Squeezing in Squirrels, Gulls, BOPs & Pipits

Grey Squirrel, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

It's been a pleasantly varied last seven days with some nice opportunities to do a bit of wildlife watching mixed into my working and personal week. I managed a couple of lunchtime walks arou8nd the Rosary Cemetery in Norwich earlier in the week and one of these coincided with some lovely light and a lot of Grey Squirrel activity as they foraged for food in the leaf litter.

Yellow Legged  and Lesser Black Backed Gulls, Titchwell Marsh, Norfolk

A two day work meeting close to home in NW Norfolk included some time out and about and I and my colleagues enjoyed a great couple of hours at Titchwell. I was particularly pleased at picking out this distant Yellow Legged Gull and a Merlin flying offshore. Other highlight were Red Necked Grebe, Marsh and Hen Harrier, Sparrowhawk, Cetti's Warbler, 35+ Little Egrets and a Chinese Water Deer on the Saltmarsh. I enjoyed watching this Black Headed Gull feeding on the Saltwater Pool.

Black Headed Gull, Titchwell, Norfolk

Little Egret, Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk

Today I took no2 son for a quick drive along the coast road to get him to sleep and I took advantage of this to nip into Burnham Overy Staithe and Brancaster Staithe Harbour's. Nice to see Marsh Harrier at both sites and to watch this Little Egret feeding at Burnham Overy Staithe.

Rock Pipit, Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk

Rock Pipit, Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk

It was good to pick up a couple of Rock Pipits at Overy Staithe.

All pictures taken with a digital compact Panasonic Lumix TZ30 so I can either apologise for the fuzzy cropped nature of some shots or invite you to marvel at what you can achieve with a camera that isn't much bigger than a fag packet, either way I didn't have my SLR with me at all this week so having  a compact meant at least I got some images.

Take a Butcher's

Great Grey Shrike, Burnham Deepdale

Butcher's is short for Butcher's Hook which is Cockney rhyming slang for Look, so take a Butcher's means take a look. Shrikes are known as Butcher birds due to their habit of impaling their prey on thorn bushes. Hence this blog's title.

Been loads of Shrikes along the east coast this past week, I lucked into this bird as I drove home from work this evening. Crap picture of a great bird.

Gulls - Large & Small

Immature Herring Gulls, The Wash, Hunstanton

A pattern is beginning to slowly emerge, the kids are still both demanding and rewarding, but as no2 son heads towards his second birthday small windows of time are more regularly coming my way and I am choosing to spend them below the cliffs at the end of our road in Hunstanton. I say "choosing" in some ways I am lucky that the nearest open space to our home is a stretch on beach facing onto the Wash, doubly lucky as I don't really have the time yet to travel further afield.

And so I sense that I have re calibrated my expectations has to what is a good or interesting sighting, in one sense this reminds me of patch watching in London in the 80's when what constituted a rarity was defined by its status in north London. So too now I am taking pleasure from the birds I am managing to winkle out on my short visits to the base of the cliffs.

Today having persuaded no1 son [age 4] to join me I had 40 minutes mid afternoon under the cliffs just as the tide dropped. A large flock of young Herring Gulls hung in the air below the sea wall looking to snatch starfish that had been swept onto the shore by the receding tide. Offshore a steady passage of immature Gannets headed for the mouth of the Wash and I think I saw 30+, a few Turnstones, Oystercatchers and Bar Tailed Godwits flew past low over the choppy waves and a trio of Red Breasted Mergansers. But my best bird was a stunning winter plumaged adult Little Gull, wonderful dark underwings and white trailing edges. I got a lot of satisfaction for picking this small gull out as it flew by low over the grey sea.

Arctic Skua beating up terns



Arctic Skua, Hunstanton Beach

I managed a great 45 minutes under the cliffs in Hunstanton this afternoon. Lovely late autumn sunshine and a turning tide. Gull numbers are pickimg up and there were lots of Herring Gulls, a few Black Heads and Common Gulls and a single Great Black Backed but no Fulmars. Way offshore 20+ Gannets plunge dived into the Wash and closer in 4 Sandwich Terns fed. Shorebirds included Bar Tailed Godwits, Redshanks and Turnstones.

Best bird though was the pictured Arctic Skua which I picked up resting on the sea and which would every so often take flight to beat up the Sandwich Terns.

Autumn Birds at Titchwell

Although I only live a few miles along the coast its been a while since I've visited Titchwell Marsh, so it was great to be able to spend a couple of hours there walking and talking with some work colleagues and do a bit of gentle spotting at the same time.

What struck me most of all was that the site was just hooching with birds. On the Fresh Marsh migrating waders fed within a few feet of the path, Wigeon grazed the islands and Bearded Tits called from within the reedbeds.

Greenshank, Titchwell Marsh, Norfolk

For me the first of two highlights of my visit were a flock of 17 Greenshanks picked up on call flying in at height from the west and slowly circling and descending low over the marsh whilst still calling, something very enigmatic about the sight and sound of this flock of birds on a north Norfolk Marsh in the autumn.

The second highlight were the wild geese. On the Fresh Marsh a flock of 20 Brent Geese were the first I have seen this autumn and the wink wink calls of a skein of Pink Footed Geese alerted me to 15 - 20 birds flying over again my first of the autumn.

Other great birds seen included a Snow Bunting, a couple of Curlew Sandpipers, a Little Stint and Spotted Redshank, as well as some splendid looking Little Egret's. All in all a very pleasant couple of hours.

Little Egret, Titchwell Marsh, Norfolk

Pictures taken with Panasonic Lumix TZ30 and cropped.

Dodging wasps and petting Lemurs a family day at the Zoo

A week or two ago I went with the family (wife, grandma, no 1 son age 4 1/2 and no 2 son age 21 months) to Banham Zoo in Norfolk. I've blogged about Banham Zoo before see here.

Visits to Banham are always with the kids and therefore my visitor experience is not that of a measured relaxed adult visit, but one overlaid with the demands, stresses and rewards of taking two small people out and about.

Banham operates a variable entrance fee policy over the course of a year and is at its most expensive in the summer. For our small party it costs about £63 to get in and then we spent another £6.50 on ice creams. The entrance and ticket booths were well organised with all of them being manned and two 'hosts' on hand to keep the queue moving efficiently to the next available booth.

Apart from the fact that the zoo was very busy (I would normally prefer quieter out of season visits) the big added distraction were the wasps that were everywhere, attracted by the fruit in the animal enclosures, the food waste in the litter bins (which we saw being emptied through the day) and visitors' picnics. We saw two people get stung (one very loudly). Signs around the zoo acknowledged this seasonal problem and offered ice packs for anyone who got stung.

With no 2 being so young and the drive home taking the best part of 90 minutes, we only had about 4 1/2 hours in the zoo and adopted a fairly ramshackle approach to where we went and what we saw. I briefly popped into the new Tropical House and was a little underwhelmed as I thought it would have free flying parrots, free range marmosets, but instead there were some nice tropical butterflies and a animatronic crocodile.

As we walked round both boys really enjoyed watching through a glass panel a penguin swimming underwater and the Sealion’s really got no 2's attention. As ever no 1's favourites the Tigers were sleeping in the heat of the day and we had to leave before they woke for feeding time.

I took no 1 and Grandma through the walk through lemur enclosure, a lovely concept and the Ring Tailed Lemurs were feeding as a group by the side of the path. A volunteer keeper stood out of sight around the corner from where the lemurs were and so could neither supervise visitors nor interpret the lemurs. As you can see below this led to parents allowing and even encouraging their very young children to 'pet' the lemurs. And the more who did this the more others assumed it was something that was ok to do, and the harder it was for others to stop their children from doing so.

Child 'petting' Ring Tailed Lemur at Banham Zoo, Summer 2013

Now Ring Tailed Lemurs are lovely, but as the close up below shows they have some formidable teeth that I am sure if upset they would use to protect themselves by biting the nearest person. Not sure what it would take to upset one, but I guess that even the most chilled and habituated lemur can have an off day or be freaked by something seemingly inconsequential, let alone by an over enthusiastic under 5 pulling its tail.




Ring Tailed Lemur, with incisors just showing, Banham Zoo

 I always try and grab a few shots on my visits with half a mind to enter the zoos annual photography competition. On this visit what with herding two hyperactive Kids, keeping an eye out for wasps and navigating the crowds I seemed to have less opportunities than ever and certainly very little time to photograph my favourites the Marmosets, Tamarins and Rainbow Lorikeets. I was though quite pleased with the image below of a pair of Fennec Foxes. This was taken on my Panasonic Lumix TZ30 using it's 'through glass' setting. When I took the picture whilst showing no2 son the foxes I'd clocked that the dark interior framed the foxes nicely and I under exposed the foxes a bit to reduce glare and burn out of their fur in the bright sunshine. What I hadn't noticed was the way the right hand fox has pushed its feet forwards a nice extra touch to add a spot of dynamism to the image.

Fennec Foxes, Banham Zoo

You can see more of my Banham Zoo images from previous visits here.

Sunday Tea Time Longhorn



Rusty Longhorn Beetle, Arhopalus rusticus

We have a tiny, tiny back garden in Hunstanton and by no stretch of the imagination can it be described as wildlife rich. However over the years a few goodies have turned up including a Convolvulus Hawkmoth 'roosting' on a sock on the washing line [interestingly it chose the sock that most closely matched its own colour to roost on] and on a number of occasions fly over Waxwings.

On Sunday afternoon whilst giving the kids their tea and watching the first spits of rain splash against the window, no1 son asked me what was it high up on the window, initially I thought it was a moth, but when I realised it was  Longhorn I went outside and stood on a chair to take this picture with my TZ30.

I posted the picture on Facebook and a entomologist friend of mine kindly identified it as Rusty Longhorn Beetle [Arhopalus rusticus].

Lunchtime Sparrowhawk

Heavily cropped shot of Sparrowhawk, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich



Original uncropped Sparrowhawk shot, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

 Whilst I have only ever seen one Buzzard and one Kestrel during all my lunchtime walks around the Rosary Cemetery in Norwich, I reasonably frequently catch a glimpse of a Sparrowhawk.

This bird gave its presence away by constantly calling presumably to its mate for food and was [for a Sparrowhawk] remarkably tolerant of my presence. I think it may be a young bird but will have a bit of a look in some books and update this blog if that isn't the case. I've now had a look in my 'Collins Guide' and have change my mind the grey back colour [as opposed to brown in a Juvenile which should also have some white edging to its back feathers] and the uniform nature of its chest barring make me think this was a adult female.




Sparrowhawk, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

 The pictures were taken with my Panasonic Lumix TZ30 and the top one cropped on the computer. Pretty impressive for a piece of kit that isn't much bigger than a packet of cigarettes.

Whoops! that's not a Comma

Silver Washed Fritillary, Ken Hill Wood

Managed to get ou of the house 'early' [8.30 am] this morning with the boys [age 1 and 4] for a walk around Ken Hill Woods. I'd half hoped we might bump into a Grass Snake or get some nice views of White Admirals. Whilst stopped by the edge of a ride some dog walkers asked what the Balck and White butterflies were, thats easy White Admirals. Then they asked about the 'Ginger' one and again I said thats easy it'll be a Comma. Then they left and then this thing beat its way down the ride and landed on a Bramble flower.


This is a UK tick for me of a species that seems to be spreading in Norfolk and a welcome addition to this morning butterfly list.

A few pics of some more expected species taken this morning added for interest.

Silver Washed Fritillary, Ken Hill Wood

Silver Washed Fritillary, Ken Hill Wood

White Admiral Ken, Hill Wood

Peacock, Ken Hill Wood

Red Admiral, Ken Hill Wood

At last some Butterflies



Painted Lady, Hunstanton Sensory Park, June 2013

Its felt like a long  time since there were lots of butterflies about, last summer was a cold wash out and this summer was late to arrive. So a double whammy for butterfly watching of depressed butterfly numbers after a few bad years and then a longer than normal wait in what could be an OK year.

I've not had a chance to venture very far in search of butterflies this year, lunchtime walks in the week and countryside strolls with the family at weekends have been my window into this butterfly summer.

Back in June whilst recuperating from a bad back my regular walk around Hunstanton [part of walking myself back to fitness] was enlivened by passing through the rather wonderful Sensory Garden. Here I saw a single Painted Lady and a couple of Red Admirals.

In Norwich lunchtime walks around the Rosary Cemetery have been poor for butterflies but a single Large Skipper was a Cemetery tick for me and last week the place was humming with bees and a couple of Comma's were hanging around a little sun trap I always check for butterflies.

Ringlet, Courtyard Farm, Norfolk, July 2013

Ringlets and Meadow Brown's are now on the wing and the picture above was taken this morning at Courtyard Farm of a 'chilled' insect waiting to warm up.

White Admiral, Ken Hill Wood, Norfolk, July 2013

A personal favourite is the White Admiral and I am lucky to have a copy close to an office I work out of in Snettisham. These have started to emerge over the last week and I am looking forward to another week or two in their company.

Lunchtime mini beasts

I've had some problems with my back over the last ten days or so. Part of my therapy is to walk and as well as taking numerous short strolls around Hunstanton where I live. I've also had a couple of lunchtime wanders around Ken Hill Wood, on one day when I did this walk last week it was a little cool and cloudy and on the other there was a persistent light rain.

I took the pictures in this blog on these two walks using my Panasonic Lumix TZ30 and have made a stab at identifying the creatures with my home library. I'd welcome any informed comments on my attempted identifications.

This is a cranefly - Ctenophora - probably C. pectinicornis 

 

Wasp Beetle, Clytus arietis, a wasp mimic, well its black and yellow and apparently does a more convincing Wasp impersonation when it moves.

Fox, Squirrel and Snake for lunch

Fox cub, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

I've been away on holiday in Yorkshire and may eventually get around to a post or two about that trip. In the meantime a couple of interesting sightings from the last week.

One of my regular lunchtime walks through the Rosary Cemetery in Norwich was interrupted by a rustling sound from inside a bush, on peering in I saw the unmistkeable muzzle and ears of a fox cub which bolted and disappeared at which point I noticed the strong 'foxy' smell. On my walk back the same or a different cub ran down a path away from me and I managed the grab shot above.

Grey Squirrel, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

Much more to be expected in the cemetery was this Grey Squirrel which posed nicely in a tree, they've been a little reliable in recent weeks so it was nice to see this one pose for me.

Grass Snake, Ken Hill Wood, NW Norfolk

Today I was working in Snettisham and managed a Red Kite from the office window and this Grass Snake during a very short walk in Kne hIll Woods. It was warmish today but a little overcast and I think because of this the snake was not as active as they often are here which enabled me to get quite close to it to take these pictures with my compact camera.

Things to do with Wood Pigeons



Add caption

Seeing the extraordinary in the day to day and common place is something that as I get older I think I am becoming better at doing. This is driven I think by two factors, firstly as I get older I think the sum of my life experiences means that how I see the world is perhaps more nuanced than when I was younger. Secondly and perhaps more importantly I am more restricted now in what I can and can't do by the demands of a young family and full on job, all of which means that I now need to get my birding and photographic kicks much more locally and in much smaller windows of time.
The picture at the top of this blog is an old one of a Wood Pigeon taken a few years ago on a day when I had plenty of time and was wending my way along the north Norfolk coast. I took it with a DSLR and a big lens and very nice it is too. But it wasn't the highlight of my day and I didn't set out with this image in mind, I saw it, I grabbed it, and I moved on.

The next image is the first of three that I want to share with you that show how I have adapted what I do and perhaps in the process become more creative and thoughtful about my photography and birding and perhaps as a consequence I am also producing more interesting images. Taken just after the sun had dipped below the horizon, it is of a Wood Pigeon perched on a post, on top of Hunstanton Cliffss looking across The Wash towards Lincolnshire. I live five minutes walk from this location and I'll often take a 20 minute evening stroll along the cliff tops and see visitors taking pictures of some spectacular sunsets.  But for me on there own most sunset images of sky and sea lack a certain something, a something that this Wood Pigeon image has a little of which is to mind a story and some structure and form.

Both this next image and the ones above and below were taken with a rather nice little digital compact camera a Panasonic Lumix TZ30, my digital notebook, a camera I can have with me at all times and whilst not in the same league as a DSLR a piece of kit that does give me a reasonable amount of control and creative options. What I was looking for here was to develop the use of a bird perched up against the sunset or twilight sky. I had thought I might manage to get a Blackbird, Dunnock or Whitethroat singing and silhoutted in the dusk but on this occasion they didn't play ball. But this Wood Pigeon did.

And this is probably my favourite image of the many that I shot in a ten minute period that evening. I have some where the Pigeon is well exposed but the sunset is then over exposed and a silvery burnt out nothingness. For this image I under exposed to silhouette the bird and used the cameras Sunset fucntion to give it a bit of orange boost. The result I think is quite a dynamic shot which on my Flickr page I christened Wood Pigeon of the Apolcalypse.

Wood pigeons are not in that top drawer of wildlife subjects that get people like me excited, Red Squirrels and Otters for example, but they are common place, and often tame and that means despite the fact that they are wild birds you can start to be creative with them and make images that stand out a little from the crowd.

Conference Centre Birds, Wyboston Lakes, Bedfordshire

Wyboston Lake, Bedfordshire

Just got back home after a couple of days at the Wyboston Lakes conference centre, just off the A1 in Bedfordshire. I hadn't stayed here for a number of years, but remembering that there was a small lake and bit of scrubby woodland I packed my binoculars in case I had end at the start or end of the day for a spot of birding.

On arrival just about the first thing I was told by a friend was that a Nightingale was holding territory on the far side of the Lake. So after work I took a stroll and just for fun made a list of all of the birds that I saw or heard. Over the two days I managed a rather respectable total of 40 species. Highlights were Nightingale, Green woodpecker, Kingfisher, Common Tern, Hobby, Reed, Sedge and Garden Warbler, Blackcap and Chiff Chaff and half a dozen rather smart looking Great Crested Grebes.

Sadly though I didn't hear a single Turtle Dove a species that even six or seven years ago was common in this area.

Great Crested Grebes, Wyboston Lake

Cemetery Tick and other stuff

Common Buzzard, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

I had a very enjoyable and productive lunchtime walk around the Rosary Cemetery in Norwich with a work friend today.The fine weather from the weekend was still with us and the cemetery looked wonderfully green highlighting the wonderful glowing red leaves of the Copper Beaches. Chiff Chaff's and Blackcap's were both in song and my friend heard a brief snatch of Swallow song, quite a mega record here.

Overhead I saw my first two Swifts of the year always a great sign of the impending arrival of summer. But the best bird of this short walk was a Common Buzzard high overhead mobbed my a Carrion Crow. Neither of us had a pair of binoculars with us and we wondered for a while whether this might be a Honey Buzzard, but came to the conclusion it was a Common Buzzard, something borne out by the heavily enlarged image above taken on my TZ30 compact camera

Holly Blue, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

It was also great to see a few butterflies on the wing including perhaps my favourite UK species the Orangetip.

Male Orangetip, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

Grass Snakes in the Woods

Grass Snake, Ken Hill Wood, Norfolk

In May 2011 I made this This entry to my blog about the challenges of finding Grass Snakes in a local wood. At the time I made the rash commitment to developing my 'snake eyes' in other words my ability to spot Grass Snakes before they saw me and slithered away. Well a lot can happen in the best part of two years, a new baby for one and a wash out of a summer last year as well. So I never did get to develop my Snake spotting skills beyond recognising when I heard one slithering away at speed into the undergrowth.

On reflection I think part of the problem that I have is that I only have a very small window of time over lunch to look for Grass Snakes and not only is my time limited but the middle of the day of the hottest part of the day and when Snakes are at their most mobile and elusive.

Anyway enough excuses, today I was working out of an office in Snettisham and was able to spare a little time over lunch for a walk in the woods. The weather was wonderfully warm and I hoped as I set off to see and maybe photograph Grass Snakes. Straight away I heard and briefly saw a small Grass Snake slither away from me and disappear into the leaf litter.

I then managed to hear and briefly see a couple more Snakes and a loan Muntjac. As I headed back towards the road I heard a movement and froze as a Grass Snake sensing the air with it's tongue moved towards me, I had my compact camera to hand [a Panasonic Lumix TZ30] to hand, I had no time to play with the settings but by crouching dead still I managed to get a couple of OK shots, the one at the top of the page is a crop of the sharpest one that I managed.

I now feel inspired to go back and do better and continue to hone my Snake Eyes.

Today was also the first day this year that I have seen more than one species of Butterfly with a roadside Brimstone, lots of highly territorial Peacock's and a single Green Veined White.

St James Park - a walk down memory lane

Bridge, St James Park, London

I had a bit of a trip down memory lane today, a work meeting took me into central London just round the corner from where I went to school in Victoria. A regular lunchtime walk in my school days was around the lake in St James Park and even before my secondary school days my mother would bring me and my brothers and sister here on family outings to see the sights.

I vividly remember that on those early visits we would always see 'sparrow man' an old gentleman, perhaps a tramp, who would be stationed at the end of the bridge that you can see in the first image. He would have seeds or bread in his mouth and outstretched hands and acted as a human bird table fro the large numbers of House Sparrows that lived in the park. Today sparrow man and the parks sparrows are both long gone.

But its not all bad news, the summer before last I heard a Reed Warbler singing from a tiny patch of reed something which would have beggared belief when I was at school. There have been other changes too with Ring Necked Parakeets a regular sound and sight ion the park and Egyptian Geese also breeding here.

 

Egyptian Goose, St James Park, London

As well as the few birds that I managed to see on my brisk walk through part of the park today I also saw several Grey Squirrels and lots and lots of tourists. Intrigued to watch this girl put her hand very close to this squirrels mouth as she fed it some scraps in an attempt to get it to pose for her camera. At first I thought it was very tame but on closer inspection it looked rather ill.


Tourist feeding Grey Squirrel, St James Park, London



Spring creeping in?

Small Tortoiseshell, Titchwell Village, 7 April 2013

Although I've had the last week off I've really managed to see very little. This is down to two factors the weather and family commitments. However over the last day or two the sun has got out and we've had some great blue sky days.

Spring is slowly starting to assert itself and amongst other signs I've seen recently have been clumps of frog spawn both here in West Norfolk and in Norwich.

Yesterday I did a return journey from here in Hunstanton to Sandy in Bedfordshire and back, managed to spot out the corner of my eye whilst driving half a dozen buzzards, a couple of Little Egrets, a single Sparrowhawk and a few Kestrels.

Buzzards were also a feature of a drive I did this afternoon to get number two son to sleep, with one on the deck and another four thermalling in the air together. Great to see these medium sized Birds of Prey back in East Anglia.

The award though, for highlight of the day either has to go to the Red Kite that flew low over the A149 on the eastern edge of Thornham or the two Small Tortoiseshell's flitting around a sheltered sunny ditch in Titchwell village. These were only my second Butterflies of the spring, the first being a Comma in Norwich a few weeks ago on a rare mild day.

Hunstanton Beach in a digital notebook



Digging for treasure on Hunstanton Beach



For me photography can take many forms, from the carefully composed and studied landscapes and stunning wildlife shots that a modern digital SLR allows us to take, through to the grainy grab shots I can get on my Blackberry. Somewhere in between are the pictures in this blog post, shots taken on a digital compact camera, in this case a Panasonic Lumix TZ30, I recently bought this camera from John Lewis in Norwich [my fourth digital compact] and am really enjoying using it.

I have heard other, better, photographers talk about compacts like this as their digital notebooks, something they can always have with them, available at a moments notice to whip out and take an image for reference or perhaps inspiration for a return visit and a more considered approach with a DSLR.

Hunstanton Beach at Low Tide

These three images illustrate this point, on each occasion for reasons of time, or convenience I had chosen not to cart my heavy camera bag with me when I went for a walk under Hunstanton cliffs. The images here I like, and I think give me lots of food for thought to stimulate a return visit with more substantial equipment.

They also illustrate the amazing versatility now found in a small compact camera, whether shooting a telephoto / silhouette in the top image, a classic landscape in the second or the third a wildlife shot of two turnstones on a boulder as a wave breaks behind them.

Turnstone Duo, Hunstanton Beach