Frog on Frog

Had a chance to pop over the cemetery for half an hour earlier in the week. The Common Frogs in the small pool are now well and truly consumed by lust and there were a couple of mating balls of randy amphibians, plus at least half a dozen lumps of spawn. Other highlight was a Rosary Cemetery mammal tick in the form a of Fox, apparently a two were also seen last week by some folk from the office.

Stunning Snipe

Spent an hour at Titchwell late on Saturday afternoon with this beauty. Feeding on the Fresh Marsh right underneath the Parrinder Hide window, less than six feet from where I was sitting. Even better most of the time I had the hide to myself so didn't have to worry about anybody else accidentally flushing the bird. Did get to share it with a couple of ladies who wanted to know if it was a Water Rail as they thought Snipe were much bigger ;-)

Took lots of photos with my Canon 100 - 400 Zoom at 400 ISO. With its tail spread showing those wonderful orange tail feathers this is my favourite.

Crocus awakening

The Rosary Cemetery in Norwich is a wonderful little oasis close to the centre of the city and a couple of minutes walk from my office. The cemetery falls into two parts a wild older section full of mature trees and Victorian tombstones on which the inscriptions read like CV's fro the afterlife and a newer section which is still in use. Cross a road from the new part of the cemetery and you are in Lion Wood. Visit the excellent http://www.literarynorfolk.co.uk/rosary_cemetery.htm for more information on the Cemetery.

Its a great place for a 'birds without binoculars' lunchtime walk or potter with the camera. See http://flickr.com/photos/bullofthebog/ to see a small of selection of photos taken here over the last couple of years.

Today was my first visit for a couple of weeks and it was good to see the changing season in the shape of the naturalised crocuses that have spread, seemingly randomly through the cemetery, no boring municipal lines here. For the next month these wild crocuses will be an absolute joy. Not to be outdone the small pond was full of frogs with at least ten 'pairs' of copulating amphibians. A large female Sparrowhawk was my first over the Cemetery this year.

Walsingham Snowdrops

An annual event in Norfolk are the February Snowdrop walks held around the County to raise funds for charity. One of the most popular of these is held in the grounds of Walsingham Abbey, here the Snowdrops carpet the ground interspersed with smaller clumps of yellow Aconites. The bare branches of the trees carry large clumps of Mistletoe.

For the last couple of years the mild winters have meant that by late February the Snowdrops have been turning over, but this year presumably thanks to the cold weather we have had this year, they were at their best. An additional bit of atmosphere was provided this year by a small girl playing her violin below the ruined arch.

Prior to our walk around the Abbey we had lunch at 'The Pie Pub' aka The Three Horseshoes in Warham http://www.warham.biz/3horseshoes/index.html This pub sits just inland from the north Norfolk coast and has escaped the tarting up that has befallen many Norfolk pubs. The words 'fusion' and 'sitting on a bed of' don't appear on the menu instead they sell a range of home made pies and old fashioned puddings alongside Norfolk Wherry bitter, a great place for a winter pub lunch.

Death down at the Staithe

Beautiful early spring morning. Had a short walk around Holkham Park, no Lesser peckers, but lots of noise from the resident Jackdaws and the wonderful almost owl like cooing of the local Stock Doves.

Stopped off at Deepdale Cafe http://www.deepdalecafe.co.uk/ for a takeaway sausage sandwich and coffee, as ever excellent food, great value for money and friendly service. I took my meal down to the Staithe, what with the tide still being out and a number of folk walking around enjoying the sunshine it was quiet for waders and wildfowl. However the calm was broken by a Sparrowhawk taking out one of the Redshanks. Only managed some distant shots of the BOP as it subdued its prey. I've sharpened and cropped one of these and posted it here.

Snowdrops & Aconites

Early, early spring and Summerfield, a corner of scrubby, scruffy Norfolk woodland which for 11 months of the year is unremarkable comes to life. The ground here is covered in great painterly splashes of yellow and white as aconites and snowdrops burst through last autumns still decomposing leaf litter to have their fifteen minutes of fame. Yesterday morning was wonderfully clear and spring like and then at lunchtime the tide brought in a grey overcast sky, it was in this diffuse light that I spent a pleasant ten minutes with the camera photographing these first signs of spring.

Northern Spain in Winter Day 5

Sunday 15 February

Left Hotel Carinena and arrived at El Planeron at 7.30 am, much stiller than last time but also a lot colder at -4 C. A lot quieter we only heard a few snatches of a single Dupont's Lark in song. The wetland area here held a roost of c 80 Common Cranes as well as a selection of wildfowl and a Green Sandpiper.

We drove a track further out into the depression managing to find more Lesser Short Toed, Calandra and Crested Larks and Pintailed and Black Bellied Sandgrouse. Following the minor road across the steppe towards Quinto De Ebro we found roadside Dartford and Fan Tailed Warblers.

Time was now pressing in on us if we were to make Zaragoza airport and our flight home. Nonetheless we found time for a brief stop by the river in Quinto de Ebro. Although in full spate we did manage to add a number of birds to our list including Little, Cattle and Great White Egrets. This village was also really good for nesting White Storks.

Ended trip on 104 species. For gen we used 'A Birdwatching Guide to the Pyrenees by Jacqueline Crozier' We also got some good up to date information from http://www.birdinginspain.com/