Author: Adam Yardley

In the last nature blog we focused on the ‘adventures of the Grey Heron’, both in our boatyard and on the far flung shores of Sri Lanka.  Well, the bird we sometimes call ‘The Harnser’ here in Norfolk is still stealing the show.

While our skippers Tobi and Oli were carrying out checks on our trip boat ‘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.

The Heron stayed for some time before becoming rather less welcome when it decided to drop off an unpopular surprise 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 the bold young heron 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!

While we only run a few boat trips in the winter they are perhaps our favourites – often revealing far more wildlife than in the summer as the waterways are much quieter at this time of year and many shy species come out into the open.

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 got really lucky with the wildlife.

Top of the 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 clear, 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 through the winter.  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.

Interestingly it’s only the males who have tufts on their heads – which one of our skippers Richard jokes makes them 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 good spot close to 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.  It’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 lucky enough to spot Gadwell ducks flying close to the much more populous tufted ducks.  The Gadwell is a pretty rare grey coloured duck with a black rear end, but if you get the chance to see it close up it becomes apparent that its grey colouring is made up of exquisitely fine barring and speckling.

Overall everyone on our 2 December boat trip was delighted to see such a wide variety of wildlife and, while we run far fewer trips at this time of year, it underlined our view that the winter is a great time to be out on the water.

Spotting a Grey Heron is one of the highlights of a holiday on the Broads.  But it seems that this familiar sight on our waterways can also be seen in rather more unfamiliar locations – as one of our skippers Oli discovered while on safari in Sri Lanka.

Here we have two pictures of Grey Herons perched on holiday cruisers in our boat basin.  The second picture shows two birds together– which is quite unusual as they are usually solitary birds.

But it seems that Grey Herons can be seen in even more exotic locations than our boat basin!

One of our skippers Oli was surprised to see a Grey Heron at the world’s largest gathering of elephants in Sri Lanka.  Oli explained: “More than 300 elephants come together in the dry season to drink from and bathe in a lake close to Minneriya National Park in what is known as ‘The Gathering’. Initially I was spellbound by the sheer number of these jumbo beasts enjoying the water at sunset but then noticed a rather smaller and more familiar creature fishing amongst them – The Grey Heron.”

A few days later Oli spotted a grey Heron amongst Pelicans and surrounded by large Crocodiles at a lake in Yala National Park in the south east of the island!

There was also another favourite Broadland bird fishing from a branch precariously close to Crocodiles – The Common Kingfisher.

It’s a little known fact that although we only have one type of Kingfisher in the UK there are actually 90 species of Kingfisher in the world – seven of which live in Sri Lanka.  These are the Pied Kingfisher (pictured below flying above the crocodile pool), the Common Kingfisher, the Ceylon Blue-eared Kingfisher, the Three-toed Kingfisher, the Stork-billed Kingfisher, the White-breasted Kingfisher and the Black-capped Purple Kingfisher.

It’s not just Sri Lanka that is home to many of our favourite birds found on the Broads though.  Another of our skippers, Tobi, spotted Grey Herons on Safari in Tanzania, East Africa a few years ago.

Now that our river trips have come to an end, our visits to the river will become less frequent. We shall however, endeavour to keep you informed of how our beautiful Broadland is changing through the winter.

On Thursday, our skippers Giles and Tobi ventured out on bright and chilly morning to ferry contractors from Salhouse Broad to Hoveton Great Broad Nature Trail as part of the Hoveton Wetlands Restoration Project. This gave us a perfect opportunity to see how the wildlife has been affected now that the boating season has effectively come to a close.

Whilst heading across Wroxham Broad, two particular groups of birds stood out. Near the Yacht Club were four Great crested grebes; usually these birds are quite territorial and upon closer inspection it turned out that one of the grebes was still showing the stripy head feathers of a juvenile, hatched this year.

At the downstream end of the Broad a large group of fifty or more Tufted ducks were gathered. This was a welcoming sight as the Tufted ducks had seemingly disappeared last week, most likely due to the hustle and bustle of the October half term. They are quite shy birds, as you can see in the photo as they scarpered when the boat got too close!

The autumn colour found on our riverbanks is ever changing: at the end of September we showed how our Silver birch is turning from green to golden yellow (below, bottom right). We are now seeing the colour cascading down the tree with many leaves falling and littering the river, joined by the red rosehips on the  Dog rose (below, top left) and even brighter berries on the Guelder rose whose leaves are a deep purply red (below, top right). The final picture in our quartet shows the brightest of reds and a fantastic addition to the bank, particularly when the rest of the leaves have fallen, leaving the banks drab and bare. This is the Dogwood, a native to this country, is mostly found in hedgerows but also gardens in our local villages as well as the river banks.

In addition to our usual suspects, flying overhead we have seen flocks of field fares and a ‘desert’ of lapwings. At one point, a sparrow hawk was even spotted! The Lapwing holds a ‘red’ status and whilst resident, isn’t usually seen in our area during the summer but moves from upland areas to lowland fields for the winter. The extensive farmland surrounding the Broads and grazing marshes gives them plenty of options. The Fieldfare is a type of thrush which looks and acts like a mistle thrush. It is worth looking out for these birds as they move to different feeding areas.

One of our boat builders, Brian, reports sighting a Hen harrier flying over Wroxham, spotted whilst he was having his lunch. It’s all about being in the right place at the right time! Hen harriers are another species on the red list and seen more during the winter around East Anglia. In 2010, 617 pairs were recorded, so it’s really special to see these once severely endangered birds. By comparison, the Marsh harrier which is not necessarily considered a rare sighting in these parts has national numbers of 320-380 breeding pairs, which is less even than the Golden eagle (440 pairs)!

We will aim to keep you updated with photos and observations on the progression of winter on the Broads, so watch this space!