Reason, not an Excuse!

Wednesday, February 24 

As one ages, medical appointments become a more regular part of daily life. This time, it was the, twice deferred because of snow, chiropodist ordeal in Sheringham. During lockdown, it has become a pleasure to have a good legal reason for leaving home. Sheringham isn't far from Cley!

Only one car parked in Beach Road Salthouse. a dozen and a half Curlew occupied the east marsh, along with a smattering of Wigeon, and mainly, Black-headed Gulls.Three smart Great Ringed Plover on the western pool, along with three Dunlin. Ever optimistic, I scanned Little Eye for an early Wheatear, no luck.

A male Stonechat was startled into flight as we entered Iron Road.,several Shovellers and Shelduck shone brightly in the distant sea pool. As we crosed the bridge, my first Water Vole of the year swam leisurely across the dyke, dissolving into the reeds.

Maybe Cley Visitors Centre car park would allow an elevated view of the marsh. The hedge along the road end of the car park is now too tall. We envied the worker sitting in the cafe window surveying the view. Soon I hope. Pam paused on the top of the slope down to the old car park, from which she could see some of the main pool. I missed he flock of Avocets which made a short appearance at  top of the hedge level. I did not miss the flock of Golden Plover which sprang into the air before flying off west. 

Beach Road, Cley, was without the big pools of water previously encountered. On reflection. I knew that a small flock of Russian White-fronted Geese had been seen in the area. That was after my surprise at finding them. Far too distant to photograph, unfortunately.

We stopped near the cattle pens to view the enormous, tightly gathered, flock of Brent Geese on the Eye Field. Two male and a female Stonechat flitted restlessly around the pens. Maybe I could scan the geese better on the way back.They are probably gathering ready for their flight north to their breeding grounds.

In the pool  of standing water near the end, a lone Curlew was vigorously preening after a wash. 

 

A Skylark's glorious, spirit raising,  song as he rose into the blue sky, promised spring. Two more fed in the tall grass, plus one Meadow Pipit.

No, the geese were now giving even worse viewing problems. Flock fragmentation followed by a mass departure to North Pool.

Avoiding the village centre, we drove up Old Woman's Lane in order to access what we call Sewage Works road. Known as Bullfinch Lane to some - it's not named on the map - we stopped doing so as we never see Bullfinches these days. The gates to the water treatment plant were open, and, very conveniently, two Grey Wagtails patrolled the wall of the furthest gravel bed, often disappearing down into the bed to collect insects. They would have been my first of the year if I hadn't seen one hopping the water weeds in our pond before we left home this morning. 

 

Too many walkers in the lane for any roadside passerines. As we stopped at the ford, I said, 'come on Cetti's where are you'. On cue a short burst of song emanated from the alder carr.

I did some Mallard and Moorhen photography on the way home, folder fillers.

 

 

Apart from the chiropodist, we did not speak to anyone, leave the car nor in any way endanger ourselves nor anyone else during this guilty and very enjoyable mental health supporting exercise.

Spring-like

 Sunday, February 21

The sun is shining, it's 15C on the patio, there were moths in the traps, and the first alpine flowers in bloom had an enormous Bumblebee feeding amongst the yellow Irises. 

 

Even better, I had a Facetime call from my younger grandson, Josh, in Brisbane. The last time I saw him, he'd had his head virtually shaved. He now has a cap of curls again, thank goodness. I wonder how long that will last.

We trapped 12 macro moths of 5 species overnight, a Satellite the only one new for the year. 

 

Spring Usher

and Chestnut

 

The first micro was the ubiquitous Agonopterix Heracliana - Common Flat-body, I must get used to the increasingy widespread use of common names for micros, virtually all of which have been, until recently, known by their scientific name only. Norfolk County recorder Jim Wheeler has published a book giving them additional vernacular names.

 

There was also a half a centimetre long, thin, black caterpillar, as yet unidentified. We have a copy of the latest Lewington caterpillar book, which is beautiful and mind-boggling at the same time. We'll tackle that later........

The apples put out for the birds have been non existent by morning. The trailcam put out overnight came up with the suspected culprit. A female Muntjac, which looks suspiciously heavy bellied. It's sniffing a mole hill.

 

All our nestboxes are clean and back in situ. Now for some tenants for these very des res homes. The first Wheatears and Sand Martins have been noted, the first appeared in the Cardiff area.a couple of days ago.

Longer Days

Wednesday, February 17

We're green again. The snow disappeared  within 24 hours. We had to go to the Eye Clinic at Cromer Hospital yesterday morning (Lucentis injection number 28 in left eye). The large mounds of dirty snow, and the drifts remaining roadside and in the fields, was evidence of why the road was almost impassible last week.

Whilst the local anaesthetic lasted, we drove home via Sheringham and Salthouse, adding a Red-throated Diver to the month list. A small flock  of Great Ringed Plover and another of Dunlin, raised the spirits.

The rational me doesn't want lockdown to finish until Covid is under reasonable control. I'll stand whatever it takes. Another part wants the freedom to go birding, to moth and meet friends at Natural Surroundings and to actually converse in person with others. The rational wins every time.

We face due south, sunrise and sunset is not viewable from our home. There have been some stunning photographs posted online. My only contribution is a back-lit stormy cloud with a silver lining. Imagery?

 

During the same short outing, Pink-footed Geese in a sundown haze

and a lichen rich oak tree. with an old Bracket Fungus heralding the ending of its days.

 

 

What's New?

Friday, February 12

The quick response to the title is... nothing. On reflection,  two Fieldfare made a 2021 garden visit. A loud Chack to each other and they flew away. Maybe apples, sunflower hearts, suet pellets, meal worms, seedy fat balls and no mess seed mix was not to their liking. A Redwing did enter one of the ground cages to feed in safety.

At last, I managed some sort of photograph of the male Blackcap. He hides in a Bottlebrush bush before darting out for a mealworm or a mouthful of fat ball, then hides again.

 

We also have a pretty constant Pied Wagtail lurking under the feeders

 

I counted 15 Blackbirds simultaneously feeding this morning, Pam's record is 19. The Wilemans have had 47 in their north Norfolk, Langham,  garden. They do spread a large number of sultanas and apples daily.

There are always Blue Tits feeding, squabbling, rarely still. Delightful little birds. The orange glow is the coppery peeling bark of the Acer Griseum, sun shining through.

 

My re-scheduled eye clinic visit was due this morning. Pam took one look at the temperature, and at the icy road, before phoning to make another appointment for next week. Very understandable. Rai and Barbara only walked as far as the end of our road before turning for home. Another neighbour fell whilst out walking yesterday, somehow got home helped by his wife, and is now at the NNUH with a fractured pelvis.

It's now a couple of days over the 22 necessary for the formation of anti bodies after a Covid injection. I still wouldn't want a hospital admission.

Yet another of our neighbours have had a Woodcock in their garden. I was given some good advice by Mike as to when to watch the wood for outflyers at dusk. Maybe to-night. When we first moved here, around June/July, Woodcock would rode around the wood at the bottom of the garden. Birding friends would join us in standing on the dyke bank to watch them and to hear their call. We've also had them in the garden during previous snow falls. There are frequent Tweets of sightings elsewhere in the county.

 

Snow

 Monday, February 8

The wind howled, driving a blizzard of fine snow  horizontally, from east to west, across the garden. We found a bare two centimetres lying, spikes of lawn grass sticking through the blanket. During the morning, it snowed some more, thawed a little, then snowed again. Pam braved the conditions to top up our many bird feeders.

I postponed my visit to the eye clinic in Cromer. I didn't want to, but driving conditions in North Walsham are not good, the Covid mass vaccination centre in the Community Hall has cancelled work for the day. During easterly winds, the north coast always has more snow than us. My eye appontment has been re-arranged for Friday late morning.

Our back garden this afternoon

 

Two feeding stations and a table on the right hand side of the garden. A caged food source for ground feeders - protected from the Pheasants.

 

 

 

Another feeding station against the east hedge and a fourth at the very bottom near the dyke

 

Close up of the east Hawthorn hedge feeders

 

 

 

The Acacia/Wattle/Mimosa tree is showing the yellow flush of closed flower buds.

Latest  thoughts on the white-headed Long-tailed Tit I photographed, and posted in my last Blog entry. I sent the photo to Pete Colston for his opinion. His recommendation was to send it to either Steve Gantlett, or to Andy Stoddard. I had access to Steve's email address, I sent it to him. This is the, unsurprising, response. 

 Hi Anne,

'Acceptable' caudatus have to have pure white heads, a clear cut black nape and less pink on the shoulders, so this won't be one. Still a very nice looking bird though and even ones this white-headed are quite rare. It is not clear (to me) what these ones that don't quite make the grade are – intergrades, presumably wanderers from the continent, or occasional genetic variations amongst the British population.

Cheers,

Steve

 in a second mail.he suggested that I send the record to the county bird recorder.

Not at All Holy Moley

 Friday February 5

We have been invaded by one - very busy - or more than one, mole. It's made several hills in the side border and had started a side branch into the lawn. Pam was becoming increasingly agitated. I went online and bought a couple of sonic deterrent devices. I don't know whether - or not - they work, but it's worth a try. 

We had a major problem soon after we moved to Norfolk. Discussing this at work, a locally raised colleague recommended, very seriously, that I talk to them nicely and asked them to go away. I was to tell them how lovely they are, how much I like them and that a neighbour loved them even more.

Making sure that no-one was around, I did exactly that, sending them next door to Norman.They went. Probably a total co-incidence, I don't have many hippy dippy tendencies.

Another hour skulking in the sun lounge yesterday, camera mounted on the new tripod, added a female Brambling and a male Blackcap to the month list. I managed a photo of the former when it perched in the hedge, the Blackcap still eludes me

The Stock Dove got away too, my battery died.

I did manage one shot of a very white-headed Long-tailed Tit. The Swedish race looks like this, named as Northern Long-tailed Tit. We once travelled to Suffolk's Dunwich Heath to see a small party of them. I'm not 100%  convinced by this one. The back of the neck looks a little 'dirty'. Opinions welcomed.

 

 BBRC

Long-tailed Tit Aegithalos caudatus

Long-tailed Tit comprises perhaps as many as twenty subspecies. Of relevance here are three of these – rosaceus (�British Long-tailed Tit�), endemic to Britain and Ireland, europaeus (�Central European Long-tailed Tit�), breeding in western, central and south-east Europe, and nominate caudatus (�Northern Long-tailed Tit�), breeding across Scandinavia, European Russia and northern Asia. The subspecies caudatus and europaeus intergrade in a zone stretching from Denmark through eastern Germany and southern Poland to northern Romania and southern Ukraine, resulting in birds of intermediate appearance. This intergrade zone may be shifting southwards.

Nominate caudatus is a striking subspecies but it needs to be separated with care from caudatus x europaeus intergrades/�white-headed europaeus�. The key feature is a wholly white head but the pattern of the tertials, scapulars and underparts should also be noted, although these are somewhat variable. Quite what constitutes a fully �pure� caudatus is the subject of debate, however, some authors (e.g. Jansen & Nap 2008) advocating that the merest hint of grey on the head excludes caudatus whilst most (e.g. Kehoe 2006) consider some faint grey streaking in the head to be compatible with caudatus. More clearly-defined head streaking forming faint �ghosted� coronal bands and grey streaking in the ear coverts or across the breast would, however, definitely exclude caudatus.

 

Exemption Day

 Tuesday, February 2

Monday

We needed to collect a new tripod from Cley Spy yesterday. My camera and lens combo is both heavy, and difficult to control in poor light, making for iffy sharpness. Much easier and more maneuverable to use, when sitting down, if it's mounted on a tripod. Well, that's what I decided. I like buying camera gear! This seemed like an excellent excuse reason.

Along the way, we found a year tick, first called by Pam. A pair of diminutuve, extremely active, hide and seek expert, Goldcrest. This is the best photo I managed.

A brief seaside visit saw plenty of Teal.

Before setting off, whilst Pam was organising  Andrea for her morning gardening tasks, they saw a Grey Wagtail fly in to our pond. I didn't. 

 Tuesday

Sam's day to clean our home - and prescription collection date. Unlike yesterday, it was dull, overcast, with rain first thing. Yesterday was mostly bright and sunny. Pam thinks that that is our weather pattern at the moment. One day good followed by one day not good. 

We came home from North Walsham along some back lanes. The main road is due to be closed soon, we need to find an alternative route, as I have an Eye Clinic appointment next Monday morning. Not before time, as I had to close my left eye in order to focus clearly on a Curlew Pam had found.

A small cloud of mixed finches scattered along the hedgerows before disappearing into the distance. We identified Chaffinches, and the year tick Yellowhammers. Against what light there was, nothing else was definitely discernible. Frustrating. 

As I write, the sun has appeared.........