As we are too well aware, the main boardwalk is deteriorating, but the good news is that its replacement has begun! Our NWT warden George has obtained funding to replace it bit by bit, and the first section has just been done. Unfortunately, few volunteers were free to help on Monday 7th April, but Andrew and Jenny were there to lend their support. Here’s what Andrew reported:
“Jenny and I represented the Southrepps volunteers on the
boardwalk work-party this morning. And what a perfect spring morning it was for
a bit of gentle labouring in the beautiful English countryside.
It took us about two
hours to unload the new wood from the trailer (parked on the Bradfield Road
corner verge) and move it to the work site. We also loaded up George’s trailer
with the old boardwalk wood: he’s decided to take it back to Cley where he has
a skip.
One of the Cley volunteers (Ian) also assisted. George, Ian
and one other NWT chap will be laying part of the new boardwalk this
afternoon.”
They did so well that George cancelled the next day’s work party. He had something else he needed to attend to but returned two days later to put new netting on the boardwalk. He was very grateful for the help from Andrew and Jenny. Here are a couple of pictures to show the new section in place,
At the same time a start was also made on replacing the very dodgy bit outside the tool store. Here’s how it looked a few days ago: it’s waiting for more materials before it can be finished.
We’ve been treated to a lot of exceptional Spring weather lately; perhaps too much sun and very little desperately needed rain, but hey, “mustn’t grumble.” As a result, as revealed by the sightings board at the information point, things have really taken off since our last posting. Lessercelandines are everywhere and marshmarigold has been reported, along with the regular snake’shead fritillary, the presence of which remains mysterious. On the bird front chiffchaffs and great tits are singing everywhere, (Here’s a link to a recording I made on 19th March), and blackcaps were first reported on 31st March.
There were a few real highlights too: a pair of ravens has been spotted several times (perhaps they’re breeding somewhere – let’s hope so), and the best bird of all was a hawfinch, which graced the feeders in a garden very close to the Common, as shown in this fabulous picture.
Not close enough to the Common to merit a tick for the site, but your own correspondent was very excited to catch a fleeting glimpse of a female henharrier elsewhere in the Southrepps area. It was presumably passing through, no doubt on its way to an upland area to breed. We have to hope it evades the guns of those misguided people who continue to break the law by attempting to wipe out anything that might fancy a grouse for a meal. They really are fabulous birds.
It’s a general rule that the best sightings occur when the observer is out without a decent camera, as was the case with the said harrier. However, having recently missed out on photographing an unusually obliging blackcap on Jubilee Boardwalk recently, I encumbered myself with the necessary equipment a few days later. All to no avail until back on Jubilee Boardwalk I spotted a treecreeper creeping up a tree. These mouse-like birds can be hard to spot, and harder still to photograph, but I present to you this heavily cropped and therefore somewhat blurred image.
I have also seen a few swallows in the area, but not enough yet to make a summer. No house martins yet grace my year list, and even if they were here there’s precious little wet mud around for them to use to make their nests.
On that dry note, it was pleasing to see frogspawn at The
Pit around 20th March, but the water level there is already looking
very low, which might not do much for the chances of many tadpoles becoming frogs.
And now for a few books related to the season:
Raising Hare, Chloe Dalton’s first foray into authorship,
is beautifully written; unsentimental yet unconditionally kind and respectful
of a wild animal that chose to treat her as an equal. Everything about the book,
including the drawn images and its general production, is exquisite. The author
was an extremely busy London-based professional who found herself confined to
her country home during the first pandemic lockdown. She found a very young
leveret (baby hare) on the track leading to her house one morning, and it was still
there in an unusually exposed location many hours later, so she felt compelled
to rescue it. She had no idea how to look after it (who does?) and everything
pointed to it ending badly, but with advice and research she found a way. The
hare was never caged and as soon as it felt the urge it was able to come and
go, eventually producing at least three litters of its own leverets. Everything
about this book is beautiful, but it does come with one difficulty: it’s
difficult to put down.
Spring is the only season by the prolific Simon
Barnes includes the usual stuff about plants re-growing or sprouting anew in
this most beloved season, plus plenty on the relationship of spring to
literature, religion, art, and mythology. He also explains why it is that we
experience different seasons in our northern latitudes, while the tropics
don’t. All good stuff and well worth a read. Both these books are available
from Norfolk County Libraries.
On the subject of beautiful books, I was lucky enough to stumble across a treasure trove of Ladybird books in a charity shop recently, so pounced on What to Look for in Spring and Autumn and Winter.
When tthis volume was published in 1961 it cost 2/6 and at that time children were being told they should be able to see, amongst other things, lapwings doing their display flight, grey wagtails, cuckoos, turtle doves, and nightingales – my, how things have changed!
