A Privilege

 Sunday May 29

Pam burst into the living room saying ' Look under the fat balls'. I quickly wheeled my chair backwards so that I could see the area through the sun lounge windows. 

A fox cub was digging into the lawn, beneath the fat ball feeders. What a privilege to share twenty minutes with a wild animal behaving naturally. Endearingly fluffy, in its rusty red coat. In our garden too. I once caught an adult on a trail cam, but that was at night, and many years ago.

All the photos were taken with my Canon bridge camera, through the double glazed kitchen window.

 

 

Norfolk Birding

Friday May 27

 

Having had 30 injections in my left eye over the last five years or so, it is now a year since the last one. Do retinal bleeds suddenly stop? To my surprise - and relief - no injection needed again to-day. We went birding. A shortened version of our long day out on the north coast.

We were at Harpley Cottages before we had seen double figures, where are all the birds? Some will have been hiding from to-day's blustery wind. We did find a hare sheltering at the edge of a wildflower strip.

 

Harpley Cottages have their usual complement of House Martins, scarce elsewhere. We found a roadside puddle between Abbey Farm and Flitcham, where both Swallows and House Martins were coming down to collect mud. Unfortunately, our parking spot meant that I was shooting into the sun, they're record shots only (that is an excuse for  poor photos).

The hoped for Norfolk passerine ticks were non existent, no bird song, probably out too late for that. Holkham gateway added a Great White Egret, Wells North Pools a preening Spoonbill and Redshank (!).

 

It was then that we decide to drive home inland, via the chicken sheds at Cockthorpe. A Little Owl was tucked in tight under the hangover eaves of one of the sheds.

Moths Last Night

We had an interesting catch last night. Still struggling with recalling names after the dearth of moths in Scotland, it's improving every session. Four different Hawk-moths was a highlight. The Small Elephant Hawk-moth only our second ever, the first was in 2021.

Small Elephant Hawk-moth

Elephant Hawk-moth

Privet Hawk-moth

Previously shown, the fourth was Poplar Hawk-moth.

Dark Swordgrass

Lobster Moth

Knotgrass

 

 

 

Poplar Kitten

 

 

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Back Home

 Wednesday May 25

The holiday seems like a distant memory. We have been so busy this week, mainly catching up with medical appointments deferred by our time away. Chiropodist yesterday, xray at Cromer hospital today, Eye Clinic on Friday. Some enjoyable moth-ing in between. Our minds were boggled by our own traps on Monday morning. Instead of being led gently into the season with a gradual build up, we had over 20 species to identify, largely a dredging up of identity from this time last year.

 

Garden Carpet

May Highflyer

Eyed Hawk-moth

Yesterday at Natural Surroundings beat that into a cocked hat, with 67 species. The sheer size and variety of planting and habitat in the trapping area, produces a rich variety of species.

The Emperor moth caterpillars we brought back from North Uist are flourishing, twice their size already. Pam gives them fresh food twice daily - and cleans up their droppings. They started off on willow leaves and are now eating Hawthorn, we have plenty of that.This is a moth found country-wide, so bringing them home for release here is acceptable. There are about 80 of them.

 

In 4-5 weeks time, they should change to a green colour before pupating on their food plant. We shall then need to keep them through the winter for emergence next year.all good fun, and increasing the moth population. Unprotected, many of the caterpillars would be eaten by birds or predated by wasps.