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.

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.