A good, unproductive day

It's the time of year when I like to try to catch up with the Roe Deer at Thetford Forest. And that is exactly where I was this morning,drinking a cup of tea and waiting for it to get light. I was however taking a bit of a gamble with the weather. The previous week had been perfect with bright and sunny days, but I had been too busy to get away. So far this week though it had been cloudy, showery and cool. Today though was supposed to be the better day of the week, and so I hoped the weather forcasters were right and had decided to give it a go.

The weather forcast though was wrong. It was fairly bright to start with, but it wasn't the nice sunny morning that had been predicted. I looked in all the usual places and I was indeed seeing quite a few deer, but as at this time last year, they were very jumpy and nervous. This made getting near to them even more difficult than usual. I decided that unless I could find any deer in a good situation where I had plenty of cover to use in the stalk to them and away from them, that I would not attempt a stalk.

The reason being that I did not want to make them any more jumpy than they already were. Not just in disturbing the animal but also I did not want to make the forests stalkers job any more harder than it already is. Their job is very important to both the deer themselves and the whole ecology of the forest. The stalkers take out the old, sick and the surpless deer, thus ensuring a healthy population of deer and a healthy forest. Their job should never be interfered with or underestimated. It it very important for the whole balance of the forest.

I did in the end get a couple of fairly pleasing shots of Roe Deer by just driving around the byways, but I could not get a good number of shots. However, this did not really matter though as I was seeing things all the time to make the trip worth while, even though I was not getting many pictures. At one point while I was driving around the byways, I came across a flock of about eighty or so, Chaffinch, Brambling, Siskin and Yellowhammer all feeding together. A little later I came across quite a large gathering of Fieldfares on some cultivated land, where I was able to get a couple of nice shots.

The highlight of the day though, was out over a piece of heathland. The usual small birds were about. Plenty of Meadow Pipits were about along with the odd Woodlark around the forest edge. I also saw five Stonechat. I can nearly always bank on seeing a Buzzard where I was, but was wondering if I would see one as it was quite dull and cold with no real warmth to create the thermals they usually ride on. I need not have worried though, as there were three of them that put in an appearance.

Then I saw what at first I thought was another Buzzard flying low over the heather. I then realised its flight was not right for a Buzzard but then it turned and I got the binoculars on it and could then clearly see what it was. It was a female Hen Harrier. It was too far off to photograph, but I watched quartering over the heather for about five minutes. That however was not the highlight.

A little while later and a bit further on, I saw another bird of prey up in the sky. First glance and I thought it was a Sparrowhawk. It then occured to me that it was up quite high and was at that distance too big to be a Sparrowhawk. It then really pumped its wings and started to climb. As soon as it did this, I knew straight away what it was. A Goshawk! Not only that, but it was a displaying male! For about five minutes I was able to watch it pump its wings hard until it reached its apex and then fold its wings in and plummet about one hundred feet in about three seconds!

It was an awe inspiring sight to see. About an hour later I saw a Goshawk again about a mile away from where I had seen the displaying male. I was alerted to the fact that something was about by the noise of the Carrion Crows. And sure enough a Goshawk swept over the top of the trees about thirty yards away being mobbed by five Carrion Crows. I think this one was a different bird as it looked bigger than the male that was displaying. It looked more the size of a female Goshawk. So although I had not got many photos, it had still been a very interesting and worthwhile day.