Nutty Surprise

Friday August 28 

 

The final instalment of my imaginative birthday present arrived on Wednesday. Kent Cobs. The hazelnuts on the trees I knew well as a youngster, were smaller and rounder. The trees' position were a well guarded secret for my friends and I, there was always a competition as to who could find the biggest cluster. My present contained one with six cobs attached to one small stem. I remember that our record was seven. Large clusters often held one undeveloped or black shelled nut, this clump was perfect.

 

The moth-ing at Natural Surroundings on Tuesday was, unsurprisingly, disappointing. Overnight heavy rain, which continued all morning, presaged the arrival of the latest storm, Francis. We were lucky compared with the west of the country, which bore the brunt of the extreme weather. Masked and waterproof clad, we huddled in the dark chalet, social distancing all that was possible, whilst three traps were opened, all containing moths. A fun time was had trying to catch the escaping moths, as the chalet is crowded with furniture, shelves of various pieces of bric a brac, and cages of active Harvest Mice. 

One of the moths was another tiny macro, Pinion-streaked Snout. I remarked that I still wasn't sure that I would recognise one in our own traps. It's as small as many micros.Then I did, the following morning. A first - identified - for our garden.

 Earlier in the week, another moth trap surprise at home, was this male Brown Hawker. Pam had caught one, frantically buzzing around the utility room, the previous evening, releasing it outside. It's a lovely male, a big dragonfly, over 7 cms in size.

Yesterday, we drove to Buckenham Marshes. After a busy week, it was lovely to get out and look for birds. We chose Buckenham as the best chance of avoiding the Bank Holiday crowds frequenting the coast and all areas of interest. It's been like a bank holiday in North Norfolk for weeks. The only birds we saw as we drove down to the Fishermen's car park were Lapwings, Greylag and Mute Swan. I scanned the marsh from several spots as we negotiated the track.

Still eager to see my first proper Garganey of the year - Pensthorpe doesn't count - all dykes were also scanned, without a sighting of any bird at all. Only four vehicles in the car park and we saw a mere five people the whole of the time we were there.

Hardly any water in the usual large area in front of the hide. Scoping through the hundred or so Greylag Geese on the sedge-tussocked boggy area, I found a few eclipse Mallard but nothing else. 

Moving on to the first dyke on the left on the way back, a group of ducks swam out from an out of view dyke feeding in from the far left, splashing and chasing, rapidly swimming back from whence they came. Patiently scanning this active, ever-changing crew of mainly Mallard, I saw one Shoveller, three juvenile Garganey and a single adult. The adult was well marked but only stayed for a few seconds. Hopefully, snapping a dozen or so photos when I thought that there might be a garganey in view, I ended up with one discerniible shot. I could only identify the birds through my scope, so had to quickly change from that to my camera to view where a bird had been. It's the central bird at the back.

Marsh Harrier, Kestrel, Buzzard and Grey Heron were the only other birds seen buit it was an enjoyable visit.

Two young Muntjac were grazing at the Strumpshaw side of the reserve, then their mother appeared - socially distanced until they ran towards her.

Not much colour in my alpine troughs at the moment. This very tall  Anomatheka laxa, borne on tall slender stems, has a delicate nodding beauty and is also a lovely colour.

It's classed as a flowering grass, originating in South Africa.