Red Kites in sight, birders delight!

As I was driving into Norwich at lunchtime (to buy a new guitar amp!) a lovely, pristine Red Kite sailed low over the woods near the Brick Kilns pub: as always, the camera was in the van, so I managed a few photos: these were the best!

Birds of the Heath (Cavenham Heath, that is!)

I'm not a massive fan of dead horse flogging, so the report of a SP Red-necked Grebe at Lackford was enough to cause me to abandon my plan to walk around the Fen and drive southwards.

There were lots of people at the lakes, but sadly the target bird seemed to have decamped overnight: I remember now why I gave up twitching!

 Lacking any other obvious target, I thought I'd grab a year tick at Cavenham, and, after a bit of a walk and a few distant views, I found a pair on their nest quite close to the road. Despite the heat haze, I managed some reasonable shots of these delightful birds, as well as of some typical heathland species: Stonechat, Linnet and Meadow Pipit.

Now and again a frame-filling flew over, doing circuits out of Mildenhall.

Slim pickings at the Fen!

A quick dash around Strumpshaw, Buckenham and Cantley was pretty unproductive, apart from plenty of summer warblers: Blackcaps, Garden Warblers and Chiff-Willows were everywhere!

A Little Owl posed at the top of an Oak and one of the Cantley Peregrines flew out to terrorise the marsh birds, but that was it for photo-ops!

Something I'd never seen before, though, which I wish I'd managed to get a shot of was a pair of Swifts mating on the wing: amazing spectacle!

Turtle talk!

Since I removed myself from the seething cauldron of a certain forum, I've had a number of e-mails and pms asking where the best views of the three Turtle Doves currently visiting our garden can be obtained.

Against my better judgement, I even logged on to the forum purely to answer the queries (You can't answer directly from your own e-mail!) The reply, I'm afraid, is that there is nowhere, as far as I'm aware, where the Turtles can be seen.

Judging by a couple of the e-mails, I have a feeling people may be reaching the wrong conclusion: I'd love to share these beautiful birds with friends and genuine enthusiasts, but their appearances are unpredictable (although daily) and they can only be viewed from my office, Linda's office or the kitchen!

Here are a few pictures from this afternoon...

One and a half!

Pairs, that is! A second male Turtle Dove joined the established pair in the garden today: he's a small, dark bird. Let's hope he attracts a mate, too!

Chats and Hairstreaks!

A morning at Cley with Brian was relaxed and enjoyable: nothing rare to chase after, so we had a long walk in the sun and photographed some common - but beautiful - birds.

From the centre hides we enjoyed watching a Little Egret catching sticklebacks: he had to flip them round to swallow them! Also on view were several Little Ringed Plovers, a few Godwits and lots of Avocets.

The Eye Field held lots of Wheatears, including one that might have been a 'Greenland' type. The Whinchat was still there, while a White Wagtail remained irritatingly distant in the heat haze! Much closer were a number of dapper little Meadow Pipits and Reed Buntings.

On the way south, we stopped on Salthouse Heath where, after a bit of a search, we found two Green Hairstreaks.

Just north of Norwich we took a walk around a small reserve that Martin told us about. The scrub was too dense for good views of anything, but we heard - and briefly glimpsed - a Nightingale.

This evening the male Turtle was purring from our Sycamore: first time we've heard him this year!

Three go Dotty in Norfolk!

 

After a cool fifteen years the 'Dream Team' of Walker, Read and Bryant were reunited for a day's birding (We were in the top three of the National Bird Race on three occasions back in the nineties. No-one is better at bird calls than Bob, while Martin has eyes like a hawk. They are both 450+ listers who don't keep lists. I just drove the car for 24 hours!)

First stop was Choseley, where first a Corn Bunting, then twenty Dotterels came close enough for decent photos: back-up came from lots of hares, several Grey Partridges and a couple of Lesser Whitethroats.

A move to Titchwell added lots of LRPs to the day's list, plus a couple of distant, dozey Garganey.

Coffee on the terrace at Cley, then half an hour on the beach that produced a few Wheatears and a dapper Whinchat.

Home to cook tea (Gnocchi in a tomato and basil sauce) and to enjoy the Turtles dozing in the sun on the patio chairs!

 

 

 

It's only a dip if you go for it and miss it! LOL!

Being away at a mineral show at the weekend, I didn't have to agonise over the 'Am I still a twitcher?' dilemma that several of my friends faced! Great to hear that Martin and my best man (second time round!) Bob Walker got to see the Finch: neither have enjoyed the rudest of health in recent years, so it was brilliant that my old buddies were up to the long walk and enjoyed good views!

Couple of birdy moments for Linda and me: as we drove along Oxford Road, just south of Kidlington a Nightingale flew so close in front of our car, it was in danger of becoming a bonnet emblem! We also saw several Yellow Wagtails and, along the A505, a Corn Bunting.

And yes: the Turtle Doves are still feeding well! The female has a very broad, dark-centred covert feather on her right wing: very distinctive!

Oh! Should you want to buy a copy, the book is now available to purchase on Amazon: £15 including p&p: just type 'Our Forbidden Moon' into the Amazon search pane!