Enforced Torpor

 Sunday January 15

Weather conditions and routine medical appointments have prevented us from birding much during the last week. The six weekly eye check, annual medical review and a blood test ate into three days. 

We managed to visit St Benets twice as it's so near to home - camparatively. Our first visit was late afternoon on Wednesday when we joined a throng of birders, getting the last place on the front row in the small car park, albeit squeezed into the corner. The car next door turned out to be Pete's, with Pauline alongside him. David B then oarked behind us before making his way to a better viewpoint. 

Th first bird seen was a lovely Barn Owl. Then, four Cranes flew along the Thurne bank, not long before a Short-eared Owl.hunted the Abbey Bank, often disappearing behind the trees.. David's photos of the Short-eared Owl are amazingly good considering the light and distance. His Blog address is :

https://birdsoftheheath.blogspot.com/ 

Our second visit was a late dash after watching Man United beat City 2-1. YES !

 We met Jeremy G along the entrance track and he directed us to a spot half way along the bank of trees. Not where I'd expected the target birds to be. By now it was raining hard. What with that and the  restricted view plus leaving traffic on a single track road, we moved on to a gateway. One passing car stopped and reversed. It was Neil and Sharon Bostock. They'd seen the birds earlier and offered to lead us there.  Not really necessary but very good of Neil. We returned to the soft meadow corner where we had expected the birds to be. No sooner had we stopped than a family of five lined up along the fence line between us and the geese. A scope was set up and they enjoyed a leisurely study. Very admirable , three young children not moaning in wind and driving rain. At last, they moved on, enabling us to view the four Taiga Bean Geese at the back of the field. Are they the four which returned to Buckenham last year?

Why is St Benets now being called Ludham on the news services?

We'd planned a day's birding today. Until the warning light came on in the car, asking us to check the tyre pressure.We had to have two new tyres last week. No sign of a puncture and the garage closed until Monday. Better to err on the cautious side. Bother.

No photos at all, poor light and my position.

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