Mercury and Venus

The two innermost (and hottest!) planets of the Solar System are a splendid sight in the pre-dawn sky still: definitely worth a look if you have a clear eastern horizon.

Britain's greatest ever sportsman: the best F1 driver ever!

What a drive! In impossible conditions, with tyres that were down to the backing Lewis Hamilton wins again, securing his seventh world championship at the same time. Lord Ian Botham? Sir Geoff Hurst? Sir Mick Jagger? These 'legends' don't stand comparison with a man who literally risks his life every fortnight, yet remains an inspiration to us all - but particularly young people of all racial backgrounds...

Nano reef system

You don't really see the true beauty of a reef tank from still photos: many - most - of the corals fluoresce under actinic light. A video does give a better idea of the movement and pulsation of some of the polyps:

Marine tank update

Looking after a reef tank does require a fair level of commitment and quite a bit of time too! Regular water changes (using reverse osmosis water with added sea salts and chemicals) are essential: it's a messy procedure that generally takes me an hour or so, even with our little nano-system. The RO water comes from the aquatics outlet at Taverham Garden Centre: although we keep a ready supply, this requires replenishment every few weeks - luckily the present restrictions do allow carefully-regulated visits to refill our containers.

The pay-off is a beautiful - spellbinding, even - living ornament: it's in my office, so I look at it hundreds of times a day!

More Geese and thoughts on 'lock-down rule benders'

Quite a large skein of Pinkfeet flew over the garden this morning: I still feel privileged to see and hear these wonderful long-distance travelers. Talking of which (now there's a segue!) I was chatting to Richard, an acquaintance through birding and marine reef-keeping, who showed me some superb photos he'd taken of the Suffolk Yellowlegs. I came across the photos again on the RBA website, and noticed more images taken by other birders who live in my part of East Norfolk....

Now Greater 'legs would be a new bird for me, and of course I briefly considered going for a look when it first popped up on the pager. But we are supposed  to be in the middle of a four-week lockdown! As someone remarked on TV recently, we're not supposed to be looking for clever ways around the lockdown, we're supposed to be following the rules to reduce the 'R' number so that - hopefully - we can all meet up with friends and relatives over Christmas. I spoke to a local Police Officer recently who provided a reasonable interpretation of the restrictions:

"If your car journey  is longer than the exercise you take at the end of it, you are breaking the law!"

So far C-19 restrictions have cost my business around £18K in lost sales: we're not eligible for financial support, so we've just had to tighten our belts. We've also missed my Mum-in-Law's 90th birthday due to the current travel restrictions. On reflection, then, I feel that people who travel out of their own county for recreation and hobbies are not just bending, but breaking rules that are intended to protect us all and limit the effects of this second wave. Seems a bit selfish or, at best, thoughtless.

An exciting pre-dawn threesome!

For once the sky was absolutely crystal clear when I crawled out of bed at 4.30am: in the East Venus and a thin waning crescent Moon were so bright I had to wind down the backlight on my camera to get photos that weren't over-exposed!

At around 5.30 Mercury popped up to join the celestial firework party: there's something about catching a glimpse of this tiny, distant world that makes you feel part of some amateur astronomy elite!

Glossy Ibises at Acle: the video!

Just a short clip of these lovely visitors!

Incredibly late Hobby at Hickling... or was it?

As I mentioned yesterday: while waiting for the fog to clear, Linda and I took a walk around Hickling NNT reserve - more for the exercise than anything else!

In the event, we enjoyed terrifically close views of several groups of Bearded Tits, lots of winter thrushes, a Great White Egret as well as the usual Cranes, heard but not seen in the fog!

As we were approaching Stubb's Mill I glanced up to see a Peregrine chasing a smaller raptor: to my amazement, the second bird was a Hobby! I've seen odd Hobbies in mid-October, but never in mid-November! Or was the smaller bird a Merlin? Through the fog at 400m range, the photo is a bit grainy!

Glossy Ibises at Acle and an unexpected bird at Hickling

Linda and I had a morning free and decided on a walk around Hickling NNT. Possibly because of the fog, we were the only people on the reserve from our arrival at 8.00am until we left at 10.00. The walk round was mostly therapeutic, although we did see some interesting and unexpected birds: more details later!

As the fog cleared we decided to make a small detour on the way home, stopping at the same layby next to the A47 as yesterday afternoon. This time we were lucky! Although always distant, we enjoyed good views of these exotic-looking birds with a soundtrack of heavy traffic on the Acle Straight. As we were leaving, birding friends Dot M and Steve S, with whom we first went birding thirty years ago, arrived just in time: as we drove back towards Acle we could see that the birds had moved two fields further over, to a region with no straight-forward parking.

Glossy Ibises at Acle and Peregrine over the garden.

My new telescope arrived today and, just as I was unpacking it, the pager buzzed to announce that the two Burgh Castle Ibises had relocated to Acle. Linda and I quickly grabbed our optics and headed eastwards, stopping at the first layby on tha Acle Straight. A good grill of the marshes was negative, so we carried on towards the Stracey Arms (as was!) Just before Tunstall Dyke we saw the target birds right by the road, feeding happily in a flooded grazing marsh. We carried on to Branch Road, turned round and drove back, parking by Tunstall Dyke. There's a convenient footpath affording great views of the marsh where the Ibises no longer were! We could have kicked ourselves: if we hadn't made the first stop, we'd have had really close views.

Earlier, Linda drew my attention to a Great Spotted Woodpecker in our sycamore. As I was grabbing a photo, it and all the other birds in the neighbourhood scattered: the cause of the alarm was a Peregrine that cruised low over the garden.

Sunspots!

At last there are some (small) sunspots to point our H-alpha scope at! Ever since we bought it the Sun has steadfastly refused to produce any spots or prominences: hopefully things are beginning to happen!

Geese over the garden...

I glanced up from my PC to see two groups of geese heading towards me: a flock of five and one of two. Usually the geese we have overhead are either Greylags or Pinkfeet, but these weren't making the typical calls of either. I wonder if it's too early for Bean Geese to be on the move? These seem to have orangey legs, but are basically silhouettes.

Another look at Mercury and a Greater Yellowlegs goes begging...

Another early rise produced even better views of the tiny planet Mercury. Interesting fact (to nerds like me, at least!) although it's by a good margin the closest planet to the Sun, it isn't the hottest: due to its thick CO2 atmosphere, that 'honour' belongs to Venus.

Meanwhile, the first buzz of the pager brought news of a potential 'lifer' at Dingle Marshes: a Greater Yellowlegs. I've seen three Lesser Legs, but never a Greater, and lifers are hard to achieve when:

a) You don't travel far from Norfolk
b) You've seen well over 400 birds in the UK

Why couldn't it have been at a legitimate 'exercise' distance? Still - perhaps it will head North to Breydon or Hickling...

Uranus!

Want a real challenge? Uranus (just visible with binoculars!) is in Aries, not far from Mars at the moment. This doesn't happen often: today I've photographed SIX planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus