Another photography tour the other day. They are getting quite popular. We stood quietly under a tree and watched this female Fallow Deer. Unusually she forsook her young and made her way towards us. It took me a while to see why she was doing this. She was eating something off the ground under the oaks. Acorns must taste really good.
A weekend of shrikes. The first a Brown Shrike. Once a quest of a bird. The Holy Grail of Shrikes; but no more. Toppled by rarer birds from the far East. The second a pirate of a shrike. A one eyed Red Backed. That in itself made it special. Well, it’s the first one eyed Shrike I’ve ever seen … of any species. I quite admired its tenacity. Squinting its way across the sea with a tail wind and now leaping from the barbed wire fence onto bugs and beatles … presumably missing half of them. I took a photo of the Red backed’s good side. After all, who wants to show the world your worst side.
Deep in the dark tangle that is the Dell was a migrant that never ceases to put a smile on my face. Maybe it’s those sneaky crescents of white in the tail, the cocky pose and droopy wings or the ‘cute’ expression but it’s easy to see why a Robin was giving this Red-breasted Flycatcher a hard time.
When doing a photography Tour we came across this completely camouflaged little Dunlin on the beach. Sat with another three or four of his mates he was keeping a beady eye on me while he roosted.
Always a nice treat in Norfolk. We don’t have many fast flowing rivers so Grey Wagtails aren’t prolific here. We saw this one in failing light the other day.
We took a group of Birders down through South Norfolk the other week; they wanted to see Stone Curlews which are starting to gather in large pre-migratory groups. The maximum we counted in one flock was around 37 although I heard someone else had around 60. Maybe they ought to give their binoculars a tap. They usually hang around until the beginning of November before drifting off South although they may hang around longer or even over-winter if the weather is mild, The maximum sized flock I’ve ever had in Norfolk was 110.
One animal that hardly ever turns up on tours is the Hedgehog. I’ve only ever once found one other whilst on tour in the last 13 years I’ve been running the business. Hardly surprising really given their nocturnal habits and the massive decline the species has endured in the last 25 years. However, we were on a photography tour this week and I spotted one shuffling his way in some grass away to our right. He made a fitting subject. We were quite careful not to approach too closely. He never rolled up into a ball and continued sniffing at everything on his way home.
We were stood watching a duck that supposedly has a lot of Whistling Duck in it as it swam around Snipes Marsh last week when Steve stopped to pass on a message. He told us the ‘White Heron’ seen around Cley of late was sat in the field at Babcock Hide. I’d wanted to see this individual since it had been initially seen some weeks earlier. Photos of it looked odd. A short trip to the field in question only took two minutes and as we watched it a goose pushed it off the marsh and into the air.
I have to admit it took me a while to eliminate Great White Egret. Structure and leg colour was not right for that species but at a cursory glance its true identity probably would have passed me by. In any case I don’t think I would have put it down as a leucistic Grey Heron.
Letter From Norfolk 