The Moon passes in front of Venus!

Watching the Moon pass in front of the planet Venus is a pretty special event: it will happen on September 14th and will be visible (possibly!) from the UK.

The actual occultation will occur at 09.30: unfortunately both objects will not yet have risen above the eastern horizon. However, the very thin crescent Moon will rise around 11.00 in the east - south east: half an hour later Venus will emerge from behind the Moon, producing the terrific sight of two thin crescents side by side! A pair of binoculars or small telescope should be good enogh - if it's clear I'll try for a photo or two! BEWARE: the Sun is not far away in the sky, so take care not to point your optics anywhere near it! Below is my simulation of the event.

September survey at All Saints, Hemblington

A pleasant south-westerly made for comfortable bird counting, but nothing out of the ordinary to report.

Stork dip in South Norfolk

Hearing about a White Stork down in Shotesham, I had to wait a couple of hours for Lin to return from bee maintenance before we headed south. By the time we arrived and walked the field margins around the original location, the bird had moved on. Lin's phone had no reception, so we couldn't check RBA: however, just as we were leaving, the pager told us the bird was 'in a field north of the Great Wood'. Unfortunately finding the correct wood proved difficult and searching every nearby field was unproductive: I did find a Small Heath and a Clouded Yellow in a possible Stork location. Punch line: when I got home I found that the Stork had been at the end of the path where I'd photographed the Clouded Yellow! (We also came across a huge colony of Ivy Bees: what charming, non-aggressive little creatures they are)

Photo list update!

Since I started photographing / videoing birds back in 1994, I've kept a list of the species I've managed to capture - most of which have appeared on this blog. (The exceptions being those that exist only on VHS tape!) I'm pleasantly surprised to see that the total now stands at 83% of my UK list: 370 species. Not all of these are of the highest quality- my original Pentax outfit wasn't up to much! Still, I thoroughly enjoy browsing through the blog (and my various external hard drives!) This is a pleasure denied to those who never take photos and who generally have to rely on their increasingly dimming memories...
 Here are some of my favourite encounters:

Purple Swamphen, Sandhill Crane, Oriental Pratincole, Black-winged Pratincole, Collared Pratincole
Ivory Gull, Franklin's Gull, Laughing Gull, Ross's Gull, Gull-billed Tern, Whiskered Tern
Lesser Short-toed Lark, Spectacled Warbler, Booted Warbler, Paddyfield Warbler, Arctic Warbler, Penduline Tit, Lammergeier, Rufous Bush Chat, Daurian Shrike, Brown Shrike, Turkistan Shrike, Isabelline Shrike.... and not forgetting Nutcracker!

Crake craik at Titchwell!

An early start saw Norman and me in Island Hide, Titchwell by 08.30. Just three people present, but they had all seen at least one Spotted Crake: very quickly one of them (a really friendly birder from Derbyshire and his wife) found the adult in his scope and gave Norman and me the chance to locate the little skulker amongst the reeds.Then the third birder (another pleasant guy) located the juvenile bird in front of the somewhat distant bund to the north.

With the persistent rain dampening things off somewhat, we headed for Cley: not much to report from the hides, but a brief sea watch gave us Arctic Skua, Adult Gannet and Red-throated Diver for the daylist: and so home....

Crescent Moon and Mars

Before dawn the waning crescent Moon was close to Mars in the constellation Gemini: hard to get the camera settings right for all these objects, but you get the idea! (Jupiter was just out of the picture, below and to the left: see last image!)

Beautiful waning Moon

The dawn sky was incredibly clear this morning, allowing great views of the southern crater field and the walled crater Copernicus and its central peaks.

Unexpected Ibis!

I was fiddling about with the settings on my camera when a Glossy Ibis flew over the garden: the atmospherics are terrible, but you get the idea! This is, I think, only the second in thirty-odd years...

I must be getting old!

Even five years ago I'd have whizzed across to Lowestoft to photograph the juvenile Red-foot that's been hanging around for a few days - it would only be a forty minute drive. These days, however, I tend only to  drive any distance for a new year (or very rarely!) life bird: I've seen a R-f F this year, so I resisted the urge to use twenty quid's worth of diesel. However: if it's still there on Tuesday, when the 'Summer Wine Crew' have their weekly run-out, the bird might come into play!

Here's a photo of the little beauty at Rendlesham seven years ago!

Wonderful what a couple of day's rain can do!

The few centimetres of rain we've enjoyed over the past week have brought the garden right back to life: even the lawn! Last week it was as brown and short as a test pitch at Lord's, but it grew so much after a good soaking that I had to mow it on Tuesday afterrnoon: today's steady drizzle has done it the power of good!

Some decent birds at Cley - but not the migrants we'd hoped for...

Norman and I started early and were in Bishop's Hide before 07.30. A Little Stint was a good find, and Bearded Tits are always welcome. A walk right around the reserve turned up more interesting birds: the three Whinchat were probably the best of the bunch. (We were pleased to show them to old birding acquaintances Richard and Michael and grandson)

A visit to the centre hides (after scones!) gave us Wood Sandpiper and twenty or more Spoonbills, while the walk back produced a 'kettle' of ten Common Buzzards over the reserve. We checked out the'Skirts' and 'Hangs' for a while, before walking around Walsey Hills - apart from lots of Ivy Bees, nothing to report, so we left for home...