RECORDING AREA
The Parish Boundary does not make complete sense as a recording area (RA), for instance part, but not all Pensthorpe Natural Park is within the parish. So, RWG have extended slightly the area monitored. To the west the RA boundary is the Colkirk crossroads, to the northwest Ryburgh Common, to the north the northern edge of Pensthorpe Natural Park, the northeast boundary includes Little Ryburgh Common, the eastern boundary is the Stibbard crossroads and the southeastern the concrete pad by the old Raptor Watch Point on the North Elmham Road. Finally, the southern boundary is the Bluebell wood on the Gateley Road.
ACCESS
Like so much of Norfolk public access on the patch is very limited. For instance, in Great Ryburgh there is no access to the river other than to stand on the road bridge. The main public footpaths and permissive rights of way are well known; the Westwood Lane and old railway line loop, the path to Ryburgh Common and the track from the Little Ryburgh turning to the Stibbard crossroads. Access at Pensthorpe is excellent, no doubt in part contributing to the richness of records from there. We are also fortunate to have access to small reserves in the form of the Scrape on Mill Road, the meadow at Stibbard crossroads, the Community Woodland and Ryburgh Common. Nonetheless, large areas are off limits, particularly Sennowe and much birding must be done from the roadside.
HABITAT
The chief feature is the river Wensum which runs through the village in a northwest to southeast direction. Although degraded it is still a good migration corridor, and the floodplain provides some valuable wetland habitat. The jewel in the crown of the patch is the Pensthorpe Nature Reserve with its mix of ponds, scrapes and wet and dry woodland. Beyond the floodplain arable farmland forms the rest of the patch.
BIRD LIFE
Sadly, like the majority of Norfolk, birdlife is much reduced this century due to intensive farming, climate change and pressures on migratory birds. Breeding species lost in the last twenty five years include Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Yellow Wagtail, Willow Tit and Tree Sparrow. Other species such as Turtle Dove, Spotted Flycatcher, Barn Owl, Little Owl and Swift are severely reduced in numbers. There have been some positives with Great and Cattle Egrets both moving from rarity status to everyday birds in the winter at least. Despite the reverses the patch remains an excellent birding location, certainly when compared with inland sites away from the renowned coastal strip.
KEY
There are two factors to consider. First, the time of year when a species is most likely to be seen. Second, its relative abundance. The key below takes account of both of these.
Resident (R) – seen all year round
Winter Visitor (W) – occurs mainly in the winter months
Summer Visitor (S) – occurs mainly as a breeding visitor
Passage Migrant (P) – occurs mainly on passage during Spring or Autumn migration
Common (C) – Seen every day, often, but not always, abundant in numbers
Fairly Common (FC) – Seen most days
Scarce (S)– Seen occasionally
Very Scarce (VS) – Not annual/Seen only a few times in the season
Rare (R) – Three or fewer records this century
As examples House Sparrow is R-C, whereas Kingfisher is R-S and Swallow is S-C
CHECKLIST: What is in and what is not
The UK has a strict categorisation of wild birds overseen by national committees and which has produced a national list. Without being overly technical that approach has been followed here. So, naturally wild birds and previously introduced species now in self-sustaining populations (e.g. locally Mandarin) are included in the List.
What is excluded?
Birds obviously escaped from collections. For example, Smew and Red-crested Pochard from the Pensthorpe collection. From further afield we have excluded Black Swan and Snow Geese, both of which have been seen in the village in recent years.
Also excluded are birds from reintroduction schemes where those populations are deemed not to not yet be self-sustaining. Two recent examples are White Stork and White-tailed Eagle (from the Isle of Wight reintroduction scheme).
Finally, for rarer birds we require that they have been submitted to and accepted by either the Norfolk Rarity Committee, or the British Birds Recording Committee (BBRC) as appropriate.
It is possible that we have overlooked species. Please let the RWG know if that is the case.
As it stands as at the 31st of December,2024 the Patch List stands at 181 species.
Nick Parsons