Joyous

 Saturday, January 16

Opening the bedroom curtains to see a white garden with more flakes gently falling, my immediate reaction is childhood joy. Snowballs, sliding, and snowman building. The latter doesn't last long, the joy does, yet, it's tempered. It adds difficulty to daily life. Pam came back in from filling the bird feeders - again - with deathly cold hands, despite wearing gloves. Sitting indoors in warmth, it all looks magical.

Pheasant footsteps pinting the way to the food.
 

 

I wanted to show the birds feeding in snowy conditions, the light was appalling, I could hear the shutter's double click.

The female Blackcap is enjoying the apple.

 

One clever female Chaffinch has learned how to hang on to a feeder, rather than produce a frantic flutter, whilst attempting to grab a sunflower seed. 

 

Goldfinches arrive in a tenement posse, chasing the tits away whilst they hog the feeders. 

 

To show the depth of snow, a birdless bird table - before Pam took away the snowy food and replaced it. We now have a bowlful of food defrosting in front of a radiator, it will then need drying.

 

The Kingfisher (!!) / Dragonfly perch over the waterfall and pond.

 

A day for jigsaws, Tony Blackburn's Sounds of the 60s (6 a.m BBC 2 sounds app), and the DT Saturday cryptic crossword.

The background does show off the boxing hares garden ornament.

 

Floral Tribute

Wednesday, January 13 

My mother only had one species of house plant. A Zygocactus species, known as the Christmas Cactus.It, and its young ones, sat on the kitchen windowsill throughout my living memory - my mother has been dead almost forty years. The cottage was rented from Colonel Gough, the local landowner, by my maternal grandparents. When my parents married, my father bought their home, where both my mother and I were born,  for the princely sum of £100. Is the original plant that old? Did my grandmother own one?

When my mother died, I acquired the original plant, it's an offspring that we have now. As the plant ages, sections of leaf fall off and are easily propogated by sticking the bottom into some soil. This magnificent specimen is the result of a random drop-off being planted into the soil of another pot plant (invisible behind it).

 Plant care instructions state

Temperature: Maintain an optimal climate of 65 degrees. Watering: Keep the soil evenly moist while your plant is blooming, misting it frequently. Light: Place the cactus in an east-facing window for moderate light and some direct sun. Fertilization: Apply a high-potassium fertilizer every two weeks once buds form.

All our plants are kept in the utility room year round, irregularly watered and occasionally fed, cared for by Pam.

An alternative suggestion is, ' if you forget them,that's better than over-care'. Just as well.

Inspired by this, I decided to take a walk round the garden in order to see if anything was flowering.

The Gentian showed signs of frost damage, the others relatively undamaged by the recent long spell of sub zero temperatures. Pam tells me that there are some Snowdrops out in the front, in the shelter of next door's beech hedge, I didn't venture out there.

Gentian

Viola

Daphne

 

 

Viburnum Tinus

Cyclamen

 Our thirty year old Witch Hazel died. The new one is too young to flower this year. We usually enjoyed its mass of bright golden, lightly scented. flowers at this time of year. I miss it.

All three vegetable plots have been winter dug, the contents of our compost bins spread on the surface.

 

Leeks remain, to see us through until spring.

Lockdown Enjoyment

 Monday, January 11

Such a lovely day - and I'm stuck indoors. For the best of reasons. I spent an hour watching and photographing garden birds from an open doorway, until the cold drove me back to the living room.

Despite next door's owner, stuck here since well before Christmas due to Milton Keynes being put into Tier 4, preventing his return to his full time address, stomping about the garden and hammering something or other, I saw the following:

Female Blackcap. No photo possible, as a stroppy Great Tit saw it off.  Female Pheasant (one of four), Robin, Coal Tit, Nuthatch, Great Tit, Chaffinch and, by far the most numerous and ever present, Blue Tits. The Robin is perched on the horns of Strudel, Pam's adopted Cairgorm reindeer.

 

Long-tailed Tits appeared for a short and chatty feed.

 

A quick look at Facebook showed a YouTube link to the endemic birds of Taiwan video, which we loved.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfi9tUkDF-w

There are a few Blogs which are daily reads of mine. David Bryant's 'Birds of the Heath'  

http://birdsoftheheath.blogspot.com/

and Bo Beolens'

 https://grumpyoldbirder.com/winter-flowering/  

 Both are interesting and usually enjoyable reads. I also read Sue Bryan and Penny Clarke's Blogs. At the moment, Sue, worryingly, has not made an entry for 2021 and Penny is indoors, suffering from Covid19. Very best wishes for a quick recovery.

New to me, was a 'Ghost Train' video of the defunct North Walsham to Mundesley railway. It showed a virtual trip through present day countryside on the left and the actual line in 2005 on the right. Fascinating. 

https://www.facebook.com/Timetravelimages/videos/2218965998227785/

Day 1 of Familiarisation (!)

 Saturday, January 9

Familiarisation, step 1 = me sitting, wearing a fleece,  behind the curtain, in front of an open sun lounge door. I could just about see the feeding stations nearest the house, and, if I squinted, the bird table.

Two bird baths in tandem, they prefer the smaller of the two

I managed over half an hour of watching Blue Tits, Great Tits, a Goldfinch, Coal Tit and a single Long-tailed Tit, make fleeting visits. A flock did not arrive and my hands were cold.

The highlight was our resident Wren (s? we only ever see one) diving under the nearer strawberry planter. A head appeared at the far end before a rapid departure. It then re-appeared on the iced up, small, bird bath on top of the chimonea when I took some quick shots with my 100 m lens.

This Wren has led us a merry dance over the last year plus. Pam hasn't even seen it this year. I finished 2020 without a Wren photo in my year folder.

As soon as I shed my coat and moved back into the warm living room,  a flock appeared. This included a Blackcap and our first Siskin of the year. Pam saw the Brambling  early this morning,

 

Legal Lockdown

 Wednesday January 6

The first day of legal lockdown - when one can be fined for breaking the rules. Hm. Will it stop people driving to the North Norfolk coast to 'exercise', or to the nearest nature reserve to exercise their dogs? I doubt it. Councils are already considering closing car parks due to the number of visitors yesterday.

We are not without fault. Yesterday was prescription collection day, legal. Shopping for food - legal. But, what we shopped for was bird food. Was that OK? Not strictly. Especially not from Van Der in Melton Constable, that's not local. It does mean that we can continue to feed our birds during the next cold weeks. Getting the bird food online is much more expensive, and lays us open to many more itinerant drivers and deliverers. A pair of Blackcaps and the male Brambling amongst to-day's garden visitors.

A last visit to a feeding station for some time.We have plans to try and train our garden birds to be as amenable.

Nuthatch

 

 

Female Chaffinch

 

 

Marsh Tit

Great Tit and Coal Tit

 

A regular provider of food here, who knows nothing about birds, had left carrots and apples for the Muntjacs. She'd fed the birds which is the important part, and does so daily.

 

I had arranged for MPB to buy a couple of my old lenses - too heavy and/or don't work on my present SLR, despite being the same make. Arranged before lockdown, to-day was the DPD collection day. We left the box in the porch, avoiding contact. The driver - unmasked - rang the bell until Pam answered. She then had to wait whilst he produced a receipt, another copy of which he stuck on the box. At arms length. BUT.

Collecting the prescriptions yesterday, Pam was told that delivery of the Covid vaccine should be made shortly, and that we would be phoned next week. That would be good. The new normal is perfectly acceptable to us, we do miss our friends, emails and phone calls mean a lot. We are lucky to be so well looked after by Sam and Adrian and Justine.

 

 

Two In One

Sunday,   January 3

News of Whooper Swans at Ludham Airfield, a short distance from home, was irresistiible. On a day of navy blue skies, breaks of sunshine, heavy showers and a biting N/E wind.

The flock of 28 swans, four of them youngsters, were distantly viewable from the airfield, and very slightly closer from a back lane.

 

Whilst I was scoping, checking that they were all Whoopers, Pam noticed a Peregrine sat on a muddy furrow. 

 

A real triumph of optimism.

It was not easy to scope the Horsey Pink-footed geese flock from THE layby  Tall reeds lining the unkempt roadside dyke and heavy traffic thundering past, making the car shake periodically. I found one of the two Tundra Bean Geese present, I called it over for the day when the bird then decided to lie down for a rest, hiding its orange legs.Pam had got on to it, so all was well.

Two Stock Doves and a Greenfinch added to the garden list for 2021.

 

TA DA

 

All twelve batteries in situ in my trail cam - and the bar back in. Now to read the instructions for setting it up.

 

Monday, January 4

In very similar weather to yesterday, we drove to Buckenham for the annual Taiga Bean Geese quest.

After an hour and more of scoping, I'd added Barnacle Geese, Russian White-fronted, Stonechats, Ruff, John Geeson and a Fieldfare to the year list.  We spoke to John through closed car windows, he hadn't seen any Taigas either - nor yesterday when someone had reported them present. There was a very large flock of Pink-footed, and another of Canada Geese, as well as those I mentioned. I reckon I saw every single one.

The few Ruff were well scattered amongst the extensive flock of Lapwing 

The biggest surprise was the absence of Wigeon, not even one bird. All the hundred or so Teal were on the main pool. Two Marsh Harriers idled over the distant trees 

We checked the barn area at Billockby on both passes, no Cranes.

How can Tier 4 lockdown become even harder? We'll find out at 8 p.m. when Boris is due to address the nation. Scotland has already announced the banning of take-away food outlets, and only 2 people together  in public, down from 6. Maybe that is the way forward. When will we over 80s get our jab? Stock up on the anti bacterial wipes.

2021

Friday, January 1,  20-21

We did it.

We went out birding/driving for the day - and it was wonderful. Despite the weather. The roads were empty. Frost garnished the verges where hedges had sheltered, heavy mist shrouded the views, occasional drizzle, sometimes heavier, and an infrequent shaft of watery sunshine sums up the conditions. It was very cold, barely rising above 0C all day, a northerly wind the culprit.

My first bird of the year was a Wood Pigeon, rising out of the wood at the bottom of the garden. I wished I hadn't looked out when I drew the bedroom curtains, as my second was the male Blackcap on a nearby fat ball feeder. 

It was reasonably light when we arrived at Selbrigg. The driver of the one parked car was feeding the birds on the lake, Mute Swans the nearest, Coot, Mallard and Moorhens standing on the ice. As soon as we drew up and Pam opened the boot to get the food, birds arrived, waiting expectantly in the vegetation surrounding the gateway. She was hardly back in the car before Blue, Great, Coal and Marsh Tits grabbed their breakfast. Two Nuthatches, Chaffinch, Dunnock Robin, and Blackbirds were the supporting cast. One Grey Squirrel and a skittish young Muntjac appeared near the gate. I took my first photos of the year in the 10 minutes we were there.

 

 

The traffic was light, but beginning to increase, as we made our way to the Harpley area where the hedgerows and fields were devoid of birds. Where have the thrushes and finches gone? At our turning spot in Valley Farm Lane, the nearby road and field held around two dozen Red-legged Partridges, wild enough to flee when they saw the car stop. Barry, our farm worker friend, drove up and came for a chat. We haven't seen him for months; he must have seen us drive past. Basically, he wanted to know if we were well, but then proceeded to tell us some horrific Covid tales. Not good. Elderly people he knew who had been taken to hospital with broken bones, contracted Covid, and died. We were happy to drive away, after admiring a fly by Red Kite

The only other birder at Snettisham was someone we know as sitting man. His bike is laid on the ground, he sits on a small stool, scoping the wash in the shelter of a large bush, always in the same place. I managed to find the lone Little Stint amongst the Dunlin, Sanderling, Knot, Grey and Golden Plaovers, Redshank, Oystercatchers, Curlew and Black-tailed Godwits. Two pairs of Goldeneye on the pit, the males are so handsome.

 

At least nine Little Grebes and one winter Great Crested Grebe diving amongst the vast numbers of Greylag. One Marsh Harrier, no sign of the White-tailed Eagle unfortunately. I missed my annual Mull fix of this awesome bird.

A knot of birders, tangled tripod legs, and a melee of cars trying to park, near the entrance to the RSPB car park, alerted us to something about. Somewhere known to us as the Ring Ouzel field. I stopped in the caravan park entrance to read my pager. An Eastern Black Redstart (it has a red lower belly) and a Yellow-browed Warbler. None of the birders were wearing a mask and they were certainly not distanced. Maybe Barry ought to have a word with them. I've only seen that Black Red race in Eastern Turkey, and later, in Ethiopia. Not to-day thank you, we're not leaving the car bubble.

We saw two of the two hundred plus Fulmar present, and one Rock Pigeon as we drove slowly along Hunstanton clifftop - far fewer cars parked than previously.

A Great White Egret at Holkham Freshes, two of the reported ten Cattle Egrets at Burnham Norton, they were in a distant field, amongst the cattle, barely viewable through the intervening hedgerows. 

Maybe the Waxwing on Kelling Heath would be accessible. Yes it was, but not for us. More birders not wearing masks, tripods, parked cars and general melee. We drove past.

A total of 72 species seen. The only thrush we saw was a Song, no Goldfinch, Wren nor Long-tailed Tit. Plenty more birds to enhance the month ahead.

I kept a list on EBird on my phone to-day. Cue trumpets. It was really easy and the app is free.

My next target is to get the batteries into my trailcam. It takes 12 x AA lithium in a double row of 6 with a bar across the centre. The batteries will not go in without removing the bar. The springs are very tight. As one tries to get the last pair in, one or more shoot out like champagne corks. I managed, sort ot, and then,  I can't get the bar back in........