Anne's Journal

 Friday February 28 The sun was shining. After Gary (temporary gardener/odd job man) had finished pruning the fruit trees, we drove to St Benet's Abbey car park, overlooking Ludham Marsh and across to Thurne.  Shortly before arriving at the car park, there are two black bulls in a field to the right. Today, there were also ten Cattle Egrets, five of them around one of the bulls.   The others spread about.  Two vehicle were busy on the marsh, one of them, a big scoop attached, carrying gravel to where pipe laying was going on. Their giant wheels were skidding huge divots as they meandered across the ground trying to find a solid way through.The flock of 30+ gulls was enjoying feeding on the freshly disturbed ground, as was a lone Little Egret. All the disturbance was interesting to watch - but did nothing for the other bird life. A Buzzard, Kestrel and a few Cormorants were all we saw.

 Wednesday February 26 The power was due to be off from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.. When we left home at 9.20 it was still on.  We'd rushed about (ha ha) making drinks, using the Stannah etc. and we needn't have hassled ourselves quite as much. What about the chair bound or house bound, without heating and lighting for that number of hours in February? Our plan was to spend the day in a heated car whilst seeing as many birds as we could. It was dry until shortly before Fakenham, when the first gentle drops kissed the windsdreen. That soon became a steady deluge, which continued all day until mid afternoon. Ah well, Snettisham's water birds should still be feeding. We spent some time scouring the second pit for the drake Scaup reported here for several days. All I could find was some very peculiar Mallard - normal for the pits. Further on, a small group of Tufted Ducks loafed about,    and a lone Avocet, up to its belly in the water, was feeding avidly.   Breasting the ...

 Tuesday February 25 An unplanned outing. Adrian, our gardener, had a major bowel cancer operation last week, he came home last Friday. He rang yesterday to say that he was planning to come here with Sam today, sitting somewhere new whilst she cleaned the house. I thought that he might have been a little optimistic, a bad night convinced him to stay at home. Pam would have enjoyed chatting with him. Selbrigg for some photos on a sunny day was the plan. When we got there, there was a large coach parked in the forest gateway, three cars in other spaces, one group of children lakeside, another standing in the river outlet. We left for Cley. The Coastguards Brent Geese flock was feeding in the field near the gate at the beginning of the road. We drew in to the gateway and I did my best to view the moving, feeding, stabbing at each other, gargling, contact noise flock. Eventually I was able, looking through reeds, to have short - but several - views of a lone Pale-bellied Brent Goose. I...

 Sunday February 23 It takes us 45 minutes to get there, and only a twenty minutes wait to see our target bird. The male Goshawk rose from the trees, performed a few display loops - and then disappeared over the church, as quickly as it had appeared. By now, a dull grey day, we didn't hang around for any further sightings, we drove on to the Swanton Novers Raptor Watchpoint where we saw...... nothing. Happy with our success, we drove home via M and S in Aylsham. As we passed the Murphy's pipeline works 300 metres from home, a Woodcock flew across the road in front of us. We used to have them roding at the bottom of our garden - for several years - when we first moved here. Good to see that they are still around. I have added photos to the previous post

 Friday February 23 A late morning start, destination Cley. Apart from a flock of Fieldfare and at least one Redwing just along the road from home, we only saw a handful of birds on the way. We had hopes for Salthouse. Dashed. The fields to the east of beach road had a scattering of Rooks, one Curlew and a few Wigeon. Driving out to Coastguards at Cley, a pair of Stonechats alighted on the roadside wires, quickly departing. The large flock of Brent on the Eye Field was widely distributed. We were able to scan the group climbing out of the pool, the others were very distant and well hidden by tall vegetation. Apart from a Dunnock and a Robin, we didn't find anything along Waterworks Lane either. On to Morston where there were surprisingly few cars and people for half term, it's usually very popular. Our first bird was a Greenshank, still in full pale winter plumage, on the car park pool where we used to see one some years ago. These days they tend to favour the creek.   By now,...

 Tuesday February 18 Four weeks ago, to the day, I fell over at N S. damaging my right ankle ligaments and probably breaking my big toe. Yesterday, I was able to wear normal socks for the first time and to put on soft shoes. The first steps to walking put to the car this afternoon for my first outing this month.  Winterton seemed like  a good destination, with the promise of some birds not too far away from home. Pam decided to go via the sea at Walcott. I saw a male Bullfinch in a treetop en route to a very car and people-crowded seafront. Half term! Arriving in Happisburgh we found the dreaded Road Closed notices plus diversions. The pipe-laying lot are creating havoc around north east Norfolk. Our village road is closed again too. We had to re-trace our steps to Grub Street, where a very narrow and circuitous route took us back to Lessingham, beyond the closure.We did get a field scattered with Fieldfare as a result of the diversion. Apart from Mute Swans, Carrion Cro...