A goods day's birding

We got up early and set off with Jan driving out along the A47 towards North Norfolk with Cley seeming to be a very long way off.  We start our days list off as soon as we leave the house so with me sat behaving myself for half an hour and taking note of what we saw.  First bird we saw were Wood pigeons, loads of them all over the place.  Next came a Blackbird quickly followed by a Jackdaw.  Just after Leicester was saw a Buzzard and then followed by Crows; Pheasant; Magpie.  At this point we stopped for tea and toast at a Little Chef about half way there.  I then took over the driving with Jan doing the recording and we then saw Rook; Grey Heron; Herring gull; Mallard; Starling; Lapwing; Oystercatcher; Black headed gull; Long tailed tit; Kestrel; House sparrow; Shellduck, not far from the Cley entrance.  One thing of note was a pheasant that Jan saw but I didn’t.  It was a male in breeding colours but the breast plumage was all of a blond/golden colouring.  At the Cley visitors centre we had a look at a Collins guide and I pointed out a Golden pheasant but Jan was sure it wasn’t one of those.  I wouldn’t have been happy it had been I suppose.

Not many photos from yesterday but here's a back headed gull and a 

Greylag goose.  I got more avoctes and a few redshanks but none of them are good enough to post on here.

So we arrived at the beach car park and decided that we would try to walk to the north scrape hide ... what a nightmare ... we should have known better.  The shingle was really hard work for both of us.  Jan managed to go over on her right angle three times during the return walk ... we will not be doing it again!  Mind you, I suppose it did pay off in birding lines.  From the car park we saw Bar tailed godwits, Avocet, Red shank and Black headed gull.  After the shingle we found a grass path and from there we were able to add skylark, Shore lark (lifer), and Wheatear and one other bird that we couldn’t ID.   From the hide we also added Oystercatcher, Greylag goose, Brent goose, Canada goose, Ringed plover, Grey heron, Shoveler, Gadwall, Teal, Greater black-backed gull, Lapwing, Shellduck, Shag, Wood pigeon, Green shank, Pied wagtail, Little egret, Marsh harrier, Mute swan, Rook, Starling and Coot.  As we drove from Cley we cut through Wells-Next-the-Sea and picked up a Curlew on a playing filed just inside the town.  We didn’t stop because we wanted to get in to Titchwell as soon as we could.

Arriving there we set up the scooters for a ride down to the beach and first bird noted was a Greenfinch in the trees by the car park.  At the first feeding station by the shop entrance we added Blue tit, Great tit, Wood pigeon and at the one behind the shop we added Siskin (our first in many years), Collared dove, Chaffinch and Robin.  Off we went down the path towards the beach adding Moorhen, Pheasant, Dunnock, Mallard, Wren, Black headed gull, Teal, Blackbird, Shoveler, Coot, Tufted duck, Graylag goose, Gadwall, Avocet, Pintail, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Knott and a Curlew.  At the wooden platform thingy there, there was a very help chap who point out what he said was a second year Gannett a raft of circa 2000 Common scoter (another lifer), and around 12 Red breasted Mergansers.  Very grateful we were too.  For ourselves we found some Dunlin and a single Linnet which Jan didn’t see because she was sat looking out to sea.  With that we headed off back to the car.  On the way we saw two guys looking very intently at some birds which we had taken to be redshank but the assured us were actually Spotted redshank with a Ruff in close attendance.  They then told us about a Jack snipe that could be seen from the Fen Hide so off we went looking for it – and find it was did but on the way we also added another Little egret and a Crow to the list.  While we were there I was looking through one window and a Barn owl flew past the other way and I missed it.  Damn!!!  However, we both saw the Tawny owl that flew across the road in front of us on the way home. 

Altogether we had a very good and useful day and we got home to the kids very tired and ready for bed.  We did spend some time with them though but when we did get to bed we both slept very well indeed.  

I’m sure you saw all the violence and vandalism on the news last night.  They interviewed one of these nutters and he claimed they were not going to be slaves any longer and tried to claim that what they were doing was the same as what happening in the Middle East and North Africa.  It’s all a lot of crap of course; it’s nothing like that at all.  What those yobs were doing was causing trouble for the sake of it.  All they really want is to fight the police.  I might have had more sympathy or be more willing to listen to them if they didn’t try to hide their faces.  If their cause was just they wouldn’t worry about being seen to take action in the face to a harsh government.  But there again, what does smashing the doors of a Santander bank have to do with a protest against the government?  That’s right, nothing at all.   

Here's Bella, settled on my legs for a snooze but some rotten so-n-so wouldn't let her and kept taking photos of her, not that she really minded though.

Some of the roads in North Norfolk are very narrow and windy and if there were not plenty of signs saying you were driving along the A149 you wouldn't actually know you were on an A road at all.  Stiffkey is probably one of the tighest villages to drive through ... pretty though.     

Now that seems daft to me ...

Jan and I were in the Willy White in Dorktown today and I was looking at the me n u and I noticed something that has had me wondering.  There's not there that says more or less, if you want a gluten free chioce of tattlies with your steak, order a baked jacket spud instead of chips.  Now, I've never heard that before and it do indeed sound daft to me.  The pint I had wasn't the best I've had in there either, but never mind eh.  There was what was termed a health market today in the town centre and we had alook around it.  To be honest we'd forgotten it was on, ah well ... it wasn't all that good really but I did pick up a couple of bits that show up the unit measure for each alcholic drink by group.  A pint of normal beer is 2 units.  An pint of 4.3% ABV beer is 2.3 units.  An alochopop is 1.4 units.  But remember this, it's of no use trying to use that measure to decide how much you can drink before being done for drink driving.  To my mind there's only one safe level and that's no booze at all if you are going to drive.

Market day tomorrow so we'll go off down there and see what happening and perhaps take a few photos.  But on Sunday we are off to Cley and Titchwell  so that we can get a decent full day's birindg in.  Hopefully I will have soen birdy shots to post on here on Monday or Tuesday. 

And don't forget folks ...

             The clocks go forward and hour tomorrow night!
 
 

Coobe Abbey dog walking

But I still got some birding done.  This heron was snapped as it flew over us and I was rather pleased to get this one.  Altgether I think wew saw aroung 18 speices today which isn't all that bad considering it wasn't an actual birding trip.  The only year tick was a nuthatch though.  I was hoping for a tree creeper that is regualr oveer there, next time perhaps.  The major disapointment was that the feeding table at the hide has been removed.  That's a shame really cos it was good for bird photography.

There's one more shot somewhere of a mallard which I got today too but I've missed filed it somewhere.  Ah well, have to do with just these few for now then.

A shopping trip today

Jan wanted to go out for a run in the car today just to get us both out together for once so it actually turned into a long winded shoping trip with a quick visit to Brandon Marsh for a coffee and a slice of cake at Badgers tea room there.  While we saw only two new birds for this year, a greater spotted woodpecker and a green finch.  That's not too bad really seeing as we were not actaully out birding today.

It seems that where-ever we went to today in Coventry the was road works or road accidents.  There was both north bound on the A444;  the A46 east bound towards the M69 was closed at the A45 junction becuase of serious accient between there and the island at Binley.  The lass at Brandon said there was another one just outside Morrisons too.  That one was cleared by the time we got there.  But the main reason we were down that way was to find someting to stop the 4 legged kids digging under the fence between us and next door and I also wanted to go to PC worlkd for a look at the Windows 7 software.  I've since done a check and this machine is OK for 32 bit Windowns 7 instalaition.  But while we were there we were rather impressed with the price and specs of a number of laptops in there.  The result is that we may well be getting a new lappy for Jan, I have one downstairs now, then I shall sell the two desk tops and put the money form them towards a new lappy for me, then I shall sell out current lappy to help defray the costs.  Esay eh ;-)))

Nice day out yesterday

I managed to get out to Norfolk yesterday for the day but only managed to get 38 species for the day, pretty poor considering I went to both Cley and Titchwell.  But that's birding for you, some days the birds are there and other days they're not.  One guy I spoke to at Titchwell said that during yesterday morning there was a lot more there but at 4.30 there wasn't ... ah well.  Even so I did manage to get 11 new ones for my year list, avocet, brent geese, oystercatcher, greenshanks, marsh harrier, little egret, redshanks, knott, dunlin, wren, and surprisingly three house martins too, so I'm happy enough with that.  But at Cley there was a spoonbill, snow buntings and shore larks - s0 why aren't they also on my list?  Well, they were showing along the top path by the beach and that path being a shingle path I can't get my scooter down there and to get to the North Scrape there is too long for me to walk, especially carrying a camera and a scope on a tripod.  Later at Titchwell another guy let me have a look through his scope at what he said were common scoters.  Well, I looked, re-focused the scope and all I could see was loads of sea water.  But he did warn me that they were a long way out, "About a mile off shore," he said, whatever, I couldn't see them.  Not a large number of birds then, but it was great to be out in the fresh air and doing what I enjoy, and that surely isn't a bad thing to be doing.  Here's three shots from yesterday then ...

While I was at Titchwell I noticed something I hadn't seen before ...

This wrecked ship was showing above the low tide.  Not seen it before as I said so it was something different to record.  And then on the way back to Hunstanton for a drink and a meal in the Marine pub I saw this ...

By the time I got around the corner a few yards away the clouds had closed up and the beam had gone.  Not a great shot but I like it anyway.

The new one way system on our streets is supposed to be operational from today.  I wonder how many will get it wrong?  Soon find I suppose.



   

What a farce!

No birdies again today so it' straight on with me moans for the day ...

The gutter cleaner went ahead as we were informed but that wasn't all.  There’s loads of trees up both side of our street and they make a right mess.  You should see my Golf with all the bird **** all over it from being parked under a tree.  Not much choice there really though.  Anyway, some bright spark decided that today would also be a good day for the tree surgeons to get to work and lop all the branches off the trees.  The two together made driving in the street very difficult all day.  But that’s not all ... Tuesday is our normal bin day too.  So we had the gutter cleaners, tree loppers and bin-men all trying to work in the street at the same time, all getting in each others’ way and of course something had to give.  The bin-men gave up and left, so our bins haven’t been emptied today.  Bloody good council workers we have enit?

 Do you want more pics?  Well, you’re getting them!

I called this one, One step backwards please ;-)))

Taken on the tube during the swine flu thingy last year.

Part of the crowns at Camden.

Saturday linch, Dorktown market

Go on, have sniff.

Legs bent, bum out, snap!

Canon-man, Stratford on Avon

Englands Hopes ... I'm second from the left, taken during army training in 1967

No birding today cos ...

7-3-11

... when I got up I was pretty well run-out at bog-house ... do I need to say more?  However, when I set out to start this blog I intended it to not just about birding.  Let's face it, there's loads of other doing just that and doing a far better job of it than myself.  So now I'll move on. 

Life in Dorktown goes on as normal.  Earlier today we had a note pushed through the letter box from Warwickshire County Council.  Tomorrow they are coming to our street to clean the ‘gullies’, by which I think they mean the gutters and drains.  OK, no probs there I suppose but hang on a minute ... they have asked that all cars parked in the street be removed from between 0900hrs and 1600hrs and for them to be parked elsewhere!  But where for pete’s sake?  There’s something like 200 houses in our street and to give you a snap shot of the area, we have two cars, next door has two cars, next door t’ther way has one, family across the road has two and within six or seven houses there’s a family with four cars!  So where the heck are we supposed to park them all?

Here’s some more birdy pics ... 

I got this Bewick swan in May/June at Hornsea Mere a few years ago.  A local guy said it had been injured about Christmas the year before and had been hanging about ever since.  Whatever, it was a nice spot for us.  

Another one from a few years back.  My all time favourite bird is the coot.  I just think they look so smart in their black and white rig ... mind you, the chicks look pretty ugly don't they ;-)))

I found this grey heron (and many others too), in Regents Park, London last October time.  They were all so very close.

My one and lony kingfisher shot.  Now for something different. 

This amazing peice can be found in Antrim in Ulster.  I rather liked it.

And this one was over the porch of a pub in Carraick-a-need in Ulster.

I did tink twice about posting this one ... its of the town hussey, or George Eliot to give her her professional name.  Have you tried reading Mill on the Floss?  No, well don't bother, I've tried it three times and fell asleep before getting to the bottom of the first page!

This gunner is in Whitehaven in Cumbria.  I got this last summer while I was up that way. 

 

Birdng from a train

Yes folks it can be done.  On Wednesday I went off to Brum on the train and it struck me that even though I didn’t have my bins with me I could still do a bit of birding while I was sat there.  But does that make me a bird spotter as opposed to a bird watcher I wonder.  Whatever, I got 14 species over the day and I was happy with that.

On 1 March I said to Jan, “Hey gel, we didn’t say ‘White Rabbit White Rabbit White Rabbit’ this morning.”  Looking at me a bit puzzled she said, “Yer what?  What yer on abart.”  After 31 years she’s starting to get the Nuneaton accent ;-)))  “Well,” say I, “it’s one of Mam’s silly superstitions, you know like not cutting your finger nails on a Friday or a Sunday and throwing salt over your left shoulder if you spill some on the floor or the table.  Waste of salt if you ask me.”  “Oh right, said Jan as she walked off shaking her head.  But you know, they were not the only Mother has, or had before dementia set in, now she can’t remember who she saw two minutes earlier, very distressing.  Anyway, another one of Mother’s worries was passing someone on the stairs at any time.  She would stand perfectly still so that whoever was going in the opposite way moved past her, not Mother moving past them.  And don’t forget new clothes  if you went out on Easter Day and Whit Monday, “... or the birds will shit on you!” she used to say.  I once bought Jan and new purse and Mother got very upset because I didn’t put a couple of coppers in it before I gave it to her.  And the one that always got me was to do with the blades of knives crossing.  If she accidentally managed to push two knives so that their blades crossed she would pick one up and throw it on the floor and stand there screaming until pone of went to pick it up again.  Yet she had no time for the broken mirror one, maybe cos she was always doing that ;-)))   It’s strange what some people will believe and spend all their lives being in fear of.

Not mentioned it before but I do enjoy art, you know, painting and sculptures and so on.  Probably got my OU degree to thank for that, happily.  So while I was in Brum the other day a took a ride on the tram to West Brom to have a look at the new arts centre called The Public.  Here it is ...

By the time it opened it was over budget and delayed by months and months, probably  a couple of years.  It has had a lot of criticism and to be honest, I’m not in the least bit surprised; I thought it was Crap, with a capital C as you can see.  By the time I got there it was my lunch time so I had had an egg and mayo sandwich and a coffee.  The coffee was OK but the mayo was tasteless and hadn’t been seasoned at all.  Here’s one shot I got as I made my way down from the 3^rd floor ...

... and believe me, it didn’t get any better.  Where the over spend was I just don’t know and seeing as it’s so empty I can’t see any reason for it being delayed either.  They have visited the art gallery up the road in Walsall to see how it have been done.

Last Saturday we had our grandson Kile for the weekend and we took him out to Newport for the day.  Here is tucking into a piza.

Me and Rusty-pup taken by Jan.

Bella, taken by me.

Jan and the kidzzz taken by me.

Public art in Newport.  I didn't read the placue so I don't know what this is suppsoed to be other than a steam engine made in bricks ... nicely done though.

Do you know these two?  They're the biker papr-medics on telly, saw them on Wednesday.

  5 foot 3 - or me having a play with my camera, I know ... little minds ;-)))

Nothing from the sage again today, he’s gone down the Smoke for a weekend visiting family so you’ll have to mek do with sumat from the dad-in-law’s little red book.

"Opportunity used to knock, now it calls up and asks questions."