Snowdrops

This is forecast to be the coldest week of the winter so far. This morning I had to clear a thin layer of ice from my car windscreen and drove through flurries of snow on my way across Norfolk. Yet by lunchtime the sky had cleared and it was a bright but cold day.

In the Rosary Cemetery I paused on my lunchtime walk to take some photographs of the Snowdrops these has naturalised here and there are great clumps of them, splashes of white petals in lieu of the patches of snow which never settled earlier in the day.

I always love it when there is a sense of a season turning, being elbowed out of the way by its impatient successor and today's show of Snowdrops tells that Spring is starting its inexorable push to succeed winter.

Snowdrops, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

September and October 2017 a few highlights

Autumn was really quiet in NW Norfolk this year and as I write this just before Christmas I can't recall last time time the wind switched to the east for more than a couple of hours. So that's my excuse for not blogging for a few months.

However having just had a quick look through my photo files on the PC I clearly have been out a fair bit and seen some interesting stuff, so here are a few highlights from September and October.

Amethyst Deceiver, Ken Hill Woods

I really know very little about Fungi but this small purple one caught my eye in Ken Hill Woods and it turns out that the Amethyst Deceiver is a distinctive and well known species.

"Falling leaf", Ken Hill Woods 

Another lunchtime walk with my old Pansonic Lumix TZ30 and I thought it would be fun to try and capture images of falling leaves. This little compact camera isn't up to the job of focusing on leaves tumbling through the air but it can take pictures of leaves caught mid fall on the thinnest of gossamer threads and left dangling in mid air over the path. Even with a suspended target this was still a remarkably difficult picture to take. 

Bearded Tot, Digiscoped at Titchwell

Water Rail, Digiscoped at Titchwell

The pictures of a male Bearded Tit and a Water Rail were both taken on the same morning from the Island Hide at Titchwell by hand holding by Lumix TZ30 to the eyepiece of my Kowa scope with the camera set to macro mode and then zoomed out. Nice if soft pictures that don't blow up to well.

Grey Squirrel, Rosary Cemetery Norwich

Sanderling, Gore Point

Turnstone, Hunstanton

During the autumn I found myself returning to some of my photographic obsessions. I have been visiting the Rosary Cemetery in Norwich at lunchtime for over a decade. These days I visit less often mainly because I now use my lunch breaks to go swimming and fight the flab. But I do still get out sometimes with my TZ30 and managed the shot above of one of the resident squirrels, I like to give a feel for the location of the pictures I take here and having a squirrel on a gravestone with a striking inscription is one way of doing this.

It would be odd if living on the coast I wasn't interested in shorebirds and this summer I developed a interest in taking photographs of Sanderling feeding on the same beaches my children were playing on.  Using and old Canon 100 - 300 lens and EOS 400 body I was able to inch forwards in my swimming trunks at eye level with the birds and you can see here how they push the sand in front of their bills and see why their old English name is Sand Plough. 

Turnstone's are great waders,often approachable, adaptable and striking to look at, I know that if all else fails me I can go to the beach in Hunstanton and photograph Sanderling most months of the year. This picture was taken in a short session one evening and I like the way it captures a little of the birds movement and character.

Red Backed Shrike, Heacham

Black Necked Grebe, Snettisham

Osprey, Holkham Park

I haven't seen any rares this autumn but I did manage to luck onto a few scarce migrants. The Red Backed Shrike was a post work Twitch to the northern end of the coastal park. The Black Necked Grebe similarly another after work twitch this time to the pits at Snettisham. We "found" the Osprey fishing on Holkham Park Lake during a family visit and enjoyed watching it plunging into the lake several times before being chased off by an Osprey.

Hobby, Holkham Pines

A family walk at Holkham Pines was enlivened by this Hobby hunting Dragonflies over our heads as we walked along the edge of the pines. 

Goldcrest's for Lunch

The east coast deluge of Goldcrest's is over. Just a few weeks back vast numbers of these tiny warblers could be found in almost any piece of seaside cover.

For such a tiny bird, they are smaller than a Wren, Goldcrest's are impressive little things with their orange or yellow crests, small needle bills and round black eyes set against olive green feathers. It can be hard to imagine such little bundles of feathers deliberately crossing the North Sea. Indeed an old colloquial name for Goldcrest was Woodcock Pilot the belief being that to cross the sea they'd hitch a ride on the back of a Woodcock, acting as a pilot for the larger, stronger but perhaps less intelligent bird.

Goldcrest, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

So here I am on a mid November lunchtime in the heart of Norwich, its sunny and clear but the cold wind tells me that we have almost completed the transition from autumn into winter. A familiar set of chattering and high pitched bird calls has made me stop on the path beneath a couple of small trees that have nearly lost all of their leaves. In them are a mix of small birds Blue, Great and Long Tailed Tits are the most numerous and most obvious but a high pitched call and a couple of fidgety tiny shapes give away the presence of a couple of "Crests"

I start phishing, sucking air between my lips and teeth making a rasping, screeching sound almost guaranteed to bring in curious small birds for a closer look, something I'll need as I have no binoculars with me.

I want to get the Crests in close to check if one of them might be a less common Firecrest and also, well because I can, and to try and get a picture with my compact camera, which is not the best tool for the job.

As I phish a succession of small birds drop in for a look and eventually two small Goldcrests move to my side of the tree flitting and fidgeting through the bare branches whilst I try and get a shot. I can easily see from the views that I get that they are both Goldcrests and I even manage a couple of OK shots.

Goldcrest, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

Time is pressing and my lunch break is nearly over and I need to retrace my steps through the overgrown cemetery and back to my office, I do so with a small smile of my face as m encounter with these small birds has given me a small birding fix for the day.

Butterfly Ball

Out of the wind there is a little warmth in the air, a treat in this cold Spring. The Cow Parsley has grown high to fill the space between the gravestones, their white flowers helping to show off clumps of bluebells.

Walking along one of the paths that winds its way along the edge of the hillside that Cemetery sits on is like walking down a woodland ride, there are clumps of Primroses and I can hear a Chiff Chaffs monotonous song.

A scrap of bright blue catches my eye as it fly's past, it could easily be a detached bluebell petal caught by the wind, but it purposefully gains height around a Holly Tree and is joined by another flying blue petal. They are Holly Blues and they dance around each other and the Holly, occasionally one will break off and disappear into the depths of the overgrown Cemetery, only for another blue scrap to appear and join in the dance, sometimes there are up to half a dozen taking part in this butterfly lek. Then when the sun goes behind a cloud and the temperature drops, they disappear, settled on a leaf, wings folded, blue hidden until the sun reappears, the temperature rises and the butterfly ball starts again.

Holly Blue taking time out from the Butterfly Ball

Lunchtime Peregrine

I've taken lunchtime walks in and around Norwichs' Rosary cemetery and surrounding residential streets at least once a week for the last ten years or so. Some of these walks are real stomps to clear my head between meetings, some pass in a daze as I think about challenges at work and others [my favourites] are when I pause to take pictures and do a spot of birding with out binoculars.

Crap picture of a Peregrine over Norwich last week

During the week one walk started as a stomp, but as I walked up a side street with my head down against the wind a movement caught my eye and I instinctively looked up to see the distinctive low flying shape of a Peregrine as it flew past me and over the cemetery fence. Now I'm used to seeing Peregrines but the unexpected context and brief views left me doubting the sighting and keen for better views. So my stomp turned to a measured stroll as I walked downhill through the cemetery, constantly looking at the window of sky framed by the mature trees that grow here.

Just as I was about to walk out the cemetery gate into Rosary road I picked out the peregrine it's distinctive silhouette high above the cemetery.  As I walked down the road back to the office the bird drifted towards me and I took a few shots with my compact camera. Then it peeled away to half heartedly chase a gull, before giving up, at this point a woodpigeon flew over the office roof and did a sharp U turn when it saw the peregrine, which them drifted away to the south.

Spring gathers pace

April has been a really busy month with nights away for work, a short family holiday and a family bereavement. Below is a bit of a wrap up of some bird and butterfly sightings this month. I've posted two short separate blogs about visits to the Peak District and Bempton Cliffs.

Friday 4th April, Snettisham
A work visit in between discussing the storm damage it was nice to see a male Red Breasted Merganser, a Black Brant and three Mediterranean Gulls. At the Coastal Park I heard my first Willow Warbler of the year.

Monday 7th April
On the way home from Norwich I saw my first Swallow of the Spring whilst waiting for the traffic lights at Heacham to change colour.

Wednesday 9th April
A sunny lunchtime walk in the Rosary Cemetery in Norwich gave me nice views of my fist Orangetip Butterflies of the year plus Holly Blue and Small Tortoiseshell and singing Blackcap and Chiff Chaff.

Rosary Chiff Chaff

Rosary Primroses

Friday 11th April
Durng a work visit to York University it was nice to see a male Goosander on the University lake and a early Swallow hunting for food. Two Great Crested Grebe nests close to the edge of the lake were a real treat.

York Uni Great Crested Grebes

Saturday 18th April
I took no 1 son for short walk down the West Bank path at Titchwell, from Parrinder Hide we saw Little Ringed Plover and Yellow Wagtail and elsewhere we heard Cetti's and Sedge Warblers. A kindly old lady offered to lend my 5 year old her bird book so that he could find out what the Black and White bird was only to be told he knew that it was an Avocet.

Titchwell Avocet

Monday 21st
A walk with the kids around Wharton's Belt at Courtyard Farm was great for lots of early Spring Butterflies including some wonderfully fresh looking Speckled Woods and Peacocks and more Green Hairstreaks than I can ever remember seeing here, in the short time I had with them I saw at least six insects quite easily.

Green Hairstreak

Wednesday 23rd April

A walk with no2 son along the top of the Dunes at Holme NWT this morning was wonderful with seen and / or heard: Cuckoo, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Chiff Chaff, Sedge Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler, Whimbrel, Sandwich tern and 8 Wheatears.

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

Catch up - Wednesday 1st to Sunday 5th January 2014

A new year and if I have one resolution it's to try and keep life, whether at home or at work, simple. This is in the belief that I will achieve my personal targets for the year [and if I wish add to and build on them] rather than setting myself up to fail. What's that got to do with this blog? well I'm not entirely sure but I think it will mean less messing about drafting and then not getting around to posting short essays and more short summary's of what I have been up to. This I hope will act as a celebration of life, of what it is possible to see, feel and and think in the midst of a busy life with little bespoke time for birding and photography, but with a mind and eyes accustomed to seeing and taking plenty of incidental opportunities and sharing some of these with you.

Brancaster saltmarsh

My last bird of 2013 was a invisible Robin singing its' plaintive winter song from a bush in a Hunstanton front garden, my first birds of 2014 were Feral Pigeons wheeling in the wind over our street in Hunstanton. New Year's Day was manky [cold, grey and wet] and I spent it with the family visiting relatives in Brancaster, a short walk along the edge of the Marsh followed by an interrogation of my father in law's bird feeders produced 28 species. My favourite birds of the day were the smart little Coal Tits on the feeders.

The 2nd saw me back at work in Norwich and taking a boot around what is in effect my 'lunchtime patch' of the Rosary Cemetery, Lion Wood and part of the River Yare, good for 50+ species in 2014 I reckon. A relatively quiet walk did produce two sightings of Sparrowhawk, a Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker and a brace of Coal Tits. But perhaps the best bird of the day was on the drive into work when I had a drive by sighting of a Barn Owl just outside Docking.

Lion Wood, Norwich

On Friday the 3rd I had a work related walk and talk at Snettisham and Titchwell, a lovely day with some cracking black and white male Goldeneye at Snettisham and a nice flock of Avocet's at Titchwell, where a female Marsh Harrier spooked the waders and wildfowl and where I photographed the splendid male Pintail below. The day ended with an unseasonal Hedgehog in Snettisham village.

Male Pintail, Titchwell Marsh

Saturday was another wet day, whem the rain cleared mid afternoon I took no 1 son [age 4] 'shell hunting' under the cliffs in Hunstanton, not much bird activity but good to see Fulmar's hanging around the cliffs in some numbers.

Fulmar's Hunstanton Cliffs

Today [Sunday 5th] I was again back in Brancaster with the family, a drive along the coast to get no 2 son [age 2] to sleep gave me a chance to pop into Burnham Overy Staithe Harbour which was very quiet and Brancaster Staithe Harbour where I picked up Rock Pipit for the year. But the most fun was when I stopped to look at some bird feeders and noticed the finches and sparrows bathing in a puddle on the opposite side of the road.

Chaffinch & Goldfinch bathing

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Cemetery Magic

Naturalised Crocuses, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

I've written before about the Rosary Cemetery in Norwich and the amazing early spring display of naturalised Crocuses that carpet large areas of the Cemetery at this time of year. This for me is a natural spectacle just as visually impressive as some of our native wild flower meadows and of a different but the nonetheless important value.

I managed a walk around the cemetery earlier this week and the display is at its best, so if you are in Norwich in the next week set aside a little time to take in the show.