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......... 

January Moths and Garden Bird Count

 Sunday January 31

The RSPB's Big Garden Bidwatch weekend started on Friday. We did two x one hour sessions of watching, and maximum number counting, of our garden birds.  The first session was yesterday from 10.30 -11.30 when we totalled 17 species

To-day, we watched from 2.30-3.30, seeing 18 species, adding  5 more species to yesterday's list.

 Total

11    Blue Tit        

3      Great Tit        

7    Long-tailed Tit        

8    Pheasant         

4    Goldfinch        

4    Greenfinch        

3    Blackbird        

2    Coal Tit        

3    House Sparrow        

3    Chaffinch 

1    Nuthatch

2    Brambling

1    Great Spotted Woodpecker (female)

2    Magpie  

1    Redwing

1    Wood Pigeon

2    Dunnock

1    Robin

To-day's Additions

1    Wren

2    Collared Dove

1    Sparrowhawk

1    Blackcap (male)

2    Jackdaws     

 23 species

Rules are simple. Only count the birds actually in the garden, no fly-overs included, and the maximum number of any one species seen simultaneously. We both take half the garden feeders each, constantly calling out the number of species present. As accurate as we can make it!

 January Moth Trapping

The 60 watt actinic (thought to be better in winter than the 150 watt MV) light, Robinson moth trap has only been set five times this month. Too cold with very few moths flying. Friday the 29th was the best night, despite the strong wind, with 10 moths of 3 species, making the grand total of 4 species in the month. A lone Chestnut earlier in the week, Pale Brindled Beauty, Early Moth, and Spring Usher the other three. 

Spring Usher

Pale Brindled Beauty

 

Early Moth

Many Moth-ers do not start trapping until Easter time, or when the weather is warmer. I like to know what's about. There is a national winter moth trapping survey whose intrepid members trap every Friday night during the winter months. This is allied to a summer survey which I was very tempted to join. In previous years, travelling on birding trips made regular weekly commitment impossible, in non-Covid years it still would.

Birding

Saturday January 30 

We're running a day late with Winterwatch, as a result of watching Man U lose to Sheffield United on Wednesday night. Therefore, I didn't watch Thursday's episode until after I'd posted yesterday's Blog. What came up? A session on virtual birding being a good replacement for the real experience. As I posted earlier, enjoyable, but not a replacement, something stimulating to do whilst in lockdown. 

My favourite live, virtual birding videos, are all found on YouTube. If you ask for nature cams or more specifically, bird cams, a whole host of live feeds come up. There's a particularly good - recorded live - clip of Brown Bears standing on top of a small waterfall, catching salmon in mid leap as they travel upstream. A Waved Albatross sitting on its nest in tall grass was unexpected. A Florida Bald Eagle nest already has two newly hatched eaglets, the slightly larger of the two already attacking the younger at every opportunity. The parent looks on.

The best bird table cams are Climbers Run in Pennsylvania and an Alabama bird table cam. It doesn't get light there until past mid-day our time.

Back to yesterday when we did some local birding. Adrian was finishing the gutter cleaning, so it was late morning before we left in sunshine. The light soon deteriorated as it clouded over, and we drove home in rain. I don't remember ever seeing so many flooded meadows where there have been none before. Small inland lakes. 

Haddiscoe Marshes held the largest flock of Lapwing I've ever seen. There must have been well over a thousand swirling into the sky before re-settling. Add several hundred Starlings, it becomes a monumental storm cloud of birds. One female Stonechat made a brief appearance.

We also added Meadow Pipit to the year list.

Having failed to see the Walcott Mediterranean Gull so far this year, we drove to our favourite spot where there were at least ten, still in their winter garb. Their constant preening, feathers drifting away in the breeze, heralded the spring moult into their black-headed, deep red beak and legs glory. 

Stopping to turn round, Pam hesitated, as there was a gull in the way. She then identified it as a Yellow-legged Herring Gull. Excellent. My snatched photo out of the driver's window does not do the bird justice.

 

One flooded field had four White Wagtails tittuping around the water's edge. I know that this is the nominate race and not always counted on the UK list. They're on mine.....

 Enjoying a hot drink at home, Pam appeared - in a rush. I managed to see the Grey Wagtail as it flew away from the pond. 

Another quick, Pam appearance from the kitchen, added Mistle Thrush to the year list. 

TO-DAY 

We did an hour's garden bird count this morning for the annual RSPB citizen's science project. We had an admirable 17 species of bird visit during that hour, including Brambling, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Redwing and Magpie.