Anne's Journal

Saturday November 30 During our regular visits to the Cley area,  usually after moth meets at Natural Surroundings or the VC, we usually drive along Beach Road, Salthouse. Stonechats are regular here at this time of year. About a week ago, a pair of Stonechats were using the car parked in front of us as a vantage point from which to sally forth in search of insects. The female used a wing mirror, the male sat on the stubby aeriel on the front of the roof. Quite delightful to watch, photography not possible. This week, after scanning an empty sea at Cley beach car park, we drove Salthouse again, this time finding two juvenile birds post and barbed wire hopping, before frequent dives down into the field .Lovely to watch.

Sunday November 24 Earlier this week, there were reports of Blackbirds arriving along the east coast. Pam counted a maximum of fifteen in our garden, feeding on the spilt seed from the feeders. They were then given some on the ground. Eighteen Goldfinches and ten House Sparrows also availed themselves of some winter warmers, in sub zero temperatures. The snow soon went but the strong, cold, wind prevailed. Storm Bert ( what an incongruous name) was worse elewhere, but threw more than enough rain at us. Young Green Woodpeckers are annual Autumn visitors to our ant-rich lawn. The two who visited in September were not photographable. This afternoon a splendid adult was anting the other side of the pond. Ever optimistic, I took a couple of photos from my desk, using my point and shoot Canon, through a double-glazed patio door and then another double glazed window. In poor light.  With a little bit of judicious cropping and editing these are the best of a bad bunch.

Tuesday November 19 As both our weekly moth meets have finished for the season, we have decided to do more shorter birding outings to see us through the winter months. Weather permitting of course. It's the seal pupping season at Winterton, so we have kept away at weekends to avoid the masses. We knew that the Desert Wheatear which had been seen in the seal colony had departed, the Snow Buntings were still present. Plenty of sugar beet mountains waiting to be lorried along the field verges, a small group of a dozen Pink-feet the only geese seen. However, east of Causeway Farm, approaching Sea Palling, the group of twenty four Whooper Swans in a roadside field was a welcome sight. Many were sleeping. I took a few 'just in case' handheld shots past Pam's nose and we drove on.  This was the only one in focus. I inspected the other photos to see if there were any Bewick's amongst them, but all were Whoopers, four of them this year's young. We arrived at the beach ca...

 Sunday November 10 The best moth of the month was the rather battered Gem we trapped on Thursday night.   A first for the garden, we'd already seen our first at Sandwich Bay Raserve, and more at our moth-ers meetings. There seems to have been an influx, Neil Bowman at Eccles had 18 in his traps one night this week. Our heating system decided to die on Thursday evening - within a few hours of the plumber finishing his annual check-up. We needed a new control panel. By the time he'd arrived again, ordered the part and it arriving, it was early on Monday the 11th before it was working again. Although it was 11C, it was cold in the house and we didn't want the portable electric heater on all that time. We went out in the car with its comfortable heated seats. It was Pam's turn to decide on our stops, the first one was Hunstanton lighthouse car park. If we park on the grass up against the fence/hedge, we can see the sea below. Having left in hazy autumnal sunshine, it was ...

 Sunday November 3 All birding days are enjoyable, some more than others. Today was one of the latter. Why? Well it wasn't the weather, we set off early morning in grey overcast, all oncoming cars had their lights on. With several stops to explore lanes and their hedges, we'd seen over thirty species by the time we got to Abbey Farm in Flitcham. That's usually a spring total. Most hedgerows held a few Redwing  and Fieldfare, at Harpley a prized Bullfinch burst out of the bushes on our left, speeding down the lane ahead of us. Always a joy. Gone are the days when they were almost a daily occurrence at home.  The Copper Beeches at Sandringham looked wonderful, almost as many russet brown leaves carpeting the ground as were left on the trees. By now the sun had gradually appeared, gilding the scene. It's become a joke that even if we leave home in gloom, by the time we get to Snettisham the sun will be out. It's happened too often. It's impossible to distinguish ma...

 Frtiday November 1 Best laid plans..... After a week of tonsillitis - at my age - eased by a course of antibiotics, which is due to be finished today, we planned a day out birding. First of all, a medical review at the doctor's where bloods are taken, blood pressure etc etc and then straight on to Snettisham. But, the Stannah stair lift refused to rake Pam upstairs. She escaped and walked up but I can't do that. I called the helpline, they will send a man out sometime this afternoon. As the actual time estimate is not possible, we decided to drive to Buckenham so that we could be back for 'after 2'. After visiting the nurse in North Walsham, we took the Dilham road to Stalham. Near the bridge over the canal, a bare tree top held about a dozen Siskins, our first of the winter. Approaching the Clippesby turning, Pam spotted two big birds flying along the back of the field. She suspected that they were Cranes so took the Thurne Road. A scarce Mistle Thrush swayed on a roa...