Not a Lot

Monday February 19

Two weeks best forgotten. No birding, lots of medical appointments. pam had her carpal tunnel operation last Tuesday so ........enforced non driving. Still hardly any vision in my left eye making it inadvsable for me to drive.

The weekend's lovely sunshine encouraged me to inspect my alpine troughs. Two of my baby irises are in bloom and at their best.

 Others are either past it or yet to come.

The acacia is covered in blossom, it will look great in a few days time. Very encouraging that it's doing well despite the really cold weather of the past few weeks. We needn't have kept it in the hreenhouse for all those years.

Our first Siskin of the year was a beautiful male on the garden feeders. The Marsh Tit and Nuthatch visit sporadically - I've missed them both - and the Tawny Owls were calling well last night. Until I went out that is.

Itch Scratched

Thursday February 8

In the middle of what turned out to be an extremely hectic week - two visits to the NNUH in 24 hours, retinal bleed in left eye - the sun was out, we drove to Horsey.

Room in THE layby south of Horsey Mill, from which I scanned the fields. A flock of grazing Pinkfeet, a few Lapwings and Golden Plover. A dangerously low turboprop plane overhead caused all birds to take flight,  anuisance to all.

A little further on, I asked Pam to stop at the roadside in order to view - again - the 100 + Mute Swans on the east side of the road to-day. YES . Very distant, it was worth getting the scope out to see a pair of Common Cranes feeding, silhouetted against the line of reeds below the dark green of a coniferous belt.

Ridiculous photo........they're centre back !

Deciding not to drive as far as Winterton beach, we turned for home when Pam spotted a movement on the dung heap opposite Waxham Great Barn. We returned to investigate, finding our first Grey Wagtail of the year tripping daintily through the liquid effluent run-off from the heap. Beauty and the Beast.

ROGOF

Friday February 2

Read One Get One Free

A small obsession with seeing Common Cranes for the year strikes us in January. Now February, still no sightings. The birds have recently been reported in the Clippesby/ Billockby area, that's where we started. Despite a thorough search, we failed to see any, let alone the 16 reported. It was interesting to see that the Clippesby fuchsia nursery grounds now have four wooden holiday chalets of a swiss design. Good area for moths?

Bure Park has given us a few good birds in the past. Our first Norfolk Ring-billed Gull and early Garganey for instance. This has involved some walking, as the park is not small.To-day, we drove to the third - and last - car park, where the Glossy Ibis was feeding avidly, a mere 50 metres away, apparently undeterred by cars.

I took some photos in poor light, the occasional sun back-lighting the bird. 

It was finding plenty to eat. Not the best photo but shows its lunch. 

It uttered a loud squawk, eye on the intruder,  when a gull flew too close.

A short drive away, behind the Sealife Centre, a dozen Mediterranean Gulls hunkered down on the sand, showing as little profile as possible in the bitterly cold wind. I tried to entice them nearer with half of Pam's lunchtime biscuit bar. To no avail, I don't think they blinked - much to Pam's amusement.  She too was hunkered down, in the warm car, I was pleased to get back in.

Another shoreside parking area gave a closer view of the birds,  past the end of a row of kiosks and before the wall.

One had an unreadable ring.

Sunday February 4 

Those cranes again....
Fourteen reported this time, west of the B1152, 2k south of Repps. Very exact, no birds. Times reported on Twitter are not accurate by the time I read them nor, as in this case, relayed by another birder. 
Might as well try St Benets and Ludham Marshes.
We picked up three year birds, the mid-day session was fruitful in the end. Five well separated Bewick Swans from the St Benets track, 

one Grey Heron deciding to hunt on the track as we drove back. Photo taken  between the wing mirror and the car body.

The finch flock is still restlessly swirling over the weed fields between Catfield and Ludham, nearer to the latter and west of the road opposite a lone bungalow named Eversleigh. Mostly Brambling landed in the oak tree above us for a respite, before rushing off again. So much wasted energy. The wonders of a photo editing programme brought the silhouettes high above into colour.

Where's Billockby?

Friday February 2

I had to be at the surgery in North Walsham for a 9.00 a.m. INR test - warfarin efficacy. I decided to go home for a short while before setting off for Billockby. A group of 14 Cranes has been reported from this area. We know where Billockby village is but not the birds' location.

Bob had told us to turn at Clippesby. We did. Also explored several other parts of the area, to no avail.

Cutting our losses, we drove to Bure Park in Great Yarmouth and the third car park which is the last one near the children's playground splendid equipment. The Glossy Ibis was feeding avidly and successfully about 50 metres away.  Not the best of photos but it shows a good meal.

Excellent - apart from the fact that when the sun came out, the bird was backlit. Without sun it was a lustreless blob. Very brown, with a spotty head and ruff, it must be a juvenile bird.

The light was mostly dull, a rain shower encouraging us to leave for the Marina Centre and our usual viewing place behind the Sealife Centre. About a dozen Mediterranean Gulls present, huddled low against the sand, protecting themselves from the Arctic wind. Very distant indeed, I got out and scattered some of Pam's biscuit crumbs. Not even that sacrifice made them move an inch, which amused Pam, also huddled but, in the car.

We drove to the next beach parking area from which we could see the birds more closely between the end kiosk and a concrete wall. I expect I could have got better pics if I'd got out. No way.

Curate's Egg

Thursday February 1

I woke early, the sky was a cloudless blue. We changed our plans - why do we take notice of the forecasters - and set off for a day's north coast birding. Well, it starts off inland on the westward leg. 

The countryside was breathtaking, a lovely day whilst in the car bubble. Then I got out at Sculthorpe Mill.  It was bitterly cold but worth it. Pam had found a hunting Barn Owl in the back field. 

We gave Great Massingham church cemetery a go, where we failed to find any Hawfinches. Nice new area for us, only a few miles from our usual route.

Has our Valley Farm gamekeeper friend cut some shrubbery down? We had excellent views of his bird table between the pole and his house. Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Blue, Great, Long-tailed, Coal and Marsh Tit, Tree Sparrow. All in a few minutes.

Tried again at the Dersingham office to renew our Snettisham driving permit. This time, Pam read the notice on the door which said that the RSPB website and Titchwell were now the only sources. 

We still drove to Snettisham reserve and, for only the second time ever, were asked if we had a permit !! I answered in the affirmative, he didn't ask if it was current......not for want of trying to renew it. The warden was not the one we knew, was very pleasant, waved me away when I reached for the permit and informed us of a Short-eared Owl roosting on one of the pits. Only visible from the path opposite where we were. Another opportunity wasted by my lack of mobility.

The tide was way out, exposing the deep main channel and very  narrow creeks gouged out by recent high wind and tides. Having enjoyed the wader and mud spectacle, I was delighted to close the window and withdraw my scope. Frostbite was setting in to my left hand and face.

Morrison's petrol has been expensive of late. We'd eschewed the Fakenham store in favour of Hunstanton Tesco. The price was similar ! The store is useful for a loo stop though.

Thoroughly jolted by the drive out to Holme where we added Shoveller and Pinkfeet, the body attack then continued on the visit to Thornham and, later, Stiffkey and Morston.

Curlew in Thornham Channel

New permit obtained at Titchwell, fully legal now.
Great Egret on Holkham Marsh and a Greenshank at Morston were our reward for the rib rattling potholes and traffic calmers..

The sky was overcast by mid-day, the rain started at 1.00 p.m.and continued for the rest of the day. The NW front had pushed the eastern one away. 

No White-fronts visible at Holkham, views of the ticket warden approaching cut our visit short. 

A Stonechat at Cley. 

The Little Owl tree lying flat on the ground at Felbrigg was a sad and disappointing sight. No sign of the bird, hope it wasn't snuggled up in there when it fell. A message from BC quoted Carl as saying that a bird was still perched in the fallen tree. Hm. Very exposed to predators now.

Still thoroughly piut out by last night's footie. Spurs' first goal was clever, should not have stood as there was a kick-off rule break. When did Jones last score an own goal, let alone such a good one. Sounds like sour grapes. Not really, they deserved to win. Kane twisted Jones' blood throughout the match, Pogba had a 'mare and no-one played well enough. The joys of supporting a team.