Long-eared Owl: at last!

Linda suggested a post-prandial drive to Strumpshaw in a final effort to catch up with the long-staying immature LEO. We arrived at around 7.00pm and spent a pleasant hour and a half chatting with delightful Suffolk birder Rob Holmes: Peter Ransome, Justin Lansdell, Dick F and many other well-known faces were there too...

By 8.30 Linda and I decided to call it a day, at which point Justin gave us the nod that the owl had been found in the overflow carpark. All this and an extraordinarily confiding Brown Hare by reception!

Rare carboot find!

Linda and I generally visit the Harford Bridge carboot on a Sunday - it's a great place for cheap garden plants and out-of-date coffee! You may recall that, for fifteen years, I sold space memorabilia: I always keep an eye open as I walk round a carboot or antiques fair, more out of nostalgia than anything else.

My latest find is this vintage Russian souvenir of the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, the world's first artificial satellite. These sell online for £50 - £100: mine cost 50p!

LEO dipping at dawn!

Since Linda needed the car this morning (and because I thought there was a chance that yesterday's Long-eared Owl might show earlier rather than later) I left home while the waxing gibbous Moon was still bright. The local Barn Owl was quartering the Heath: always good to see.

In my innocence, I imagined I might be the first visitor - but no: there was already a gallery of a dozen or so when I arrived! One of these was Dick Filby, the originator of Rare Bird Alert. It was great fun reminiscing with him about the 'old days' of Nancy's Cafe, the Beach Hotel and twitching fifty years ago, before it became an Olympic sport!

The owl was a no-show: however, three Bittern flight views were welcome, as was the Kingfisher that zipped around at warp speed!

Wild LEO chase at Strumpshaw Fen

Returning from a brief shopping trip to Norwich, I glanced at the pager to see that a Long-eared Owl was "....showing well by Reception at 10.03"

Since it was 10.05, I thought I'd have a dash out - the Fen is literally ten minutes away. Needless to say, when I arrived and checked in, the bird hadn't been seen for over an hour!

A Great White Egret and a few woodland birds were not much of a consolation prize, but close views of a Silver-washed Fritillary and a lightning-fast Grasshopper Warbler were worth the journey.

Sunspots

There were just a handful of smallish sunspots yesterday: but look at the monster creeping around from the bottom left! The Sun goes through an approximately eleven year sunspot cycle  and is currently approaching maximum: this year promises to be a particularly active one...

Videos: Spoonbills and Dowitcher at Cley

Just a couple of videos from Tuesday's visit to Bishop's Hide at Cley.

Holt Country Park

It's amazing to reflect on how scarce Silver-washed Fritillaries once were: now they pop up all over the place - Linda and I even saw one at Notcutt's in the City!

On the way home from the North Coast yesterday, we stopped off at Holt Country Park: swerving the hordes of school kids doing 'field work', we walked through the woodland and out onto the heath. Down in the dips there were large swathes of Sundews: I've never seen so many of these amazing little carnivores in one place! A few Keeled Skimmers made short flights before disappearing among the juncus stems.

Almost every bramble bush held a couple of Silver-washeds, all in impeccable condition. Surprisingly, perhaps, we didn't come across any White Admirals on this visit.

The Return of the Long-billed Dowitcher

Norman's turn to drive: since Linda had asked us to deliver some of her wax wraps to Cley Visitor Centre, that's where we started at 7.45.

Almost the first bird we saw from Bishop's Hide was a Long-billed Dowitcher, roosting among a flock of Black-tailed Godwits. The assumption has to be that it's last Autumn's long stayer, returning from the north with the non-breeding Godwits. When it woke up, it revealed itself to be in beautiful rusty plumage with a well-marked head: gorgeous!

Right in front of the hide was a flock of twenty five Spoonbills and sixteen Little Egrets: videos tomorrow! It was amusing to watch the youngsters begging for food and putting almost their entire head in the parent's bill!

A walk to the centre hides and East Bank added dozens of Med gulls, as well as the usual warblers and Bearded Tits. A pair of Swallows feeding young inside Avocet Hide was interesting to watch...

The International Space Station in July

Just an update: although the ISS is visible right through July, its passes over the UK are all an hour or so either side of midnight: if anyone who reads this blog is a real night owl and would like a table of passes, I'm happy to oblige! Meanwhile, things return to more civilised times next month.

Lesser Scaup and garden Kites!

Since I knew Linda would need the car today, I dashed out through the traffic to Colney yesterday afternoon to see if I could catch up with the reported Lesser Scaup: this is a first for Norfolk, but I've seen the species in the past, as far back as the UK's first record on Chasewater, back in 1987.

As you'll see from the photos, the wildfowl are a very long way from the only viewpoint and no-one present felt certain they'd seen the Scaup. I happened to remark that there'd been a Scaup present on the larger pit while I was photographing the White-winged Black Tern: one of the others replied that this was the same bird!

On returning home I looked through my SD cards and found just a single image: this I posted on Twitter. Lee Evans was kind enough to message to say that this was, indeed, the Lesser Scaup!

Opening the Church today, I was pleased to see both the Little and Barn Owls: they seem to have become fixtures! Back home, another regular - a Red Kite - circled over the garden...