Red skies in the morning and the aurora at night!

Some amazing skies here in east Norfolk yesterday: brilliant reds and yellows at dawn with greens, reds and purples of the aurora at 3.00am

Hoopoe: amazing video!

The Hoopoe in North Walsham was so confiding that even I managed a decent video of it!

Hoopoe in North Walsham

Linda and I knew there'd been a Hoopoe touring the gardens of a small bungalow estate to the east of North Walsham, so when the pager announced at lunchtime that it had settled down right by a quiet road, we finished our tuna wraps and headed north. We arrived in less than half an hour and found the delightful vagrant feeding happily in front of a small, well-behaved gallery: two terrific birds in two days!

Our last Kelling Heath star party

After nearly twenty years we attended our final astronomy event at Kelling Heath yesterday. The weather was kind to us and we met many old friends - and made some new ones too! Linda sold lots of jewellery and honey products and meteorite sales were outstanding.

Bayfield Hall sculpture trail

For the third time Linda, Sue, Peter and I travelled up to Bayfield Hall, near Holt to enjoy the annual Sculpture Trail. With several stops for tea and cakes and lunch at Cley Smokehouse Cafe, it was a terrific day out, completed by views of a cute little juvenile Bluethroat at Salthouse. Both Linda and I bought items - a Crane sculpture for Lin and a 19th century wine glass for me!

Bluethroat at Salthouse

After a thoroughly enjoyable day pottering around the sculpture trail, cafe and antiques shop at Bayfield Hall, followed by a lovely lunch at Cley Smokehouse Cafe nearby, Peter, Sue, Linda and I were keen to round the day off by having a bash at the juvenile Bluethroat along Beach Road, Salthouse. To my surprise, a fairly short wait was rewarded by pretty good views as this dapper little chat perched - briefly - on a wooden gate.

How to visit the North Coast and miss everything!

Norman and I had a day free, so headed north in search of some of the recent passerine migrants. We started with a seawatch at the coastguards, which gave us just several groups of newly-arrived Brents streaming westwards but little else. A move to Walsey Hills provided close views of some more Ivy Bees and lots of butterflies: only a brief glimpse of a Yellow-browed Warbler, though.

Coffee, then the East Bank, where we heard several parties of Bearded Tits, but saw little to get the pulses racing. Salthouse next, where the morning's Bluethroat was no longer available: we decided to drive home via Hickling, where once again things were a bit quiet: distant Cranes, Hobbies and Great Egrets, but nothing much to point the new camera at....

Wildlife in the village hedges

Our small village is lucky enough to have an excellent General Store / Post Office: this means my daily run to post meteorite orders can be done on foot. Not only is the half-mile walk and back good exercise, it often turns up interesting wildlife - I've seen Osprey, Hobby, Peregrine and four other raptor species over the years.

Many gardens have high hedges of leylandii, privet, laurel: some of these are interwoven with ivy. Yesterday I was pleased to discover that one of my favourite species - Ivy Bee - has begun to appear on the ivy flowers that are their preferred pollen and nectar source. These charming and placid little creatures have the same 'cuteness' as Honey Bees, but with darker stripes a bit like a wasp's. Talking of which: there is a nest of these aggressive insects in a leylandii hedge in our close that necessitates a wide detour!