On reflection not a bad week, I had to spend 4 days working in Norwich and had very little time for lunch time walks. On the one brisk walk between meetings that I did manage I grabbed the shot below of a Grey Squirrel in the Rosary Cemetery, this was one of 3 or 4 animals feeding close together and occasionally chasing each other around the Gravestones and trees.

Grey Squirrel, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

The commute to Norwich sometimes goes by in a daze of Radio 4 or music on a CD, this week I did manage a sighting of a Barn Owl near Docking and a Muntjac.

Friday saw me taking a few hours off work and I chose to spend them walking around Holme, I dipped on the Short Eared Owl and Snow Buntings, but did see 45 species including Peregrine, Marsh Harrier, Kestrel and Common Buzzard which was nice.

On Saturday I grabbed a couple of hours in the cold wind under the cliffs in Hunstanton and spent most of this trying to photograph Bar Tailed Godwit's, the shot below is my favourite image of this session.

Bar Tailed Godwits, Hunstanton, The Wash

Sanderling, Hunstanton, The Wash

Sunday morning was taken up with a nice family walk along the boardwalk on the edge of the Marshes in Brancaster, followed by a lunch of some rather nice takeaway Pizza's from the Jolly Sailors in Brancaster Staithe. The shot below is of cropped shot from my compact camera of a Long Tailed Tit on my father in laws bird feeders. After lunch I took number two son for a drive to get him to sleep and spent the last part of this parked in Brancaster Staithe harbour photographing feeding Bar Tailed Godiwt's. All in all not a bad week.

Long Tailed Tit, Brancaster

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.

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