Baited Buntings

Snow Bunting at bait, north Norfolk

Snow Buntings are a classic winter bird in north Norfolk, their flocks are often described as looking like a flurry of snow flakes as they take flight. Normally you would need to walk some of the quieter stretches of coastline to find a flock [Holme has been good this winter]. However at Salthouse the birds come to seed, I believe that this was originally put down by ringers so that they could catch and ring birds as part of a scientific study. I'm less clear as to who feeds them these days, certainly this afternoon a couple of photographers looked as if they had been putting out some millet.

You would think that this might be considered a harmless, even beneficial activity by all birdwatchers, however some concerns have been raised that not only are the Snow Buntings being fed but that local birds of prey will also notice the concentration of prey items in this one spot and that this will lead to increased predation of wintering Snow Buntings. As far as I am aware this has not happened and the Snow Buntings have become something of an attraction in their own right.

I managed half an hour with these lovely little birds today under a cloudy grey sky with low light and so didn't manage any amazing shots, nonetheless it was a fun experience and I'll see if I can get back before the Snow Buntings disappear in the spring.

I wonder what other birds it would be appropriate to bait in like this, there are plenty of traditional peanut feeders hanging up around nature reserves and gardens along the coast to attract Blue Tits, Greenfinches etc, what else could we responsibly bait in, Water Rails with fish, Bearded Tits at Grit trays?

Hare Today?

Brown Hare near Anmer

So far this early spring I have seen very few Brown Hare's compared to last year, perhaps the cold weather has dampened their ardour and they are just being less conspicuous of perhaps the cold winter weather has knocked the population back. I know also that one or two local shoots refrained from shooting Hares in the first part of the winter as their numbers were low following a disease outbreak.

This individual was feeding by the side of a quiet back road near Anmer and allowed me to take just one picture.

An Orwellian view of Spring

Naturalised Crocuses, Norwich

Took the baby for a walk this morning, lovely blue sky with two Common Buzzards wheeling over the woods behind Hunstanton and a Dunnock singing in a garden at the end of our road. Spring is coming and these words written by George Orwell 70 or so years ago feel appropriate.

"So long as you are not actually ill, hungry, frightened or immured in a prison or holiday camp, spring is still spring. The atom bombs are piling up in factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply though they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it." George Orwell

With acknowledgment to Richard Mabey quoting this passage in the March issue of BBC Wildlife magazine.

Tit Flocks

Ken Hill Wood [there's a Marsh Tit in this picture somewhere]

The diary has been kind to me this week and I've managed a couple of days working out of an office in Snettisham, close to home in Hunstanton. This meant that I managed a couple of lunchtime excursions into Ken Hill Woods.

These woods here can at times appear a little bird less and then with a little luck you come across a small mixed flock and things get a bit more interesting.

Earlier this week I had a twenty minute pootle and managed to 'pish' n a couple of Marsh Tits which are always nice to see and were my first of the year. Today a longer walk appeared to be a pretty bird free zone until I came across a mixed tit flock. Most of the birds were Coal Tits with a few Long Tailed, Blue and Great Tits for company. It was pleasing though to also find some Treecreepers and a couple of Nuthatches in this flock.

Mussel Harvest

Oystercatcher, Brancaster Staithe

From a purely selfish perspective, one of the great things about the winter on the north Norfolk coast is that there are fewer people around. This means that it is possible at this time of year to have the small coastal harbours almost to oneself even in the middle of the day. So this afternoon I popped into Brancaster Staithe Harbour on my way to Titchwell Marsh.

The tide was out and there only one other car on the harbour hard in which an elderly couple snoozed. Winding down the window I could hear the tell tall crack as a mussel shell hit the ground dropped by a hungry Herring Gull. I have blogged before on this piece of learned behaviour and the response of the local Turnstones to try and take advantage of the cracked open mussel shells before the Herring Gulls are able to reach the ground.

Today I saw a development on this theme as a juvenile Oystercatcher joined a single Turnstone in trying to pinch a adult Herring Gulls meal. Later I photographed an Oystercatcher asleep on top of the sacks of harvested Mussels.

The World's still turning

Snowdrops


Naturalised crocus

Although in today's cold drizzle it was a little hard to believe spring is coming on and with it one of Norfolk's best kept wildlife secrets the annual burst of colour in the Rosary Cemetery as thousands of 'feral' crocuses carpet the ground. I love this annual show of life bursting through the ground fed I guess in parts by the bones of the departed.

The Snowdrops which will shortly be outnumbered by Crocuses are already looking good and today I saw my first Crocus flowers. Interestingly the Butterburr flowers that normally precede the bulbs have been slow to appear this year with a only a few flower stalks present.

The World's Started Turning

Robin, Titchwell Marsh, Norfolk, February 2010

I managed an hour at Titchwell Marsh on Saturday and with a clear blue sky there was a definite feeling of spring in the air. Patches of Snowdrops were coming into bloom by the side of the path between the visitor centre and the car park and our resident songbirds could be heard flexing their vocal muscles.

The Robins at Titchwell are know for their tameness and you can get great images of them using a digital compact camera. For this shot I used a 400mm lens and I like the way that this has thrown the background out of focus.