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Wednesday 26 June 2013

Trigger happy!

While myself and a couple of friends (one of whom is an RSPB Warden!) were walking the public paths at Kelling Heath today in search of Butterflies & photogenic birds, we noticed a Turtle Dove in a tree across a large clearing, which from the path we attempted to photograph at extreme range. We noticed some shifty-looking characters over the far side of the clearing, walking up and down, occasionally looking our way with binoculars, occasionally walking off the path around the edge of the clearing and generally behaving furtively. We took photos of the two (who were dressed atypically for birders or photographers) and made a mental note to keep an eye out for them, ...
After a while, we met a local patcher, who warned us that these men were BTO ringers, who may have reported us to the police as egg thieves!!!!!  Sure enough, when we returned to the level crossing, two Police Officers were waiting for us! They requested proof of i/d and checked this by radio, which was a little disconcerting for three 60-year-olds with unblemished records in the military and education.
The officers quickly realised we had done nothing wrong, apologised for troubling us and left.
I see from a 'well-known avian forum' that this event has already reached the attention of some posters, whose take on events is somewhat removed from reality. (I should add that, contrary to postings elsewhere,  there was not a single sign to suggest we were looking across a sensitive breeding site.)
Wouldn't the simplest thing have been to have walked round to check on our activity rather than immediately phone the police? (As I did at Strumpshaw when I saw a couple of teenagers trying to catch Swallowtails with a landing net!)

Bizarrely, the man stirring up the hornet's nest is a Norfolk photographer whose website includes numerous photographs he has taken of Woodlarks at or near their nest on Kelling Heath!

Postscript: the public-spirited soul who phoned the police continues to post his version of events on a public forum to which none of us are subscribers and hence cannot reply. There has been a lot of this 'trial by forum' on there recently...   To those of you who know us / me and who have attempted to redress this, many thanks....

Anyhow: a few pictures from Salthouse and Kelling Quags:-










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