Titanosaur at the Natural History Museum

Since Linda and Sue had both been Guides at the Diplodocus Experience at Norwich Cathedral, it seemed only sensible to visit an even bigger sauropod: the enormous Titanosaur on loan from  Argentina, its country of origin.

Peter drove us down for a two-day feast of site-seeing, dining out and museum exploration, culminating in the Titanosaur exhibition. Neither photographs nor words can do this awesome creature credit: it is astonishing to reflect that large herds of these creatures once thundered through the South American conifer forests...

Kites at Hemblington Church

Linda and I opened the church this morning: lots of little 'tweets' in the churchyard, including the Great Spotted Woodpecker. Star birds, though, were the Marsh Harrier and the pair of Red Kites that were feeding on a dead rat close to the road. I don't think I've ever seen a Marsh Harrier on the ground near the church before: very striking bird. Funny to think how just a few years ago views of Red Kite like these could only be obtained after a seven hour drive to mid-Wales!

Suffolk Sounds radio interview

Today I did another Q&A broadcast with the delightful Jules Button on Suffolk Sounds Radio. Here are notes of what we covered for any of the 6,500 listeners who might want to follow up any of the points I made.

November survey at Hemblington Church: a NEW species!

Since Linda and I were unlocking the church today, we carried out the monthly survey, starting at 8.00am. There weren't large numbers of birds, but a rich selection of species: four different raptors, a Great Spotted Woodpecker and - best of all - a covey of ten Grey Partridges!

Waxwings, Twite, Snow Buntings and Cattle Egrets: all in a morning!

The 'gang of three' headed north to Wiveton in hope of connecting with a reasonable flock of Waxwings that have been present for a few days around the village green/ Although they never came very close, we enjoyed meeting up with these delightful birds that sort of herald in Christmas! 

A move to Cley and a walk out to the back of Arnold's Marsh added a flock of 40+ Snow Buntings to the day's tally, wqhile the Brackish Pool held a good number of Pintails.

After coffee and cheese scones we drove the short distance to Blakeney for a stroll out to the famous 5-bar gate on the Freshes. On cue a flock of 15 or so delightful Twite perched on the wire fence, occasionaly dropping onto the path for a splash around. To the east, almost every cow on the grazing marsh had its own Cattle Egret!

Pallid Swift at Winterton

I couldn't resist diving across to Winterton this afternoon: the drab sky and drizzle had unexpectedly cleared and the long-staying Pallid Swift was reportedly showing well near the Church. When I arrived at around 2.00pm there was no-one else around, but after a minute or two a birder walked up from the village and kindly pointed out the bird, which fortunately flew nearer. 

Over the next hour or so a small gallery of familiar faces appeared and we enjoyed reasonable views of this delightfully agile vagrant in the afternoon sunshine.

Ironic! Kites and Pinkfeet at Hemblington Church

This is Linda and my week to unlock the Church: since we are due to carry out a monthly survey, we had considered combining the two activities. However, since it was a rainy, blustery morning, we decided against the survey today, driving up at 8.00am just to unlock and replenish the feeders.

Wouldn't you know it? In the brief time we were up at the top of the Heath six Red Kites were hunting around the Church, while three flocks of Pink-footed Geese flew overhead!

(Excuse the poor photography: it was very wet and very gloomy!)