A Field Day

 Wednesday July 27

Plans for a whole day's birding were aborted by both of us sleeping late, it was 8.30 a.m. when I woke, having had a lengthy awakeness in the night. I had planned on a trip to Titchwell in search of a few year ticks, I'm not confident that my knees would allow that much walking at the moment. Instead, we went to Swanton Novers Raptor Watchpoint where we spent a very entertaining couple of hours. 

 The birds were good. We saw singles of: Honey Buzzard, Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, Goshawk, and Kestrel. Linnets flitted the hedge, no other passerines. a few Large White were the only butterflies.  We parked between two other vehicles, well apart from one another. The group of birders to our right kept us entertained throughout. Almost as soon as we stopped, a very pleasant man who resembled CatWeasel, pointed out to us the tracks of a mole appearing to our right. We could see the disturbed soil with occasional slight movement. Another larger man wearing a small sun hat which looked like a pork pie, was watering the ground to make its progress easier through what was obviously drought and car tyre cemented earth. Pete C was there, he managed to get a photo of the nose and pink paw tips appearing.Two women dressed appropriately for sunbathing did so, amongst all this. There was constant banter between CatWeasel and Pork Pie, all of it good natured and friendly. Neither of them missed any birds either, despite inferior optics (his words), helping all of us to see them too. CatW's bins had orange caps for all four ends. They left to visit another reserve. We drove home.

 Whist emptying the moth traps yesterday - in the sun lounge because of the heat - The two Green Woodpeckers made their presence known. I slowly opened the curtain a chink, finding one of them beside the pond. I took some photos with my bridge camera, on its moth pic setting, through the double glazed window. 

 


The other one was much further away, near the big alpine bed, and then clinging on to the weeping birch Youngii. 


 

Our latest notable moth was a Chevron. We've only seen one before, brought in by Tony G. Despite the books saying that it's 'common'. Countrtwide that is. Ours seems to be the first for Norfolk this year, 2022


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