Brampton, Norfolk

  • Cuckoo progress

    The Cuckoo called as flew from the Common to the village. It was closely shadowed by a Kestrel. The Cuckoo’s hawk-like flight was weak in comparison to the purposeful mastery of the Kestrel.

    It seems that the Cuckoo is extending it’s range becoming the core territory along the reed beds of the Bure. Presumably she is in search of further nests as hosts for her progeny; perhaps the supply of Reed Warbler nests has been used up.  Whatever the purpose, she does not hand around for long – her call marking her progress; one or two calls in each location and then move on. This could be reconnaissance prior to a raid on a newly located nest.

  • Brampton buck

    Roe Buck in late May

  • War wound

    This week the young Roe Buck carefully escorts a single doe. He is paying her constant attention; this is especially apparent because it allows us to approach to within yards before they start to sidle back towards the wood. The buck is carrying a war wound – presumably from a competitive joust with his older rival – a triangle of flesh on his left flank looks raw and fresh. This does not appear to have curbed his enthusiasm.

  • Roe in May

    It helps to have the breeze in your face. Particularly when walking up to the deer. The group seems to have dispersed around its usual stamping ground. Encounters with them this week have been when they graze quietly on their own or with one other. A heavily pregnant Roe doe sticks to the woodland edges unless she cannot catch your scent early enough.

    Wednesday morning was typical. The Whippets were not proceeding quietly, but the Doe did not really take any particular notice. A casual glance in our direction was all we got. Seemingly unfazed she made her dignified away along the edge of the barley towards the wood, stopping from time to graze.

    Her colouring is distinctive. A body of grey brown with light fox red points on the face, particularly around her eyes and on her front legs below the knee. As with all Roe Deer the base of her tail being surrounded by a contrasting white splash and the hint of a white moustache on the lower jaw.

  • Swifts return

    Yesterday’s (6th May) return of Swifts to the parish was a welcome sight. No sooner had hey returned than they had started to re-colonise their traditional nest sites. These sites end to be the cottages and houses in the village which have not had their roofing “improved”. The improvement tends to remove access points and the nesting site is lost to the birds.

    I counted the newly arrived Lower Brampton flock as being made up of six birds – they scream around the houses in the early evening their own form of joy-riding.

  • Cuckoo courtship flight

    The two of us and Dr Christie looked on as a courtship flight of two Cuckoos drifted over the Long Meadow to the Poplars near Burgh church and back again. Both birds seemed to relish the uplifting power of the wind which helped to make their relatively weak flight into an aerial display. One closely followedn the other. A degree of mimicry was involved in the flight pattern. From time to time one of the pair fanned it’s tail and stretched forward to call at which point there was a slight pause before it continued it’s trail. Both Cuckoos maintained their height which was at or around the level of the topmost branches of the Poplar. We left them to it – it seemed that the display would continue all morning, but all the same we felt very privileged to have seen it.

  • Brampton Cuckoo

    In the end it was on a breezy, clear morning of the 1stMay when the Cuckoo announced its presence. The call which drifted in and out on the breeze was persistent and seemed to come from higher up the valley –perhaps from Tuttington.  In spite of reports from others and letters of announcement in the newspaper, this was the first definite local Cuckoo which I have heard. Earlier incarnations seem to have been just passing through. Perhaps the east winds have not favoured the Cuckoo in its normal migration route making it a little late.

  • 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

  • Dry verges

    Walking up through the village last night, it was clearly evident that the lack of rain is having an impact. The last decent shower was on the 26th March – nothing of any note for over a month.

    The warm Easter period has propelled the Cow Parsley into rapid growth and the Cuckoo Pint into flower. Both species are now showing signs of stress – roadside banks in this area have few moisture retentive qualities, the soil type is a sandy loam, so there are no real reserves to call upon.

  • Waiting for the Cuckoo

    St George’s day, 23rd April, came and went without the expected call of the Cuckoo. Alex and I thought we heard a single call last Tuesday evening (19th April), but we heard no follow-up call to prove it to ourselves – at best it may have been one of those birds heading for a more northerly home.

    Upon checking my records I discovered that their non-arrival was not unusual and in fact the Brampton Cuckoo has generally started calling nearly a week later. The local eighteenth century phenologist (or recorder of Indications of Spring), Robert Marsham from Stratton Strawless actually recorded an average date of 23rd April from 51 years of observations. His earliest record was 9th April and his latest being the 9th May.

    More details of Robert Marsham’s observations are to be seen in a superb exhibition at St Margaret’s Church at Stratton Strawless.

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