An evening with Ben Garrod

Last night Linda, Sue and I joined an enthusiastic audience at Norwich Cathedral to hear Prof. Ben Garrod's talk about the Diplodocus. In general, Prof. Garrod was entertaining and informative, but - considering he's a lecturer in evolutionary biology at UEA - he made several glaring gaffes. The most surprising came during a somewhat dismissive response to a question about whether the DNA cloning featured in Jurassic Park will ever become reality: he replied that reptile erythrocytes (red blood cells) don't contain a nucleus: no nucleus, no DNA. This is simply not true! Both bird and reptile erythrocytes do have nuclei. And, as he continually reminded us, birds are actually dinosaurs. In evolution, it is almost unknown for an organism to regain an inherited factor once it has disappeared from its genome. Furthermore, to side-step the obvious follow-up response that, even if his claim were true, white cells do contain a nucleus, he made the astonishing statement that Mosquitoes only 'suck' in red cells! 

So: a generally entertaining - if somewhat popularist and over-theatrical - talk was slightly spoiled for me by some dubious assertions and over-long responses to trivial questions such as 'What is your favourite dinosaur?' I'm afraid Prof. Ben suffers from the same celebrity-related issues as a certain TV Astronomy pundit, sacrificing substance for style!

Red-backed Shrike and some nice waders on the North Coast

For the first time in over a year, Brian picked me up for a drive to the North Coast (sadly Norman couldn't join us) First stop was Cley, where half an hour in Bishop's Hide revealed that, apart from a few Golden Plover and Ruff, the bulk of the waders were over the other side! A short stroll took us to Teal Hide, looking out at Pat's Pool. Quite quickly we added Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper and lots of Dunlin and Black-tailed Godwits, while a move to Avocet Hide gave us good views of Wood and Green Sandpiper as well as more Godwits and Snipe.

We decided to head eastward to Gramborough Hill to see if yesterday's Redd-backed Shrike was still present: on arrival at the end of Beach Road a couple of birders confirmed that it was! After a short wait, this charming little juvenile posed somewhat distantly on top of the scrubby bushes.

Coffee and cheese scones at Kelling were followed by a walk down to the Quags: disappointingly there was absolutely nothing to see, apart from the first Small Red-eyed Damselflies of the year.

Beautiful peachy Moon!

A day past full, the Moon looked good enough to eat as it rose above the shrub border in our garden last night! This morning a lot more detail was visible, including my favourite crater Petavius.

Buzzards back in full plumage!

The delightful pair of Buzzards that seem to have nested in an oak tree visible from my office window were looking somewhat tatty the last time I photographed them. Now they are once again in splendid plumage and are regularly displaying together over the garden. It's strange to reflect what a rare sight these magnificent raptors were in Norfolk just fifteen years ago.

Slim pickings at Beighton pool...

On Friday, Linda and I went for drinks with friends just outside Acle: very enjoyable, too - above the farmhouse we watched Swallows and House Martins being scattered by a Hobby!

We were forced to travel by the back roads, because the rush hour and holiday traffic on the A47 was backed up to Brundall! On the way we passed the ephemeral pool which appeared earlier in the year near Beighton: in the past it's held some good waders, wildfowl and gulls. On Friday the pool hosted half a dozen or so Golden Plovers, but since the detour had made us late, we couldn't stop for photographs.

Today we passed by again, but on this occasion - when we were able to stop -  just a few Lapwings and a Mediterranean Gull were present.

Lightbox glitch on Blogspot

Lightbox is the feature that most of we bloggers use to handle our images. Selecting a picture usually transfers the viewer to a 'strip' of images that can be scrolled through by clicking on them. For the past few days the feature has stopped working: instead the images just enlarge slightly - you have to click the return arrow to go back to the original post. Has anybody else had this problem? And if so, is there a 'fix'?

Two giants meet the Moon in the southern sky

Three of the largest and brightest objects in the night sky are currently moving together above the southern horizon: fortunately, apart from a little haze, 'seeing' was good enough for a few photos last night. I used a variety of lenses and camera settings, but thel Moon made it very difficult to get the exposure right! The Moon had a delightful peachy-orange hue, no doubt caused by smoke / Saharan dust or some such.

It's not currently clear here in East Norfolk: if the cloud does break later, a near-full Moon will have moved across towards Jupiter: now that would be good to see!

Look who popped round for a drink!

One of our Hedgehogs appeared briefly to enjoy a drink from our splash pool: this demonstrates the advantages of having accessible water in a garden...

Champagne and Hedgehog!

Although overcast, the evening was fine enough for a glass of fizz and some alfresco nibbles before dinner. While Linda and our friends were looking around the garden, a young Hedgehog trundled out from the borders to enjoy his own snack!

Supper with friends: gradually returning to normal...

Strange to reflect that this time last year we'd begun to re-establish contact with old friends and socialize in their homes, blissfully unaware that the Autumn would see us plunged back into lockdown. Let's hope we're spared that this year (although you never know, unfortunately...)

Tonight our great friends Peter and Sue are joining us for supper, followed by last-minute tweaks to the Quiz Night planning. I should imagine the odd bottle of fizz might put in an appearance!

An exploding star in the southern sky!

It was just clear enough tonight (once the Moon had set!) to see the star RS-Ophiuchi. This is an unusual recurrent nova: it explodes into sudden brightness every 15 to 20 years. The reason appears to be that it 'sucks' hydrogen from its binary partner: once its mass has increased sufficiently, it flares up many times brighter and larger, before shrinking back to its original state. I could see the nova with the naked eye, but it was easier to locate with binoculars. While I was out, I had another look at Jupiter and its largest moons..