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

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