North Coast dash: Barred Warbler and Iceland Gull

Brian and I had a morning free, and with driving rain and storm-force winds scheduled for this afternoon, we met at 7.30 and headed to Cley. First stop was Leatherpool Lane, where a little patience eventually resulted in reasonable views (in poor light!) of the astonishingly late-staying Barred Warbler. In the same hedge were several Bullfinches and a female Blackcap.

A few miles walking around the perimeter of the reserve eventually found us in the right place to enjoy extremely close views of a somewhat gory-looking Iceland Gull, that had obviously found one of the many dead seals to its liking. Five dark seaduck flew past: I thought they might be Mergansers, but too distant to be certain. This well-marked Brent seemed to have a few Branty features...

Comet Leonard

An early rise this morning for a North Coast raid with Brian. Since the sky was completely clear, I spent half an hour photographing Comet Leonard: it's close to the bright star Arcturus. The colours have not been enhanced at all: it really is this green!

All lit up!

Linda's been at work! The front of our house now matches the festive look of the rest of the road. Luckily, Jupiter Saturn and Venus are so bright they outshine the lot. (They'll be joined by Mercury around Christmas Day!)

All the comets I've seen!

Here's an updated list of all the comets I've seen, since the first in 1957 (when I was 6) The majority of the photos are mine: gratitude to the anonymous authors of the rest!

So: nineteen comets in 70 years, of which only a handful were really spectacular: without doubt last year's beautiful Neowise was the best. I'm still hoping we might be visited by a daylight comet like that of 1910 while I'm still here to see it!

Comet Leonard and lots of Geminid meteors

An early rise this morning (5.00am) proved worthwhile: for once the sky was clear and I quickly found Comet Leonard, close to the bright star Arcturus. For some reason my GPS / Astrotracker wasn't working very well, so there's some 'trailing' of the stars: maybe the 4 minute exposures were a bit optimistic!

During the ninety minutes I was outside, I saw some really bright Geminid meteors: many were multi-coloured, several were brick red. They actually seemed to originate in Ursa Major, but it's probably a bit early for them to have been Ursids.

When is a Scaup not a Scaup?

When it's a 'funny' Tufted Duck! I grabbed the chance of a belated year-tick with a fifteen minute dash to Ormesby Broad to look for the reported female Scaup. Almost the first bird I saw looked good - briefly! On close inspection, I'm sure the bird was a hybrid of some description. Assuming the 'real' Scaup was on the other side of the road, I checked through a large flock of Coots: there seemed to be another possible - but again, it looked like a hybrid. Did I miss the bird - or was it never there in the first place?

Other birds at Ormesby or on the way home included lots of Pink Feet and a few Marsh Harriers.

Jumping Jack Flash

Some excellent musicianship here at the final Freethorpe 'jam' of the year: Tim, Mike, Olly, Garth, Kevin and yours truly!

It begins!

Linda has just installed her latest Christmas purchase in the front garden: a metal  pine tree with red 'berries'. Watch this space for more kitsch!

December passes by the International Space Station

Last few opportunities to see - and perhaps photograph - the ISS before Christmas. You can tell your kids it's the Star of Bethlehem or Santa, depending on your beliefs / level of honesty!

Comet Leonard in the eastern sky

Or to give its full name: C/2021 A1 Leonard. Although Leonard is not going to rival last year's fabulous visitor, it is just visible with the naked eye, at magnitude 6.5, and there's a chance it might brighten further over the next few days. If you find 'The Great Bear' and follow its tail downwards towards the bright star Arcturus, Leonard is to the south (right!). It has a greenish tinge which is quite obvious with binoculars.

Elsie Marian Henderson - our latest gallery item!

Linda and I are both fond of the visual arts and have built up a decent collection of inexpensive - but quite important - pieces of artwork. Our latest addition is just back from our fabulous framer Peter Richardson (for twenty years he's made all the frames we've used in our various business enterprises) It's an amusing charcoal sketch of a cat by the well-known artist Elsie Henderson. Her work can be found in many important galleries and collections, including the Tate: we were really lucky to obtain it from the artist's estate. You can read about Elsie HERE.