Lots of moth-ing and not much birding, unfortunately. We missed the big Albatross chase along the east and north coast. My pager is giving me gobbledy gook messages most of the time - back to the early days of poor reception at home. I became accustomed to the good reception of the X2 pager. Shall I return it and go for Birdguides? It's tempting. Unable to walk for any distance means that I cannot respond to most messages anyway. But, I do prefer a pager to the phone service.
At the excellent presentation on the Antarctic by James Lowen at GYBC on Monday the 24th, with so many terrific photographs, a newish member had photos of the Albatross on his camera. Plus many Gannets...... I did not join the crowd looking at the back of the camera screen. Some of the onlookers thought that one of the birds was the albatross.....
A later pager message said that photos showed the much chased bird was a Gannet ! Who's photos?
An afternoon outing to Winterton brought a dozen Common Scoter on the sea, a few distant Brent Geese and nothing else.
We saw our first flocks of Pink-footed Geese flying overhead on our way to National Surroundings last Tuesday. Lovely, always a pleasure. We have since seen a single bird fly, calling, over our home.
An MOT and then a visit to Holden Honda meant no car for our 'free' days last week. The MOT was a rush job after a DVLA reminder so there wasn't a courtesy car available. The Mundesley garage couldn't solve the clunking noise hence the Norwich visit.
To-day, we drove to Buckenham Marshes, just to have a look. On the way my pager informed me that the Pectoral Sandpipers were both there yesterday. Hope blossomed. Scoping our way down the entrance track to the Fisherman's car park, we saw only Rooks and Lapwing, Canada Geese and Greylag. Even Cantley Beet Factory was smokeless. Then, two very distant raptors came into view from behind the factory. Patience brought them near enough to ID as Red Kites. A new Cantley tick for us. They separated and I lost view of one until finding it perched on a gatepost. Even this distant view in poor light is heavily cropped.
Even more heavily cropped.......
As we parked so that I could scope the pool in front of the empty hide, a flock of Lapwing rose and circled, showing three waders amongst them. The larger one was a Ruff, the other two? Could they be? The flock then flew strongly towards Cantley. Bother. The waders suddenly dropped away and returned to the pool. Yes, the two smaller birds were Pectoral Sandpipers, new for the year - and Buckenham.
Far too distant for photographs but good views in the scope. I wish I'd thought of taking a few flight shots, too busy looking.
I really like Autumn moths. Particularly Pink-barred Sallow and Black Rustic, both of which were in to-day's trap.
We twitched a Delicate at R and J's lovely Beeston bungalow yesterday, thank you both.
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