Birthday Outing

 Sunday August 3

My choice as to today's destination, as it was my 87th birthday. Lakenheath, Dunwich and Frampton were ruled out because of the distance for Pam to drive, her shoulders are very painful at the moment. I am always very happy to bird the north coast. Selbrigg is shelved for the next month or so, no-one is feeding the birds regularly.

Snettisham was very different from Friday. We were there an hour before high tide but a 5.1 metre height meant that the water did not come near to the shore. The birds were clustered at the far edge, others feeding well apart. The swathe of terns was much smaller, nearer to the Yacht Club and,when inspected, mostly Mediterranean Gulls, with a few terns amongst them.

The last pit had still got plenty of birds, but in nowhere near the number 

Despite the poor light, I took a shot of the Spoonbills on their favourite lounging bank.

The tide always comes in first at the Yacht Club end of the reserve, near the entry gate. I was scanning with my bins when Pam alerted me to two nudists walking along the shore. I hastily put my bins down. The man was wearing a sling bag around his shoulders. apart from that, they were both naked - and from their suntan, well used to it. The last time we had that experience was in Eilat, Israel - and that was a designated area. Good luck to them.

 Hunstanton had a music festival on the green, we took the bypass. A Stonechat feeding a young and an elusive Magpie were the only birds we saw at Holme. The four British White cattle were lying down, two of them looked very pregnant. I look forward to seeing the calves. 

 

Fortified by an icecream and, in increasingly rainy weather, we only made one more stop, at Holkham, before driving home in some very heavy showers.

It was a lovely birthday with some beautiful cards. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to try out my new wide angle lens. I could have done so for this Robin's pin cushion near where we parked in the NWT car park for icecream. I probably should have done as my 1-500 lens does not focus on near objects.

 Often found on wild or species roses, robin's pin cushion is a harmless growth on the stems of roses. It is caused by a gall wasp and consists of a hard woody structure with an outer covering of moss-like reddish pink or yellowish green leaves.