Wednesday 1 January 2014

What's Another Year? - Jonny Logan

May we wish ALL our readers a
HEALTHY, HAPPY and PROSPEROUS 2014
(why not attach this Link to all your friends to enjoy as well) 
The first fusillade started at 21:30 last night and continued to 22:35 with more retorts, cracks, whizzes and bangs than the Battle of Trafalgar. Must have cost a couple of £Grand and just a back garden job which made the average Weymouth Summer Monday shows look like a bit of a damp squib! Had it not been for that and the other 2 nearby I would still have got little or no sleep, as New Years Day is traditionally one of my favourites of any year with the anticipation keeping Morpheus at bay. Unfortunately, my own investigations combined with the Internet still show few quality birds in the county of Norfolk, and when looking at the weather forecast last night I really wish I hadn't. Regardless, there is nothing to be done about either so I was on the road by 05:00 taking a very steady drive, in the hope of starting the New Year List with Barn or Tawny Owl, to what is know as the
TRIANGLE
the most reliable home hereabouts of the elusive, skulking and crepuscular
(active primarily during twilight (i.e. dawn and dusk)
Golden Pheasant
In fact not a single bird was seen or heard until after this
MUNTJAC
appeared soon after 07:00 then followed unsurprisingly
the first species for the year
PINK-FOOTED GEESE
With no pheasant to show at full light it was back to
 where surely a 'bag full' of birds would quickly enter the log.
En-route there was
 
 WOOD PIGEON
WIGEON
Robin, Blackbird, Common Pheasant, Chaffinch, Carrion Crow, Siskin,
Goldcrest, Goldfinch and 3 x Tits Long-tailed, Great and Coal.
In addition close to Hunstanton Town Herring Gull, Greenfinch,
Starling, House Sparrow, Oystercatcher and
 BLACK-HEADED GULL
were also added.
On the reserve the welcoming committee was made up of
 GREYLAG GEESE
 CHINESE WATER DEER
and both Marsh Harrier (no photo) and
 HEN HARRIER
and YES!
 this is a Bird HIDE - where do they get them from? Yuk!
 DARK-BELLIED BRENT GEESE
 SHELDUCK
 REDSHANK
 HERRING GULL
male PINTAIL
 male SHOVELER
 Skein of DARK-BELLIED BRENT GEESE
 from left KNOT, TURNSTONE and SANDERLING
and a little closer please.
 KNOT
 SANDERLING
TURNSTONE
 OFFSHORE WIND FARM
 
 The Beach here is littered with 'millions' of
RAZOR CLAM SHELLS
 BAR-TAILED GODWIT
 
 DOGFISH EGG CASE
DUNLIN
 GREY PLOVER and
 distant GOLDENEYE were in company with
Red-breasted Merganser, Common and Velvet Scoter, Guillemot
and Great Crested Grebe.
Then came the 'Bird of the Day' as the chap stood next to me announced he may have a Long-tailed Duck. This was soon eliminated but took some time to decide what in fact it was. Eventually and between us it was agreed to be a
female SMEW (referred to in birding circles as a Redhead)
photo from Wiki for illustration.
 PINTAIL feeding
 male PINTAIL looks on while the MISSUS is 'dabbling'.
 female SHOVELER
 BLEAK (looking) HOUSE
 ROBIN

By 11:00 the wind had reached gale force with too many heavy showers for my liking, I decided to head back to the car for a sarnie and coffee. After which it had become obvious that the bad weather was 'in for the day' so was prepared to try just one more site on the way back to Blakeney. Not holding out much hope of seeing yet alone photographing the target birds, I made a bid anyway. At a favoured site, immediately a small covey of
 (the first image through windscreen, rain and gale)
 GREY PARTRIDGE
 creating a lee with the car
 some better shots were secured.
From the next field gateway there was this
 HARE
 and to complete the 'hat trick' at the very next
these little beauties
RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE
 The final Species and Image of the day was this 'young'
 MUTE SWAN
on the Salthouse Pond
Just coincidentally, one photo today for each week of the year!
bringing up a 'day tally' of 74 Bird Species and 5 Mammals (Rabbit, Grey Squirrel, Muntjac, Hare and Chinese Water Deer), with still quite a few shots 'in the can' awaiting processing. Due to time consuming editing and fairly slow Internet Uploading, I will endeavour to get most of these to you during the next couple of days.
Before closing I should take a moment to thank all of you who have made this Blog a success. This year and this month particularly has seen all Stat Records SMASHED with totals reading:-
The highest Single Day Total = 1703 on Christmas Day.
The highest Month Total ever = 12,837 which in turn means
The Highest Average Day Return = 414
Entry            Pageviews
United Kingdom
                 805
United States
                 522
Russia
                   97
Germany
                   68
Estonia
                   36
Poland
                   29
China
                   18
Canada
                   16
Spain
                   15
Chile
                   12