The Grey Heron is generally known for its shy and aloof ways, spending much of its life in solitude. But they can also be pluckier than you might think!
In the last nature blog we focused on the ‘adventures of the Grey Heron’, both in our boat basin and the cast away island of Sri Lanka. Well, the bird we sometimes call “Old Frank” due to the sound of its call, is still stealing the show.
While our trip boat skippers Tobi and Oli were carrying out checks on The Queen of the Broads a brazen young heron perched right above their heads on top of the wheel house! Check out these rather amusing pictures of Tobi and the Heron.
Old Frank stayed for some time before becoming rather less welcome when it decided to drop off an unpopular Christmas present that ran down the Queen of the Broad’s windscreen just after Tobi had cleaned it! Needless to say, Tobi wasn’t amused, and testing the horn soon after meant that the Heron found a new perch….
That wasn’t the end of the story though, as our boat builders got quite a surprise when Old Frank wandered into their workshop. They duly ushered it out before it hurt itself!
The Heron wasn’t the only wildlife we spotted before in the basin. Pike were striking young fry fish on the surface, which shoal up in vast numbers in basins at this time of year. A quick chat with some fisherman also revealed that there are some monster predators lurking in the area – apparently they had caught a 22lb and 25lb pike that morning! If you are coming on a boating holiday with us soon don’t forget to pack your pike gear!
While far fewer holiday boats are hired at this time of year and our sister company, Broads Tours, only run a few boat trips in the winter now is one of our favourite times of year to be out on the river. The Broads often reveals far more wildlife than in the summer as the waterways are much quieter and many shy species come out into the open. If you pick the right day the Broads can be a real festive wonderland in December.
Our mince pies and mulled wine tour on 2 December proved no exception, revealing the Broads in its wonderful winter cloak. These pictures of a rainbow framing a fabulous winter scene on the trip seem to summarise the essence of the Broads at this time of year.
Amongst this stark beauty we spotted some wonderful wildlife.
Meeting our Christmas wish list was two separate sightings of otters. The first was at the bottom end of Wroxham village where we got a really good view of a female otter swimming along the river, before finally taking cover in the undergrowth when she spotted us. We saw the other otter sunbathing on the bank a little further down river, close to Hoveton Great Broad. The first sighting was especially good, with nearly all of our passengers delighted to have spotted this beautiful mammal.
Tufted ducks are known as a winter species because they usually hide away during the summer before forming in ever increasing numbers as temperatures tumble. That’s certainly the case on Wroxham and Salhouse Broads where there are ever expanding groups of these lovely birds on the water as shown in these pictures.
One interesting fact about Tufted Ducks is that it’s only the males who have tufts on their heads – which one of our skippers Richard jokes makes the females a tuftless duck, or maybe just ducks!
On Wroxham Island increasing numbers of Cormorants are gathering amongst the trees as shown in these pictures set amongst a stormy sky.
A little further downstream on the river, close to the bottom entrance of Wroxham Broad, there are a growing number of Little Grebes. These beautiful birds are much less frequently spotted than the larger Great Crested Grebe, but as winter presses on the shy little birds are venturing out more and more. See 31 October blog for more on Little Grebes.
Another magical sight in this area was the elusive, yet brightly coloured kingfisher sitting on a branch and we also saw an acrobatic kestrel hovering over the reeds before perching on a tree.
A welcome sight in this area was the single cygnet that was hatched as an ‘only child’ during the summer on Salhouse Little Broad and which we have followed closely on this blog. As all the other cygnets hatched in the spring in groups of six, this single cygnet has been the smallest and most loveable on the river this year. The little cygnet’s size doesn’t seem to have held it back and, as shown in the pictures below, it is doing well.
On Salhouse Broad we were pleased to see Gadwell ducks flying close to the much more populous tufted ducks. The Gadwell is a pretty rare duck, with grey colouring made up of exquisitely fine barring and speckling, as well as a distinctive black rear end.
Overall the Broads proved the perfect winter wonderland for our Christmas and mince pies trip that yielded an abundance of nature’s gifts with some tremendous wildlife sightings. If you are prepared to wrap up warm now is a wonderful time to be out on the water!
