Anne's Journal

 Friday August 30 My original bird alert pager was set to make a very loud siren sound when a rare bird was found. Friend Giles, who wasn't much of a techy didn't know how to re-set it. His wife Judy, so startled one day whilst driving the car, threatened to put it in a bucket of water the next time it made that noise. I could do with a similar noise for our Silvery Gem WhatsApp group. Fortunately, I looked at the most recent messages in good time. Marcus Nash had trapped a Porter's Rustic which he would take to Cley VC at 2.00 this afternoon. Rare immigrant. A rather drab and easily overlooked species. The first British record was in 1978 in Cornwall. Larva has not been recorded in Britain, on the continent it has been recorded feeding on various herbaceous plants. First Norfolk record 24th August 2008 at Salthouse. (Michael Williams, Derbyshire), Colney Pits, Norwich in 2021 (D. Holman, C. Stean) and Eccles in 2023 (N. Bowman) Norfolk Moths   It really did live up (o...

 Monday August 26 Bank Holiday weekends in North Norfolk, coinciding with very high tides at Snettisham, are not an attractive combination. We avoided the main crowds by taking the inland route, driving directly to Snettisham Reserve. The RSPB's very popular 'Snettisham Spectaculars' had taken place on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Parking places need to be booked, and birders come from far and wide.  Our first sight of the water is when we crest the hill leading out of the chalet park, always a much anticipated view. Today's high tide was 'only' 6.3, low after the previous three days' 7 metres plus. At 7 metres the water covers the wash entirely so that the hundreds of thousands of birds are forced to find somewhere else to roost. Many of them crowding the islands and banks of the reserve pits. To-day, the vast majority were massed on the northern shore of the Wash, in Lincolnshire.   Seeing empty, gently lapping water, tufts of Samphire showing through, we...

 Wednesday July 20 At last.  Yesterday, Thomas, our computer man, responded  He'd never come across Error 403 before nor did he know how to fix it. Great. He spent half an hour or so trying all sorts of stuff, failing each time. He left, scratching his head, physically and metaphorically, saying that he'd have a think and let me know.  After he'd gone, something had triggered an idea in my brain. I logged in to Google, looked at all my addresses and passwords, checked them and renewed the password for Blogger. Bingo. The loading photos link worked..... but .... in a different format. Instead of an immediate link to my computer there was a 'drag photo here' link. How to do this on this website is new to me so I'll need to sort it out, maybe today. Way hay. Twin-spotted Wainscot The solution was simple. Why couldn't I have been told that by Google instead of the, ' We can't tell you anything more' message?

Wednesday August 14 The Sculthorpe Mill Spotted Flycatchers seem to have fledged and departed, we didn't see any Swifts today either. 'Our' Buzzard fledgling has left the area at last. Two weeks of its constant calling for food has tried our patience. Lovely to start wirh and then a wish for it to stop. As is now annually expected, a young Green Woodpecker is making its presence known locally. We've seen it in the garden once, ant-hunting in the perennial bed, but it often sounds as though its with us somewhere. We still have House Martins flying around the eaves, there were fewer elsewhere. We timed our arrival at Snettisham to perfection, over an hour before high tide. But........it was a very low high tide, only 4.39. It needs to be well over 6, preferably 7 for the Spectaculars advertised on TV and various nature programmes. A couple in the rotary Hide asked us where the mass of waders was. We were able to point out that a distant island was actually covered in Knot...

 Saturday August 3 When a neighbour asked what I was doing for my birthday - they go to London on hers - I replied 'Going birding for the day, as always'.. Her face dropped a little before she said, ' Yes, you enjoy it don't you'. Too true. So, not an early start, cards and presents first. Sara sent me a box of organic meat, steak, lamb steaks, sausages, green bacon, all very acceptable. Others included my usual perfume, Coco Chanel, various edibles and a soap dish for the shower. I;ve needed the latter since we had a new shower, which is on the opposite wall from the previous. I therefore can't reach the old soapdish and rack from where I sit to wash. Practical and very acceptable. Again, slow birding at this time of year but with some nice birds. Two Spotted Flycatchers showed for us at Sculthorpe Mill, too briefly for a photo, just bin views which is nice. A good number of House Martins and afew Swallows flying around Harpley Cottages. Breeding looks to have ...