Winter Visiting Swans

I love to see our winter Swans, and recently I was fortunate enough to see both Whooper Swans and Bewick's Swans together. This gave a nice size comparison, as The Bewick's are quite a bit smaller and also have a different pattern on their bills. They enjoy the fields and estuaries here in the North West, but are becoming more and more scarce, especially the Bewick's.

The majority of this group feeding were the larger Whooper Swans, with their longer necks, and only 3 Bewick's. 

Bewick's front left and Whoopers.

3 Bewick's at the front, with one grey juvenile.

This group of Whoopers had a few Cattle Egrets for company with them in this field.

A small group of Dunlin working the sands.

A Redshank doing what Redshanks do.

Hickling Broad

The weather forecast was good, but it turned out to be a bit gloomy on my visit to Hickling Broad over the Easter weekend. It seemed as though there wasn't a great deal around either as we followed the 3 mile path around the Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve. The reedbeds were very quiet, and not much was on the water or flying overhead. Quite possibly things will hot up a bit in the coming weeks.

That said though, and on reflection, we did see and hear some very good birds. One of my warbler highlights of any year, is the return of the Sedge Warbler. A fantastic little bird that will sing and climb the sedge or reeds that it is in. This was my first seen of the year, so it was a nice to see it performing.

Sedge Warbler

Another unexpected find was this Egyptian Goose, that was stood alone in a field.

Initially when I saw this swan in flight I thought it could be a Whooper Swan, but having taken a few pictures and zoomed into it's bill, I am more convinced that it is in fact a Bewick's Swan. At the time it was very distant and difficult to tell. 

Bewick's Swan

There were lots of Chiffchaffs around and to hear. Not as nice as hearing a Bittern booming though. We heard one of these booming several times as we sat in the aptly named Bittern Hide. Unfortunately we didn't see it, but it was nice to sit and listen to it.

Chiffchaff