Insectivorous plants: a bumper year...

I suppose the heat has brought plenty of tiny flies into the garden: certainly the Sundews are covered with recent captures! It's going to be a close run thing between the next rainfall and running out of water in our four barrels: insectivorous plants cannot tolerate nutrient-rich tapwater...

As you can see, there are half a dozen different pitcher plants, two varieties of Sundew, Venus Fly Traps and Butterworts, all of which are permanently located on the patio, proving how surprisingly tough they are!

August survey at All Saints, Hemblington

In enervating heat, Linda, Sue, Sue, Peter and I carried out the monthly survey at 'the Little Church on the Hill'. To be honest, we expected little and were not disappointed, although a pair of displaying Buzzards were unusual.

Grey Partridges: it's been a while!

Although I've seen a handful of our delightful native Partridges this year, these two up by Hemblington Church are the first I've photographed in 2026. (Unfortunately right into the setting Sun!)

Perseids

There was a decent number of meteors between 03.00 and 04.00: I counted 15 brightish ones. Attempts at photography were somewhat affected by the steady procession of Mr Musk's Starlink satellites travelling west to east through the Cassiopeia region. With a dark, moonless sky, the Milky Way and M31 (Andromeda galaxy) were naked eye objects for once!

Eclipse!

There was a fabulous clear sky and lots of our lovely neighbours came out to enjoy my projected images of the eclipse. There were several small sunspot groups too! (All this and a fabulous supper courtesy of Sue and Peter!)

Eclipse day!

Really looking forward to tonight's solar eclipse: the best since 1999, when Linda and I drove down to Prawle Point in Devon - still got the glasses, as you can see! We're having an 'Eclipse Supper' with chums Sue and Peter, with plenty of fizz: I've got all the appropriate gear ready to observe, record and project the event: fingers crossed!

A few Perseids (Meteors, that is!)

I happened to wake up at around 03.00, so I thought I'd spend an hour looking for Perseid meteors - this shower is generally agreed to be the most productive of the year. In the event (and despite a thin haze) I recorded a rate of around a dozen an hour. I tried a few photos and actually captured a single 'shooting star', albeit somewhat shaky!

David Bryant: media personality!

Or not! Still: great to see the 'Summer Wine Crew' on TV tonight!

Zitting Cisticola! A lifer and year tick!

Since I'm not really 'into' long-distance twitching these days, it's been a while since I've added to my life list: the last new bird was the Lincolnshire Lammergeier, I think (with recent demotions I'm now 'on' 442: exactly half of this year's total!)

With the hides at Cley being cleaned until 10am, I persuaded Brian and Norman to head south to Walberswick, where a shortish walk almost immediately gave us  distant views of a new bird for all three of us - Zitting Cisticola. I've seen the species in France (when they were still called Fan-tailed Warblers!) so I knew what to look for and was able to find an adult and three juvenile birds. Always distant and through a bit of heat haze, it was still a great result! A couple of obliging Whimbrel were very welcome...

Since Minsmere was due to reopen today, we drove the short distance and walked round a virtually bird- and visitor free reserve. Highlights were lots of Terns, including Arctic, Roseate and Little among the hundreds of Common and Sandwich Terns, and being interviewed over lunch by a BBC Look East camera team! The Sluice Pool held a large shoal of decent Roach.. A brief stop at Hen Reedbeds and then home...