Thetford Forest: Spring 2024

 Seeing goshawks displaying over their homeland at Thetford Forest is, in my nature calendar, as big a spectacle as the frog chaos that occurs in Cambridge at the start of this month, the return of bee-eaters and European coracias to their breeding grounds in Spain, my first cuckoo of the year, and the return of hen harriers and short-eared owls to winter in the eastern fens. 

Goshawks are the most powerful avian predators in my part of the UK. Or have been, until white-tailed eagles began to show up more and more often. I know a place within the forest where goshawks display with regularity, and regularly fly very close. And, as it turns out, nest nearby. Although they were the main focus of my trips this spring (until they got rudely replaced by a wintering great grey shrike), I made other trips to see other birds which reside in this forest. 

Trip 1: Goshawks

My first trip to see goshawks was the most successful one I had here so far. But also, one of the most infuriating ones. I got to my goshawk site at around 9am and began waiting, and for a long time nothing showed up but buzzards. As I cycled around the area, I noticed a large hawk displaying over a clearing, and took photos of it before it disappeared.

It was the goshawk. However, I still was not convinced I saw a goshawk, and so stayed here for a time, and saw nothing for a time. I explored other, nearby places, but the goshawk was nowhere to be seen despite a spectacularly close flyby of a pair of buzzards. 

Eventually, my patience did pay off and a goshawk did appear at my site, floating high above the plantation, but it was much further than before. It was about as distant as my first observation of a goshawk here, back in 2022 (when there were also a lot of young present in the area)

After my first two close-up photos were indeed confirmed as a goshawk, I realised I had wasted a couple of hours of my time here instead of paying Lynford Arboretum a visit. 

Trip 2: Great grey shrike

After I found out that there was a wintering great grey shrike near a trail I regularly used for cycling to the north of Weeting, I decided to return to Thetford Forest, on the earliest possible train. I cycled out to the location into a clearfell which was logged in 2019 a few months before my first-ever visit here, and immediately saw the shrike perching in the distance. My patience soon began to pay off, as the shrike turned out to be exceptionally showy, if a little mobile. 

As I stood taking photos and videos of it, amazed by how much more showy this bird was than the absolute nightmare I tried to photograph in 2021 near Cambridge, the shrike, previously perching at the top of a tree, took off and flew directly towards me. I watched it, trying to stay motionless, as it flew straight into a tree right next to me, and began peering down at me from the branches. Unfortunately, the sun was right behind it. 

However, soon after, it flew off. Showy it may be, it was still no match for the near-identical looking Iberian grey shrikes I am used to in Spain, which are so approachable it sometimes feels like they won't mind if you stand right underneath them. 

After getting such amazing views of the shrike, I cycled out to my goshawk site and eventually saw the female display distantly over the plantations. This, however, was the longest I have ever seen her display, circling through the skies whilst being mobbed by an absolutely tiny-looking sparrowhawk. 

Trip 3: Hawfinch and firecrest

Unlike the other two, the third and last trip to Thetford Forest this spring was done on a gloomy morning, completely unlike the summer weather on the previous two. I was after hawfinch and, if lucky, firecrest, and tried to look for them in Lynford Arboretum, probably the last site for hawfinch. For a long time, nothing happened as I watched the 'tunnel', until a hawfinch dropped down to drink from the pond in the tunnel. 

It quickly flew back, but soon a party of 5 appeared at the back of the tunnel, however, due to the distance, photos and views were really not the same (except for one exceptionally photogenic chaffinch)

Satisfied (especially since on my last visit for them, these birds were dots on distant trees in the paddocks), I tried to look for firecrest, but these pinecone-sized birds were very elusive and difficult to see. It was rather cold and, since I already had good photos of them from last year, I left, satisfied.