Anne's Journal

 Thursday March 27 After a morning of wintry showers, the skiy cleared and the sun shone. Where should we go? Keeping in mind the fuel price and availability situation brought about by the war in the Middle East -Trump doing a Putin - it was either Winterton or Cley. Cley won. Blackthorn froth decorating the hedgerows, budding trees, catkins, daffodils and burgeoning Alexanders, it's definitely Spring, clocks go forward this coming weekend.  First stop, Salthouse, a surprise to find one car only, it's a popular place. Probably due to the lack of birds and the cutting wind. A pair of Stonechats, well hidden in the long grass, was worth the visit. A lone Avocet kleeped overhead, landing out of sight. We spent some time scanning the Eye Field for Wheatear, they've already arrived in the Outer Hebrides. In fine weather they tend to fly straight through. Moving on to park roadside near the Eye pool, we found three Ruff racing about looking for food.    Eventually, they to...

 Sunday March 15 A lot has happened since Sunday, I'm writing this on Thursday the 19th. After an appalling Sunday night when I got very little sleep owing to constant coughing and inability to breathe, a visit to the very concerned doctor sent me straight to the hospital via ambulance. The latter picked me up at the surgery and arrived within a few minutes. After the cold and very uncomfortable ride, I don't think they have springs, I spent the rest of the day in triage, a ward, having an xray, attached to a fluid drip and oxygen. Most of my stats were OK but trying to keep my oxygen levels up was a problem. No-one seemed to think I'd be going home that day. I did my acting best and got home soon after seven o.clock with a dose of Doxycycline antibiotics' Back to Sunday.  A lovely sunny day when we left. Not many birds around, Brancaster Staithe at low tide, without its usual large number of moored boats and row of beached tenders, looked like a vast sea of mud. Carefu...

Thursday March  We were late, the wind was strong and gusting - and the bird had not been reported today. We still went. Reading Sue Bryan's Blog yesterday had triggered the idea. Although she talked of walking half a mile along a very muddy river bank, there was an outside chance that the bird could be seen from Ludham Bridge. One report - although not recent - had it actually flying over the bridge itself.  We drove into the small car park looking to the north, going as far as we could along the river bank. A Scottish birder trudged towards us, no he hadn't seen the bird and had been there an hour. Several boats came and went, mostly manoevering in situ, only one disappearing along the river. Maybe a boat ride would be a good idea. One male, and a female Marsh Harrier brought bins to eyes in hope. I ate my lunch. Laughing Cow cream cheese on multi seed Ryvita. A cry of  'I've got it'  from Pam caused instant panic. The Black-winged Kite was flying towards us along...

 Sunday March 1 Apart fom January 1st, which is always special, today was the pleasantest day's birding yet. Having set off in mizzle - and returned home in the same, in between was dry, mostly overcast, but with a period of sun at midday. Tha latter coincided with our visit to Snettisham, which is the absolute pits. The sun on the reserve pit makes bird identification almost impossible, the glare is blinding.  We began in earnest at Selbrigg, where we can add birds not seen elsewhere. It only takes a few minutes from the placing of food for the first birds to arrive. That was a Coal Tit today, closely followed by two Great Tits and a Blue Tit. A Nuthatch was later, then a Robin,  two Goldcrests flew into the trees above. In the end, I saw four Coal Tits at once - there were probably more. Delightful little birds. The light was too poor for photography.  I used Merlin here and at Sculthorpe Mill. It told me that we had been in the presence of : Redwing, Siskin, Great...