Morning on the North Coast

Brian, Norman and I dodged the snow showers to walk around the Cley 'loop', from the Coastguards, to the East Bank, round past the VC and back along Beach Road. Although the Glaucous failed to put in an appearance, there were other interesting birds to look at: Barn Owl, Guillemot, Pintail, Scoter, lots of Red-throated Divers, a few mipits and a small flock of Snow Buntings.

After tea and scones we moved along to Blakeney, where a striking Herring / Lesser Black-backed Gull hybrid was masquerading as a Yellow-legged Gull  in the wildfowlers' enclosure. A walk out to the sea and back added very little to the day's tally so we drifted home (via a still Glauc-less Coastguards!)

Red-necked Grebe at Ormesby and thoughts on photography...

Here are a few more shots of yesterday's sleepy Red-necked Grebe at Ormesby Little Broad. I've included an uncropped image to show how far away the unfrozen water was: getting any photos was a challenge, to say the least! (The Goldeneye swam out from underneath the road bridge, taking me completely by surprise!)

My fellow 'Summer Winers' Brian and Norman often go a whole day in the field without taking a single photo, their main motivation being to capture high quality images in RAW that can be enlarged / manipulated / published with no loss of detail. For me and many others I take photos purely as a personal record of what I have seen. This frequently results in grainy, slightly out-of-focus 'record shots' (Although that's a term I never use, it having been hijacked by togs to describe (with irritating false modesty) crisp, print-quality images on the social media!)

The images below are of little or no use to anyone as identification guides (although I reckon many of my postings are not too shabby!) but that's not why I put them up: they serve a couple of purposes:

* As a record that forms part of this, my personal diary

* To confirm the continued presence of a bird that others may wish to see.

It's a fact that 'non-toggs' rarely have to run the same levels of scepticism and criticism as photo-bloggers. You're on the shingle at Cley in a late August gale and someone calls out (perhaps belatedly!)
'Juv. Long-tailed Skua going west'
No-one gets on the bird, but no-one launches into a verbal attack on the observer. A blogger / tweeter publishes a distant photograph of the same bird (she/he having seen it well before taking the photo) and the response is all-too often hyper-critical or even insulting....

Red-necked Grebe, Smew and Barn Owl (and a couple of oddities)

Following the disappointment of today's lunar eclipse, I treated myself to a drive out to Filby to look for the recently-reported Red-necked Grebe at Ormesby Little Broad.

When I arrived I quickly realised that virtually the whole broad was frozen solid, with just a tiny strip of open water about half a mile away. Fortunately a local birder was on the bridge with a telescope: he'd already located the Grebe and let me watch it for a few minutes. I tried a few photos, but the range (and haze) made the results less than impressive! I think the first picture shows the RNG! I walked through the woods to the platform and quickly refound the redhead Smew I had seen before Christmas: again, it was dreadfully far away! One interesting bird was a juvenile gull, which in some of my (distant) photos seemed a candidate for Glaucous. Having sent an image to RBA, I realised that one of the three or four I took appeared to show dark primaries: through bins that hadn't been the case.

I drove home via Ludham, stopping briefly to enjoy a beautiful Barn Owl hunting over the scrubby fields by the Bridge, as well as a nicely-marked Buzzard at Coldharbour Farm that looked quite good for Rough-legged: never saw its tail....

Fieldfares in the garden!

It's like turning on a switch: the first really sharp frosts always encourage Fieldfares to come and feed on the apples that Linda puts out at this time of year. This morning, as well as the Fieldfares, there were over twenty Blackbirds enjoying a fruity breakfast option!

Earlier, Jupiter (lower) and Venus were at their closest: a beautiful sight...

Lots to enjoy in the dawn skies...

Tomorrow morning just before dawn, Jupiter and Venus will be even closer than they were this morning: the photos below were taken at around 6.30 am. Even better - if it's clear - on Monday morning, just before dawn, there'll be a total eclipse of the Moon. It should look quite impressive, being blood red and close to the western horizon. Fingers crossed! (The Moon was quite spectacular tonight, rising just after sunset...)

Wild swans at Ludham and signs of Spring!

Our journey home from the North Coast took us past Ludham Airfield, so we stopped for a brief look at the Whoopers and Bewicks. There were two largish mixed groups, one on the emerging cereal crop, the other with gulls on a recently ploughed area...

A detour to Stokesby failed to produce the Tundra Beans, but Linda and I enjoyed watching a pair of Hares flirting with each other: nearby, on the roof of Thrigby Hall, a White Stork seems to be contemplating building a nest, as happened a few years ago.

Final day of our North Coast Holiday...

Back home again, following the terrific birthday surprise Linda had organised. We stayed at a fantastic apartment on the front at Sheringham from where we had terrific panoramic views of the North Sea. To be honest, we saw very little flying by other than the expected gulls, but it was wonderful to be lulled off to sleep by the gentle susurration of the waves on the shingle.

The apartment was truly as luxurious as the adverts had promised, so all in all a marvellous break with plenty of good birding moments to remember...