Oystercatcher – Brampton, Norfolk

Marsh sounds

This morning’s soundscape was dominated by geese and Oystercatchers. The geese being a mix of Canada’s, Greylags and a lone Ruddy Shelduck (presumably an escape from a wildfowl collection). Their collective noise a mix of farmyard honks and squawks.

The Oystercatchers were involved in more serious courtship rituals. Two (males) call musically in their pursuit of a less than keen female – or at least that is how I saw it. Eventually the loser took-off, climbed and circled in pursuit of another potential companion, calling regularly as it drifted over Upper Brampton.

Sea Pie

As the sugar beet grow in the rows on the Town Field it’s regular occupants are a pair of Oystercatchers. This wading bird with it’s smart black and white plumage and red bill generally favours the tide line along the shore, but the river valley seems to be a favoured habitat.

As I write one of the pair flies over the garden with a strident territorial call. It is possible that the filed is purely a resting area but a nest is not out of the question. Sugar Beet has it’s ancestral origins in a wild Sea Beet which in some ways contributes to it’s resilience in lighter soils of North Norfolk. The Oystercatcher may feel as at home amongst the cultivated variety as it might alongside it’s wild beet relatives