When Linda and I returned from a quick visit to the local garden centre, we noticed a Red Kite drifting towards our bungalow. I hurried inside to collect the camera, but by the time I refound the Kite it was over the far side of the fields. As it headed off eastwards, I realised a Raven was following it (somewhat closer, but still distant!)
Looking from the office window I noticed this dapper Great Spotted Woodpecker in our Ginkgo tree: I just had time for two photos before it zoomed away!
Once again our popular annual music quiz is sold out well in advance! Thanks to all of you who support our events in aid of the beautiful Hemblington Church: watch out for more dates in the future!
(If anyone is looking for tickets, do get in touch: there are always a few 'returns'!)
Well: Greenfinches in the snow, at any rate! As the snow began to settle in our garden the wild birds swooped in to feed: over twenty Greenfinches and twenty more Blackbirds arrived to take advantage of the suet, mealworms and apples that Linda had put out for them.
Haven't seen the Sun for ten days - even then it was through a gap in the clouds. Today we've actually had four hours of uninterrupted sunshine here in East Norfolk - I was able to clean out the pond pumps and filters! There are a couple of reasonable sunspots - always interesting to watch them develop...
The strategy of spending most of their time lurking in and around our garden has paid off for our resident Red-legged Partridges: the game shooting season for both RLPs and Pheasants finished on February 1st and Linda and I are pleased to have both species enjoying the free food and shelter!
Our 60 litre marine reef system continues to evolve: in such a small, closed environment some organisms seem to flourish, while others gradually fade away. Star and disc polyp colonies seem to do best - we've had some since the initial stocking: cabbage corals have also been reliable. The only problem is that there's no room to add any new items!
There are - perhaps surprisingly - nearly 50,000 beekeepers in the UK, maintaining around a quarter of a million hives: Linda (Mrs Bryant!) is one of them. It's hard work - very hard work - requiring commitment (both emotional and financial), patience and consideration for the bees: most apiarists make just enough from selling their produce to break even. The bees? It takes a dozen bees their entire lifetimes to make just a teaspoonful of honey, but the whole hive can yield between 20 and 100 pounds of honey a year.
Visit any supermarket and you'll see a variety of honeys for sale, with prices ranging from a couple of pounds a jar to as much as £100 for the top-of-the-range Manuka honey. But here's the thing: around 1,700 tons of genuine Manuka honey are produced annually in New Zealand, but, according to Crisis Report UK, ten thousand tons are sold around the world!
There is no way that a jar of genuine honey can be sold at a profit for a couple of pounds, yet every supermarket offers numerous brands around that price. When Crisis Report tested runny honey from the major supermarkets, they discovered that most contained psicose, a known chemical 'marker' for fake honey - especially if it's from China.
Genuine honey has long been prized for its therapeutic properties, but that is not the case for the syrup-diluted, blended cheap 'runny honey' offered in most shops. If you're just looking for something sweet to put in your porridge or on your toast and you're not worried about empty calories, well fine: but if you want the real health-giving food, read the label and be prepared to pay a little extra.
Linda and I have both seen the long-staying Eastern Black Redstart on the seafront at Sheringham, but the report of a nearby pair of Eurasian Black Redstarts was an incentive for a revisit! We saw the flamboyant eastern bird as we were parking, but the target birds took a little longer. In the end a friendly local led us to them, along Driftway, where Linda and I have stayed on several occasions. After 'filling up' we walked down to the promenade and, after a bit of to- and fro-ing found a dapper little Purple Sandpiper with a big flock of Turnstones. All this and kippers for lunch!
