Hingham (Seamere Marsh) 1 July 2024

I had about an hour long break late morning on 1st July and as I was in the Hingham area I decided upon a short visit overviewing Seamere Marsh from the Deopham Road.  This beautiful habitat is a jewel within a sea of arable farmland, a very valuable site for inland Norfolk.

Over the years, Seamere has produced excellent records of both common and rare bird species, and without doubt, my personal highlight was not an exotic wanderer to the area, but a Corn Bunting, a rather drab looking bird which is very rare in this part of Norfolk, in fact the species does not breed here, I have only seen this large Bunting as a breeding bird, in the fens and in the vast rolling arable lands of Docking and Ringstead in the north-west of the county.  Corn Buntings are a sedentary species, which makes the Hingham bird all the more remarkable.

Upon my arrival for this short visit I was initially greeted by 50+ Hirundines (mostly Swallows), along with a few House Martins, skimming low over crops and marsh, as well as gathering around the canopy of a few large Oaks in their pursuit of insect prey.  At times, several Swallows gathered on overhead wires whilst others alighted on the upper branches of an old Elder, one was seen preening, it was a male with its long tail streamers.

A broken hedgerow near Hingham (Seamere). A valuable habitat for several species. 

I was particularly interested in watching a short length of broken hedgerow just to my left, this habitat comprised Hawthorn, Elder, Oak, and lovely dense ground cover.  Within a very short period of time this valuable habitat held a good range of species, firstly, a Lesser Whitethroat gave a frequent "chit" alarm, a second bird responded in another area of hedgerow, also, a couple of Common Whitethroats were seen, 1 Chiffchaff, a singing Yellowhammer in the Hawthorn in the middle of this picture, Goldfinch, Linnet, a singing Greenfinch in the Oak in the left of the picture, singing Wren, and a pair of displaying Stock Doves which alighted in the Oak  to the right where singing was heard.  The value of such a short section of broken hedgerow both demonstrates the value of  such habitats as well as the importance of paying attention to such sites.

Seeing both Lesser Whitethroat and Common Whitethroat almost together on this visit provided an opportunity to see the obvious differences between these two Sylvia species.  The Lesser Whitethroat is a very smart looking bird with a dark grey head contrasting strongly with the white throat, the upper parts are a uniform grey brown and the underparts are white.  The Lesser Whitethroat usually delivers its rattle-like song from cover.  The Common Whitethroat is a marginally larger bird and is always, in all age groups, readily identified by the two-tone colour on its upperparts, most notably brownish wings with a lovely rusty coloured panel.  Unlike the Lesser Whitethroat, the Common Whitethroat is a very conspicuous songster, often delivering its loud scratchy song from the topmost sprig on a bush which is often accompanied by a highly visible song-flight.