Fantastic Phalaropes

The other week a windblown waif was occupying one of the sea pools up on the coast.

I adore these specialised waders. A popular little chap this Grey Phalarope swam and bobbed ‘cork like’ around brackish water just on the landward side of the shingle ridge. I guess the pool was not dissimilar to the one he was born on earlier this year, perhaps in Iceland or more likely further into the Arctic Circle; Greenland or Svalbard maybe. As I watched him he fed on tiny fish fry, insects and small crustaceans. For such a tiny bird they are surprisingly pelagic for most of the year only coming ashore to breed, if sick or when pushed ashore by storms.

This is a bird that has probably never seen a human before and was as a consequence quite tame.

Sparing young bucks

One winters day in the late eighties I was walking across a clearing in Thetford forest when I disturbed a resting Red Stag. It was startled and I was too close for comfort. Well, let’s not put any heirs and graces on the moment, I was cacking myself. I’m a big lad but this thing was looking down on me. It had to be the biggest Red Deer ever and it dwarfed me. When it ran, and thank god it ran away from me, I could feel the ground shake. These are powerful big animals

There aren’t many Red Deer in North Norfolk but they can be found with a little patience. However we found several within a couple of herds on a foray into Suffolk last week, including a couple of young animals that were sparing with one another.