To strive to seek to find and not to yield.

I guess Tennyson wasn’t talking about Geese or Rough legged Buzzards when he wrote his famous lines but it felt appropriate earlier in the week.

Neither the Taiga Bean Geese in the Yare Valley or the Rough legged Buzzards in the Waveney were playing ball … at first.

The geese were sitting low among folds of ground and dykes. Gradually they grazed their way closer and I was able to take a photograph or two. On the still cold morning the shutter sounded off like the report of a shotgun and they didn’t like it. I regretted not muffling the camera. Unexpectedly … even at over 500m … the geese were edgy, took flight and settled at what they deemed to be a more respectable distance. Maybe it wasn’t me but the distant gunfire that spooked them.

The rough legged Buzzard on the other hand after playing hide and seek preferred to ‘make like a post’ . Only when it ruffled feathers did it show the white in the tail revealing its true identity.

We agreed both were worth the wait. See my guests take on the day in todays issue of the ‘The Times’

Click to enlarge

A Brush with a Barnie

I was doing some survey work last week down on the Waveney when a Barn Owl came so close it almost brushed me with its wings. I don’t know who was more surprised … it or me!

It was certainly too close to miss the photo opportunity.

The snow cover is making hunting for raptors and owls more difficult. This particular Barn Owl had to hunt during the day as well as at night to get enough sustenance.