A Red Kite is still a bird that I enjoy encountering: nowadays it's virtually impossible to visit the North or West of the County without seeing one: they remain more notable here in Broadland. I should imagine there are several pairs breeding in the Yare Valley - certainly there were resident birds all Summer. Today, as Linda and I were driving back home towards Little Plumstead a Kite flew right over the car...
To collectors, Sikhote-Alin is one of the classic and most desirable meteorites: it fell in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains, Primorye, Russia, near the village of Paseka (approximately 440 km northeast of Vladivostok) on the morning of February 12, 1947.
At around 10:30 am that morning, local people reported a fireball brighter than the sun, descending from the northern part of the sky at an angle of about 41 degrees. The bright flash and the deafening sound of the fall were observed for three hundred kilometres around the point of impact.
The original object apparently exploded - and changed direction - several times during its trajectory: the fragments that broke away first were remelted and oriented during their descent, whereas those that originated from subsequent shattering lower in the atmosphere are typically twisted and torn into 'shrapnel' fragments.
It is often remarked that a similar explosion today - happening as it did above the main Soviet Pacific naval base - would probably be seen as part of a pre-emptive attack by the USA!
Here are some newly-arrived SA's from a parcel I just managed to obtain.
Our satellite - or, more correctly, our twin planet - continues its path eastwards, leaving the gas giants Saturn and Jupiter behind. When you recall that Saturn is 72,000 miles in diameter and Jupiter 87,000, while the Moon is just 2,000, the relative sizes in these images demonstrate the vast distances between the Earth and the outer Solar System.
Today, as I was working in my office, I heard the most incredible aircraft engine roar: it could only have been from a Typhoon or F35.
Rushing outside, I was amazed to see an F35, apparently in the livery of the USAF Thunderbirds display team. I had no idea that the US airforce was replacing their F16s with the F35: if they are intending to do so, future air shows will be very loud affairs! I clicked away madly, only to see the 'no SD card' display😡
The photo below is a concept image from Lockheed.
Looking to the South tonight, the Moon is close in the sky to the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn: a splendid sight (albeit continually being blotted out by the clouds!)
To the East, Mars is incredibly bright: honestly, well worth a look!
Some of you may well remember that a full-sized replica of a Diplodocus skeleton once graced the entrance auditorium of the Natural History Museum in London. For reasons best known to the management, this was replaced by a fibreglass Blue Whale a couple of years ago. Since then the skeleton has been on tour around the UK: it's already visited Dorchester, Birmingham, Belfast, Glasgow, Newcastle, Cardiff and Rochdale, where it will be displayed until mid-December.
After Christmas, Dippy (as the poor beast has been nicknamed!) will move to Norwich Cathedral. This visit, for obvious reasons, was rescheduled from the Summer. Linda is one of the volunteers who have been recruited to chat to visitors about the history and prehistory of the Diplodocus: certainly this is an event to log in your diaries!
PS! The organisers are desperate for additional volunteers! You must be able to offer ten four-hour sessions - preferably one a week, if possible!
How could we resist? Linda and I held off from going for this spectacular rarity until (we hoped!) the crowds would have died down. We reckoned that the hardcore listers and still-employed birders would have filled up over the weekend, so that smaller, better distanced crowds would be present if we waited.
In the event, when we arrived at Stiffkey there were perhaps fifty people already on site: the tide, however was right in, so no sign of the target. As sometimes happens, though, I absolutely knew we would see the Bush Chat, so we went for a walk through campsite woods until the tide went out. Following good views of several Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Little Egrets, Brents and Kingfishers, we returned to the car park to find everyone had gone! This could only mean one thing, so we continued west, soon finding the gallery in a stubble field. After a short wait the Bush Chat suddenly popped up ten feet from me! Fabulous views, despite being all masked up (Not everyone else was being so considerate!) As people began to jostle, Linda and I left, heading east for a brief, fruitless search for a Dusky Warbler at Weybourne. (We did see a few Beardies, a Gannet and a couple of Eiders!)
The title of one of my favourite 'Clash' songs illustrates a minor dilemma for Linda and me today. We arrived at Kelling Heath for the annual Astronomy 'Star Camp' at around 8.30, and began setting out our tables to sell meteorites and related stuff. The first customer who stopped remarked that he was surprised we weren't at Stiffkey: he'd heard on Radio Norfolk that something rare had been found. I dug out our RBA pager to find that a Rufous Bushchat was showing near the campsite carpark. This was literally ten minutes away.
Looking around the Astronomers' camping field, we quickly realised that attendance was very low and that only two other dealers had turned up. Should we clear up and chase off to Stiffkey? Believe it or not, it never occurred to us! Firstly, we had a commitment to the organisers and our customers: more importantly we felt that things were bound to get a little pear-shaped at such a big twitch. In the event - despite the rain - we had a great day, took lots of money and met plenty of old friends! Among these were a wonderful soon-to-be-married couple - Sandy & Scott - that I taught over forty years ago!
(The Red Squirrels are bred at Kelling for subsequent release into suitable locations around the UK)
Just a reminder: 'Spacerocks' will be at Kelling Heath Star Party tomorrow, with a full range of meteorites, meteorite jewellery and other essentials.
While I was getting everything ready today, I noticed that both the back and front gardens were full of birds: dozens of Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits, as well as - more unusually - half a dozen Wrens. The resident couple of pairs of Blackbirds spent all day chasing off these smaller, well-marked individuals. Could they be continental birds?
