Four new 'lockdown ticks', but no photos.

Since birding friend Keith had mentioned yesterday that he'd encountered a Ring Ouzel within walking distance of my front door, I decided to take a look this morning. The three planet conjunction was still spectacular in the dawn sky as I headed northwards through Hemblington, although the Moon has travelled further east. I now realise just how well-off we are for Song Thrushes these days: I truly think I was never out of earshot of at least one during my whole walk.

First new bird was a Green Woodpecker that yaffled at me from a tall Oak, followed soon after by a Mistle Thrush that crossed the road between the tree canopy above me. After inspecting the various gulls following the plough (and finding a worm-eating Buzzard with them!) I crossed the Panxworth Road and took the path alongside the ruined church. Lots of Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, as well as the first Willow Warbler of the year. Even better, though, the unmistakable 'rattle' of a Ring Ouzel from the dense hedge. Frustratingly, I briefly saw it through the foliage: sadly, this was so dense, there was nowhere to poke my head (or camera) through for a search. I carried on past the barns and their beautiful garden: nothing to report apart from Robins, Pied Wags and more Song Thrushes.

Crossing the road, I took the bridle path past South Walsham Fen down to Hemblington Church. Lots of Yellowhammers, House Sparrows and Linnets, but by now the sky was so bright that photography was a bit of a challenge. Two newly-arrived Swallows were on the wires above friend Katherine's pond...

My exercise route

One or two correspondents have asked if I could post a few landscape shots of the routes I take on my various 'lockdown walks'. At the moment, I'm very lucky to be living in a fairly unspoiled area of farmland with belts of woodland and pasture. There are one or two small streams and pools and numerous old, isolated 'owl trees' and I don't suffer the frustration currently felt by many birders at not being able to use their cars. (That said, I'm looking forward to a return to weekly visits to the Brecks or North Norfolk!)

Today's wildlife...

Following my pre-dawn walk to the top of the Heath, I carried on to the Reservoir Woods, then back round 'Dingly Dell' and home for breakfast. (5 miles!) Nothing new today, but good to see even more Yellowhammers, Nuthatches and Great Spotted Woodpeckers. Interesting to see a Chinese Water Deer feeding alongside the usual herd of Roe Deer...

Three planets and the Moon in conjunction...

Worth getting up for!

This morning I started my 5 mile exercise at 5.00am, reaching the top of the Heath in time to see the conjunction between the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. Mars was pretty faint, but visible: the other two were quite bright (relatively speaking!)

The waning last quarter Moon was, as always at this phase, pretty spectacular with the chain of three large craters Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel lying on the terminator.

Can someone explain how 'Fatbirder' ranking works?

I have been gratified over the past few months (since I joined the Fatbirder's Top 1000 ranking system) to watch Birds of the Heath rise up to the second 'page' on the site. At one point, BoTH reached 84th spot: for a personal blog, I find that most surprising.

Recently, because of lockdown, presumably, the number of daily 'hits'  has averaged around 350 - 400: despite this, my Top 1000 ranking has dropped by 10 or so places. However! There are three ways you can inspect your daily position: overall ranking (today that's 95) inward traffic (Position 2 today) and outward traffic (Position 14)

Now, while I am, as I said, delighted to see that my blog seems to have achieved an audience, I was never under any illusion that it would compete with the 'big boys', many of which are actually commercial sites or are sponsored by bird-related companies. I'm just puzzled by what, if anything, the various tables mean!

Nostalgia! The bird books that started it all...

A number of other Norfolk birders have been posting photos of the books that most influenced their birding: I thought I'd do the same (just for a change from pictures of garden birds and Buzzards!)

Today's are in four groups:

1) Bill Oddie! It's very fashionable to dismiss Bill's contribution to UK birding, but his first two books in particular echoed my own approach to the hobby:  youthful local patching, leading to writing a daily bird logbook, listing and then twitching. He writes with an amusing, conversational style and his drawings and field sketches are delightful. The 'Big Bird Race' is one of the most gripping narratives I've read: it had extra interest for me, because one of the team members (Bill Urwin) preceded me as Y6 teacher at Acle Primary School.

2) Keeping it local! I've always bought any book that might help pin down a local rarity or steer me towards a new site. Linda and I were early members of the Cley Bird Club and enjoyed chatting to other members in the Beach Cafe: we have a full set (AFAIK) of the newsletters.

3) Narratives! While Linda and I were intent on building big life lists (at the time when 300 was the benchmark) I found other people's exploits truly fascinating. If you've not read these, you've missed a real treat. I particularly enjoy Adrian Riley's account of his 'friendly' competition to be the UK's top year lister in 2002. His 'Bug Alert' is a much-missed resource...

4) Twitching! These are just a few of the books that I read again and again back in the days when a drive to Sussex or a boat trip to Lundy were considered 'essential travel'! Linda and I spent several years making rare bird videos, and all of these were inspirational.

Something to crow about?

In or over the garden we've had all the more common native crows this week: Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Rook, Magpie and Jay. (The field in front of the Little Owl tree is full of all of these species) As I was looking through photos from a previous walk, I came across these three images: I'm sure it's a Carrion Crow, but it does seem to have quite a 'beard'. I've seen (and photographed) Ravens on numerous occasions in Norfolk (and even found a nesting pair a couple of years ago) and look forward to them getting a real toe-hold in Broadland. Wouldn't it be excellent if they were to nest on Norwich Cathedral?

Reasons to be cheerful?

Want to see a more realistic - and optimistic - view of the COV-19 situation, without the ridiculous posturing of those journalists and politicians who have vested interests in making the Govt. look bad?

Click HERE

On the graph, remove the two cumulative graphs by clicking the coloured 'buttons'

You'll notice that both the number of cases and number of daily deaths are beginning to show signs of decreasing. To be honest, I think publishing the cumulative data is neither helpful nor logical.

Suppose someone asks me what I earn:

Current earnings: £0
Cumulative earnings: £700,000

What is gained by knowing what I've received over 50 years as a Naval Officer, teacher, hotelier, author and meteoriticist? The true daily situation is, to me, the only meaningful statistic.

You've heard of a Cattle Egret?

....well we've got a Sheep Partridge! The male of our resident pair has taken to roosting on Dolly the Sheep. Earlier, we had all kinds of drama when the Air Ambulance landed in the 'Owl Field' behind our garden.