that was possible to do " fenboy " I would willingly send you as many as you want and we would still have more than enough for ourselves. With most of the sugar beet fields up they are spending most of the day on the marshes and with the amount of splashes about and the grass in good condition there got no reason to move on yet . They get a bit of disturbance from the two wildfowling clubs but the fowlers cant be everywhere at the same time and with several thousand acres of grassland to go on a lot of the time they are left alone, and I would say there are nearly as many people watching them and taking photos as there are trying to shoot em. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islandgun Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 Ayano , Its a small estuary that is blocked by a sea wall and sluiced. The Marsh consists of a large scrape surrounded by reeds , a large reedbed with a deep large pool in the middle and a long valley that floods every winter. Being where it is so close to the sea and a number of coastal reserves it attracts up to 5 000 duck , has anything up to 600 greylag ( too many for the size of the site ) and pinks are a daily feature of the marsh sometimes by the thousand ,a handul of white fronts also occour at times. Good numbers of waders too. We have around 50 pairs of avocets breeding in spring along with oystercatchers , redshank , lt ringed plovers and stacks of lapwings plus about 40 pairs of mallard, shoveller, gadwall ,tufted duck and pochard a few greylag ad lots of nesting shielduck. Almost anything can drop in at migration time and this year we have had American GW teal, cranes, pictoral , wood and curlew sandpipers , little stints,spotted redshanks andanying up to 40 ruff and 450 black tailed godwits. A great place that shows that with the right management the conservation work has a great spin off for wildfowling. No wildfowling takes place on site , but many of the birds feed on the ajacent clubs ground. I work in summer in an ancient wodland reserve 15 miles away and the river that forms the estuary rises in the middle of my woods so its nice to be working at both the birth of the river and its journeys end. Some of the work we do in the woods will have a knock on effect lower down , for example cutting back the trees to allow light in to the sea trout spawning beds. Ps No fog yet in N Norfolk yet 18.06 that sounds a special place anser 2 i used to live in Brancaster Staithe 35yrs ago, and love the area, any chance of divulging the area so I can fix it in me mind better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted January 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 (edited) I never name exact spots on a forum unless they are already being talked about. PM me Edited January 5, 2015 by anser2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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