Images from Norfolk Holiday. June 2016.

 Stunning field of poppies at Blakeney.

 Meadow Brown

Took a walk from Holkham to the start of Burnham Overy dunes then back along Holkham Bay to Wells woods and back along to Holkham Village.

 Holkham pines were full of Foxgloves.

 The rain fell as we got out into the bay, decided to carry on as it was half a mile or more to the nearest cover.

 Large Skipper

Our second walk was from Sheringham along the coast to Weybourne.

 Stonechat

There were Stonechat,Skylark,Meadow Pipits scattered along the cliff path whilst Swifts and Martins whizzed past feeding on the insects.

 Painted Lady

There were a few species of butterfly around but the most numerous were Painted Lady.

 Four Spotted Chaser

Once at Weybourne beach we headed into the village for a pint, along the way we saw Four spotted Chaser and Black tailed Skimmer dragonflies.

 Black Tailed Skimmer

 This young Blue Tit almost collided with my head on two occasions as it flew from hedge to hedge along the pathway!

Small Eggar Moth 

This Small Eggar larva was a new one for me.

 Stopping briefly, just along from Weybourne beach Sarah and I stopped for some time to watch a large group of Swifts feed on the many insects around a clifftop bush, absolutely brilliant watching the Swifts shooting past us so close, one of my favourite birds.

 Painted Lady

 Weybourne Windmill

 Common Blue

 Agapanthia Villosoviridescens

This insect was the last photo of the day as the rain once again caught up with us just before reaching Sheringham.

 Guillemot

Our third walk of the week was from Salthouse to Cley beach and then into the village. Plenty of activity along the coast from the screeching Sandwich Terns, and a few Little Terns.

Great Knot. Titchwell Norfolk. 17 June 2016.

I wanted to get to Titchwell, Norfolk, early  for the hopefully still present Great Knot, so I set off from home at 3:15am. I arrived just before 5am and set off with another birder from Leicester. Already there was a small group of birders checking the group of Knot on the freshmarsh, after a while and no sign we headed towards the beach where it had been frequenting a lot. At the end of the boardwalk we turned right heading for a group of 4 birders scanning a huge flock of Knot. With others soon joining it wasn't long before a possible bird was picked out, tucked in amongst the numerous Knot it was looking promising, then as if commanded the said bird moved out to the edge of the flock and duly gave itself up, the Great Knot. It was distant for a set of record shots, but I was luckily given the chance on a few occasions to view the bird through birders scopes. Happy faces all round.

 After the flock had decided to land I decided to head slowly back towards the reserve, as the Great Knot was now a bit further away. I met up with an old friend and we birded our way back to the car park, which actually turned out to be very productive.

 The 2 Little Gulls were still present and being moved on by the Avocets. A Spoonbill flew to the adjacent marshes, a Fulmar flew low past me which I didn't expect to see there, we had a Bittern in flight, earlier I had heard it booming. 

 We then watched a group of about a dozen Bearded Tits, comprised of young and female birds, they gave a great show and end to the morning. 

"Bully"..."Bully"

The weeks seem to be flying by, which is great when I am at work! Birding has only been from the house or when taking Tucker for a walk, walks have turned up Whitethroat, Yellowhammers and Yellow Wagtails. We had a pair of Little Egret fly over the crop fields a few days back, not able to add them to the garden list though. It is lovely hearing the Swifts screeching over the house once again, and as of previous years the House Martins were once again noticeably missing, but I happily watched a few pass by overhead two days ago. I have been busily doing artwork still, which is keeping me from getting out alongside my back condition which is none too great, MRI scans and new medication recently and no let off in the pain, I'm getting old! When Sarah and I visit Norfolk again in June I hope to be able to get out and get some photography done, which would be great, so my apologies for lack of photos recently to all those that read my blog.

Here is the latest artwork I have finished, one watercolour entitled "Bully" which I have plans for as a greeting card and a drawing of a Black French Bulldog which was a new venture using black paper and only white and grey art pencils. 

"Tucker"

My latest piece of artwork "Tucker", the French Bulldog. 

A Couple of Nights in Norfolk. Apr-May 2016.

 My wife Sarah and I spent a couple of nights in Norfolk over the Bank Holiday weekend just gone, it was great to be back there and the forecast was good, mind you it threw it down on the Friday evening so waking up to blue skies on Saturday we didn't hang about getting ready. We started at Kelling and walked along to the meadows. Chiffchaff and Blackcap singing and then treated to a close showing of a Goldcrest, it actively fed just a couple of feet in front of us. 

 Around the quags we had Stonechat and I'm sure I had a brief view of a Water Pipit, we then moved to the shoreline, here we decided we would walk along to Salthouse and then onto Cley and into the high street. 

 There were plenty of large gulls back and forth and a few waders, Oyc's, mainly, passing. We had great views of Sand Martin, and there was a constant stream of Swallows flying along the coast.

 Adjacent to Salthouse we paused for a while, there was a carcass of a seal which didn't have a lot of it left, the Great black backed gulls no doubt filling themselves. Next to a single GBBG I noticed a washed up fish, dogfish by the look of it, and also feeding on it was a Sanderling. Lovely to see some colour on it rather than the usual winter grey. It wasn't fussed by our presence either and carried on pulling chunks of meat off.

 Arriving at Cley beach car park we watched a couple of Little ringed plover and about 4 Wheatear, I noticed a smaller brighter bird among them, a male Whinchat. We followed the sea wall into the high street and paused at the pub for a pint and rest up before heading along to the Pinkfoot Gallery to take a look at the artwork.

 We headed back along the coast road to the visitor centre at Cley where we sat for a picnic before moving along to the East Bank next to Walsey Hill. From the bank we saw a couple of Ruff which looked lovely in the light, a green sheen lit up on one birds head when the sun hit it in the right angle. Further along the bank Sarah spotted a Water Vole swim across a channel before disappearing in the reeds, great spot and our first to see!

 As we walked back along the front towards Salthouse again, there was a good passage, and noisy at that, of Sandwich Terns and still the Swallows passed us by. We sat at Gramborough Hill for a while and then noticed close by a Short eared owl get on the wing from the grasses, it quartered the grassland slowly moving towards Kelling. After watching it for a time we moved again along to Kelling. The owl was still viewable, be it on the otherside of the fields but good enough to watch through the binoculars, there was heat haze present but I couldn't resist trying to get a couple of distant shots on the smaller holiday camera I had. As I was viewing the SEO remarkably another flew through my view and landed on a post a short distance away, wow what a lovely end to the day it was watching these 2 owls fly back and forth looking for food, one caught a vole and duly perched  on a post to devour it. Eventually one moved off towards Salthouse and we made a move back to the car. An absolute fantastic day, slightly knackering not surprising when I later calculated the distance walked as 10 miles! Looking forward to returning in June.