Early out of bed

After the very windy day on Thursday it was odd’s on to nothing we would have a few new birds on the patch today now that it’s settled down a little.

There’s a small patch of reeds around 500m from the back door of Falcon Cottage. The area is no more than the size of a large living room but there’s been talk of it attracting Bitterns, Bluethroats, Crakes and all manner of mouth-watering birds. I thought I would check the area out early this morning.

Even before I got there I could hear we had a couple of new visitors. The ‘metallic pinging’ coming from ahead of me denoted a couple of Bearded Tits had dropped in to the reedbed. They are not common in this part of Norfolk. Almost immediately they rose upward and flew off west. As I strained to see there bouncing little forms disappear into the distance I heard two more beside me; there had been four! All males.

I managed to get a few others on the remaining birds and a few photographs before these too irrupted skyward and moved on.