St Benet's

 Friday December 19

The icy wind which met me as I turned the corner by the garage, nearly sent me indoors again. The sun was shining from a largely blue sky, and everywhere looked lovely. It was already early afternoon, the sun low in the sky, blinding as we drove east. Not many of Ludham's homes had outside Christmas lights, those that did had decorated their trees and bushes. Best were the trunks which had been covered in chokers.

The track out to St Benet's does not improve, it's pot-holes were full of water after heavy rain yesterday, even the main road still had large wayside pools. Four cars already in the car park, their owners stood outside brandishing large lensed cameras. For the next hour, we watched, a Cattle Egret, Grey Heron, Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, small flocks of Redwing and Fieldfare and, to our delight, a Barn Owl. The first we've seen since February. As the sun set, long flights of Cormorants flew to their night roost. 

Shortly after leaving, an oncoming car driver beckoned us to stop, very kindly telling us that there were 32 Cranes viewable on the left hand side of the track near where the trackdside line of trees started. The sun had now set, visibility was poor - but we managed to pick out a line of cranes in the gloom. I pointed my camera at where I thought they were, and clicked away. When I got home, much work on an editing programme lightened the photo enough to see that there were many Pink-footed Geese amongst them. I did manage to get some of the Cranes too.