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Barton Broad

 Sunday April 5 Barton Broad is a good place to look for early hirundine, Willow Warbler and Terns. The official car park is a long way from the Broad, but there is a small Blue Badge only car park. We had intended walking to the viewing platform at the end of the boardwalk, the latter meanders its way through wet Alder Carr for about 400 metres. The platform is always exposed to any wind there is. Today, it was very windy, our phones said 'feels like 1C' and it started to rain. We stayed in the car park, seeing and hearing Marsh and Coal, Blue and Great Tit. Wrens shouted from deep cover, Robins and Chiffchaff from nearby. Then.... two parents and their two boys, all on nice bicycles, rode in. Then, another dad with a young girl who needed support on her little bike. The boys started it off, the adults soon joined in, using the small dirt floored car park as a velodrome, whizzing round us, doing brake turns and emergency stops, , ever faster. Disgraceful disregard of other peo...
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All Fools Day

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 Wednesday April 1  My Downs brother played the same trick on my mother every year.  'Mam mae defaid yn yr ardd'. Mam, there are sheep in the garden. Without fail, she would exclaim to high heaven and rush to the front door. Either she was a very good actress or had a poor memory. The former I think. For the first time ever, I didn't even try today. I can usually fool Pam. I was too busy trying to see birds. We were out for eight and a half hours - and very tired when we got home. I just had to sit down, Pam had chores to do. We'd lessened the prep for an evening meal by stopping at Thorpe Market chippy, I don't know how they do it, but the food is never greasy. We did well on the journey west, seeing over thirty birds by the time we got to Abbey Farm. Will we ever see Little Owl there again? The highlight was six Red Kites lifting from trees along the back lane, circling upwards above us. Always silhouettes unfortunately. Snettisham was even more devoid of birds th...
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First Outing

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 Thursday March 27 After a morning of wintry showers, the skiy cleared and the sun shone. Where should we go? Keeping in mind the fuel price and availability situation brought about by the war in the Middle East -Trump doing a Putin - it was either Winterton or Cley. Cley won. Blackthorn froth decorating the hedgerows, budding trees, catkins, daffodils and burgeoning Alexanders, it's definitely Spring, clocks go forward this coming weekend.  First stop, Salthouse, a surprise to find one car only, it's a popular place. Probably due to the lack of birds and the cutting wind. A pair of Stonechats, well hidden in the long grass, was worth the visit. A lone Avocet kleeped overhead, landing out of sight. We spent some time scanning the Eye Field for Wheatear, they've already arrived in the Outer Hebrides. In fine weather they tend to fly straight through. Moving on to park roadside near the Eye pool, we found three Ruff racing about looking for food.    Eventually, they to...
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Outing

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 Sunday March 15 A lot has happened since Sunday, I'm writing this on Thursday the 19th. After an appalling Sunday night when I got very little sleep owing to constant coughing and inability to breathe, a visit to the very concerned doctor sent me straight to the hospital via ambulance. The latter picked me up at the surgery and arrived within a few minutes. After the cold and very uncomfortable ride, I don't think they have springs, I spent the rest of the day in triage, a ward, having an xray, attached to a fluid drip and oxygen. Most of my stats were OK but trying to keep my oxygen levels up was a problem. No-one seemed to think I'd be going home that day. I did my acting best and got home soon after seven o.clock with a dose of Doxycycline antibiotics' Back to Sunday.  A lovely sunny day when we left. Not many birds around, Brancaster Staithe at low tide, without its usual large number of moored boats and row of beached tenders, looked like a vast sea of mud. Carefu...
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Last Chance?

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Thursday March  We were late, the wind was strong and gusting - and the bird had not been reported today. We still went. Reading Sue Bryan's Blog yesterday had triggered the idea. Although she talked of walking half a mile along a very muddy river bank, there was an outside chance that the bird could be seen from Ludham Bridge. One report - although not recent - had it actually flying over the bridge itself.  We drove into the small car park looking to the north, going as far as we could along the river bank. A Scottish birder trudged towards us, no he hadn't seen the bird and had been there an hour. Several boats came and went, mostly manoevering in situ, only one disappearing along the river. Maybe a boat ride would be a good idea. One male, and a female Marsh Harrier brought bins to eyes in hope. I ate my lunch. Laughing Cow cream cheese on multi seed Ryvita. A cry of  'I've got it'  from Pam caused instant panic. The Black-winged Kite was flying towards us along...
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Dydd Gwyl Dewi - St David's Day

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 Sunday March 1 Apart fom January 1st, which is always special, today was the pleasantest day's birding yet. Having set off in mizzle - and returned home in the same, in between was dry, mostly overcast, but with a period of sun at midday. Tha latter coincided with our visit to Snettisham, which is the absolute pits. The sun on the reserve pit makes bird identification almost impossible, the glare is blinding.  We began in earnest at Selbrigg, where we can add birds not seen elsewhere. It only takes a few minutes from the placing of food for the first birds to arrive. That was a Coal Tit today, closely followed by two Great Tits and a Blue Tit. A Nuthatch was later, then a Robin,  two Goldcrests flew into the trees above. In the end, I saw four Coal Tits at once - there were probably more. Delightful little birds. The light was too poor for photography.  I used Merlin here and at Sculthorpe Mill. It told me that we had been in the presence of : Redwing, Siskin, Great...
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Garden Update

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 Thursday February 19 We didn't go to Cley to meet the moth group this morning. Negotiating the Centre's crowded tables and chairs is bad enough  at normal times, at half term, it's even worse. We had a Sparrowhawk with us most of the morning. In the end, Pam chased it off as no birds were able to feed. Not before she'd taken a load of photos using my Canon SX70. It's favoured perch is the 6x6 post Adrian put in to hold the big feeder. All photos were taken through the kitchen window.   It also used the top of Icarus's head ( a bird which drops its beak and srays water when switched on), in the small pond near the bottom of the garden.    And the reindeer antlers Pam purchased from the Cairngorm Reindeer Centre. They were dropped by Pam's now dead, adopted animal, Strudel.   Then the bird table.   The Water Rail is more difficult, it skulks in the snowdrop swathe, before dashing out for a few minutes, to feed below the feeders.  
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