Is it Allowed?

Saturday October 11

At last. Enough  unplanned and organised time to go birding. Where do all these appointments and social events come from? Two people making arrangements I suppose. 

We trapped moths last night too, the first time since last weekend. Not a vintage catch. 11 moths of 9 species. 1 Mallow, 2 Sallow, 1 Light Brown Apple, 2 Beaded Chestnut, Pine Carpet, 2 Grey Pine Carpet and 1 Red-green Carpet.

I tried out the C2 setting (Macro) on my Canon SX50. No different from the results I get on auto.

Mallow

Red-Green Carpet

We drove off in sunshine, arriving at Burnham Norton in rain. Light but persistent. After two large hired minibuses had moved out of the way - stopped at the car park entrance - we found a parking space on the road's grass verge. Lucky. The hard standing car parking area is very small but, many had found extra spaces on the grass beyond. Not a long walk, along a heavily rutted tractor track, extremely muddy in places. It's a lovely area with extensive views over the marshes, skeins of Pink-feet flying in, Brent rising and falling again, Cetti's Warbler singing. We haven't walked out since going for the Stilt Sandpiper late on a windy evening after a drive back from Carrbridge in the Highlands. Aah,  I remember a later visit, the highlight two Cranes flying over. Always good to see those not part of the Hickling flock.

A constant procession of birders leaving and us walking out, always a good sized admiring group scoping east about halfway to the sea wall.. The Steppe Grey Shrike was perched distantly on top of a hawthorn bush. Lovely. 

Big zoom and crop

My Sibley says ' WAS part of the Great Grey Shrike' complex, now lumped with the Southern group which is being investigated'. Is it a full species? I expect we'll find out in time. A very pale bird compared with Great Grey. I attempted some shots with my SX50 set on C1 - birds -  according to the YouTube video I watched yesterday. They look better than the ones I took on Auto, despite being at full zoom which I rarely use. The 'better' is comparative !

 

Steppe Grey Shrike - a First for Norfolk

Huge zoom and crop for both......

 In excuse, I haven't seen any really cracking ones on Surfbirds etc. The bird shows well but at a distance. All better than mine though, which have been heavily cropped.

Wow. I should have looked at the photos on Bird Forum before I wrote. There are some beauties of the Shrike which obviously does come much closer. Will try again and linger if it stays. I should have been there after the bird had been lured with mealworms and voles when the beautiful pics were taken.