When we were down on the Hayle Estuary last month it felt like I should have given my bins a tap. I was seeing double. Not one Lesser Yellowlegs but two. They were within one another’s pockets. Tied together, perhaps by common parentage, this pair of transatlantic travellers never parted company by more than a few metres.
Egyptian Geese are so cute when they are tiny.
Have a go. Where’s Wally?
This year has been a strange one. A year of two halves and contrasts. The first half, once again like 2020, became a period of sedentary incapability. Tours and trips had to be cancelled. Unpicking the arrangements with boat operators and hotels is never easy. Indeed, sadly some of them financially went to ‘the wall’ as their business slumped.
I always said that because of the way I run the business, and my financial affairs, WT&E would front out anything thrown at it no matter how long the lockdown, without the help of government handouts. Little did I know that the business levels in the second half of the year would bounce back so strongly and so quickly.
Guests were keen to get back into the countryside and I couldn’t blame them, having been isolated and restricted for so long. However, safety of guests was paramount. Local day tours were conducted by guests following in their own vehicle and longer tours when we shared a vehicle were carried out against a background of testing by both guests and me. As a consequence, we had some good local tours and some effortlessly successful tours away.
A good relationship this year with ‘Wild Ken Hill’ and involvement in a small way with some of the good things they are trying to do there was very pleasing. Long may their rewilding and regenerative agricultural development continue.
Still no trips abroad. I feel it would be foolish to commit to these yet. To do so in the current environment is inviting difficulty and potential unnecessary expense. Maybe in 2023. The wilds of Australia, North and South America will all still be there; as will the Atlantic Islands. All on our agenda.
A single new bird for me during the course of the year was the Syke’s Warbler on Blakeney Point in September. The supporting cast of other birds, dragonflies, butterflies and cetaceans were many, but perhaps the pick of the crop was the Sei Whale in the Firth of Forth.
The accompanying photo I took of a Sanderling last week, a bird renowned for running up and down beaches, perhaps summarises the year; a lot of backwards and forwards.
All in all a good year. 2022 promises even more. I hope above all hope the coming year gives you your needs and desires. Happy New Year.
The photographs I’ve taken this year will soon be turning over and disappearing into annals of the Wildcatch Photography site; they won’t be available to view in the one place under the ‘Latest Photograph’ section.
So if you would like to take a browse of the latest photos please do so now … I hope you enjoy them.
https://wildcatchphotography.zenfolio.com/p34814967
There are several post migratory gatherings of Stone Curlews within Norfolk. Numbers drain away through October as birds move South and make their way into the beautiful dark continent. Given the mild weather perhaps more than usual still remain.
In the recent hard weather the East coast has had an influx. Videos, photographs, tweets and facebook postings have all been about ‘Woodcock’. Indeed there has been a large hard weather movement from the continent of this woodland wader.
I went out last week and inadvertently flushed at least two from within 200m of the front door. Another flew high overhead. I went out with the camera a couple of days ago to see if I could at least get a few shots off. The snow had become crispier and it crunched as I placed my feet. Not as easy to get close to these birds now as it was when it was sugary soft silent stuff (try saying that after a few Shackleton’s)
As I crept towards the small pine belt where I had previously flushed up a bird from under a wall, I stood still and scoured up and down for at least 20 minutes. Nothing. I went around the belt on the other side of the wall only to flush a bird from open ground where I least expected it to be. At the same time a second bird flew up from exactly where I’d been standing minutes earlier. I must have been almost stood on it. Grrrr. It wasn’t until I wandered the other side of the coast road and searched a likely looking spot I saw one feeding in among brambles. The lovely underestimated cryptic plumage these birds have makes them difficult to find unless they move.
On Beeston Common the other week friend Mark found a pale Chiffchaff. A Chiffchaff from the North. A Siberian Chiffchaff. These interlopers from afar call differently, look differently and even behave differently from the birds we all know.
After failing miserably to photograph the Dusky Warbler in Cot valley during the tour in Cornwall last month, I got a second bite at the cherry this week.
Friend Mark found one not but 800m up the road at Beeston Common. It was as furtive as the Cot valley bird. Sticks and twigs. Always, sticks and twigs. These birds love thick damp cover. I even visited again with Tania at the weekend in poring rain. The light was dreadful but it showed pretty well … for a nano-second after two hours of waiting
I heard of a Dusky Warbler at Muckleborough about five miles away (it’s been a good year for them) so we tried for that one on our Sunday walk. A ‘third bite’ at that proverbial cherry!. It was ‘tutting’ away in thick cover; and showed well for Tania … but not me.
I went again yesterday. It was good to stand with Bob and at last see it well. Showing just long enough for a couple of record shots that look something like a bird rather than a smudge. This species is a true skulker. i don’t think I’ve ever seen one that has given itself up easily.
In Australia we saw plenty of Little Black Cormorants; LBC’s. They appear to be a sort of cross between our own Cormorant and Shags; showing features of both.
Letter From Norfolk 