Marsh revisited II
For no reason other than Dave just sent me these, here are some supplementary pics from our birdwatching trip to Norfolk last Tuesday: that gorgeous male pochard in more detail; me eating a homemade Eccles cakes even though I am in Norfolk; me standing on the beach at Cley; and Dave and I failing to identify some kind of warbler. I can't lie, I've been enjoying the dialogue about birds far more than any of the other shit. (The last picture is real.)
posted by Andrew Collins @ 9:02 AM
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34 Comments:
That last picture is wonderful. Did you rope in some passer-by with excellent reactions to take it or is this a magical result from the camera's self-timer?
I've never experienced anything like your little birding trip, but I must say I think I'd really enjoy something like that.
We did a spring trip up to Norfolk a few years back, and one of my goals was to try and get my first view of a nightingale.
We got up bright and early and traipsed all over Salthouse Heath but there were none singing (got our first lesser whitethroat though). We returned the next day and we had just given up and got back to the car when one started singing right next to the vehicle. It even hopped out on to the road, something I've never seen one do since. I dived for the video camera but it had gone to cover, so all I managed to film was a bush with the amazing song coming out of it.
Later that afternoon, we popped in to the cafe at Titchwell, where one of the wardens was painting that great mural on the wall and as we supped our tea, I was playing back the video footage with the nightingale song at our table.
I glanced up and saw the warden had downed tools and was desparately scanning the undergrowth outside the cafe, trying to find the elusive nightingale (not a regular visitor to the reserve). Nearly made his day.
Another fond memory of a Norfolk trip was a winter one, where we stayed in a B&B at Burnham Thorpe and as we got up at the bitter dawn, there were thousands of pink-footed geese flying over from their roost to their feeding grounds.
I must head back up again next year, as it is just birdwatchers' paradise.
By the way, cape vulture would be a national first, so get your report in to the BTO!
Cheers,
Mark Jobling
Looks like a still from the film The land that time forgot!
Watch out for the flying dinosaurs, they love Eccles cakes.
Claire
So, Great Bustards are now common in the reedbeds? I feel sorry for the Bitterns...
Congratulations to Mark for correctly identifying the cape vulture. It wasn't a quiz and there is no prize but bird glory.
I have been asked to contribute to a charity book of short essays about things that make the writer happy. I have decided to write about the pied wagtail. More details of the book when I have them.
Oh, and yes, Darren, it was a self-timer. Getting the type of birder who goes to Titchwell on a weekday to take your picture would expose you as a tourist!
And let's not forget that the toilets at Titchwell also have bird murals!
Whoa, how bad is your eyesight that you need binoculars to look at that bird in the last photo?
Must confess, it took all my birding skills. I knew it was a vulture and thought it was a griffon vulture (like the ones I've seen in Portugal) but the head looked too dark.... so I did a google image search for "vulture" until I found the one you used on page 5. Sorry. Do I still get my glory?
Cheers,
Mark Jobling
I have to echo Rajjy!
This would have been a great Spot The Bird competition, if they did that competition instead of the Spot The Ball competition.
I hate to argue Mark, but there's no way you'd get a cape vulture in Norfolk. Although it could be an escape...
I'm back! You probably never noticed Id gone in the first place, but regardless ... I'm back!
..nothing to say on birds though ...
Dave, not sure I said you would get them in Norfolk except in jest (referring to Andrew's photoshopped picture of the cape vulture).
Interestingly, there was an Egyptian vulture knocking around north Norfolk this time last year for a couple of days.
Sorry - It wasn't last year. The Egyptian vulture was seen end of April 2007 at Scoulton, Warham and East Barsham.
Ah, the elusive nature of irony in a blog posting! To clear up any vulture confusion - Keechdesign is the very "Dave" in the Norfolk photos, my number one birding guru. (I've just realised it's not evident from the name as I hadn't referred to Dave as Keech in the original blog post.) In other words, it was Dave/Keechdesign who effected the cape vulture photoshop in the first place! I wish to take no credit for his handiwork. (I must admit, even though I was there, for a split second I fell for it when Dave sent the pic to me last night.)
Ah, right - sorry. Damn this internet and its multitude of confusions. All because I refuse to use emoticons on the principle that I hate text speak. Nice 'shopping Dave.
Andrew,
I like the post about birds too. particularly as you come from the normal end of birdwatching. I know too many of the obsessive and list tickers who seem to have limited joy in seeing the wonders on the wing and just interested in whats new and rare.
All is clear! And we all love birds! Even vultures.
I am greatly honoured by your praise Andrew - but no proper birder would wear a waterproof like that, with a fluorescent stripe on the shoulder. No wonder the vulture is flying off.
Dave/ Keech/ Design
Have you done Bempton Cliffs, Andrew? Was up there just before Easter - the mild weather had brought some Puffins in early. Splendid stuff.
BLTP, I never understand full-on twitchers either. I'll go and see a rare bird if it's in my area or make a day of it with other things to do if it's a bit more remote, but travelling the length of Britain to see a rarity, then standing around looking at it all day in the same spot never really appealed to me.
Many of the rarities are close to death or get picked off quickly by predators, so it sometimes feels a bit ghoulish forming a long line and gawping at a lost, sickly, solitary bird, which will probably never see its real home or get a chance to mate again.
I'd much rather see birds that aren't lost and are in their normal habitat and locale. My favourite kind of birding is looking for birds that aren't necessarily rare but you have to go to specific and often lovely habitats to see them; things like wandering round heathland in the New Forest looking for Dartford warblers, but seeing and hearing all the common stuff during the search, like stonechats, wheatears, meadow pipits and skylarks, even the common woodland set.
Days like that are priceless. As a city dweller you make the most of the countryside. As a quasi-country dweller I get a similar kick out of the odd non-work trip into London. Never won anything in a London pub raffle though.
I'll admit to being fooled by the photoshop. My bird watching skills are so poor that even if Dave/Keech/Design had photoshopped in a picture of Ben Goldacre in a bird suit, I'd probably not have noticed straight away.
Never mind whether the vulture is real or not, the duck-type thing in that top pic looks like a wooden one with a little motor attached to the bottom.
@Chris Treece
Puffins! puffins are great. I've been to the orkney isles a few times. highlights- puffins, primula scotica (a wee flower), standing stones and prehistoric stuff, splendid cheese.
everyone should go!
matt
I'm very jealous Chris. I went to university in Scotland but never made it up to the far north. I always wanted to go to Orkney and visit Hoy for the rocks and the breeding bonxies, and of course to Mainland to check out one of the Twatts (the other being in Shetland).
hurry up collins! Ive been away for 6 months and now im ready and willin' to comment on your wooly rubbish about ducks and buggery and what do I get? nothing.
get a move on and write something here so I can heartily agree with it and then get on with my day.
I thank you.
Charles Mingles esq
(technically, still at work)
Mark, I've always wanted to write Twatts in a post. Bempton is on Yorkshire's East coast - few miles north of Bridlington. It's an RSPB site, with an excellent shop & study centre and some really helpful guides/spotters who'll steer your kids' binoculars towards the right bit of cliff. I know nothing about birds, or have any great interest in twitching, but it's never failed to thrill watching the many, many thousands of birds clinging to the sheer cliff face.
Not sure who's based in London on here, but a garganey has been reported on the Serpentine in Hyde Park yesterday and today; well worth checking out if you're in the area.
Garganey are quite a rare duck in the UK and are really unusual in that they are summer visitors. Pretty much all other wildfowl are winter visitors or resident in the UK.
The drakes are stunningly beautiful birds; here's a picture of one I took a few years ago in the Wirral:
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/1071718841014897999pJiXJE?vhost=good-times
RSPB info on them:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/garganey/index.asp
A Great Tit just hopped onto the birdfeeder two feet way from my computer. Usually only the Blues have the nerve to nibble there.
This has made my day.
You're not as hard-hearted as you make yourself out to be, are you?
Also of interest to London birders, yesterday and today, a purple heron has been reported at West Warwick Reservoir, Walthamstow.
It's in the reedbed on the east side of the lake at:
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=535000&Y=189000&ar=N&z=120
I've never seen one of them in this country - wish I didn't have to be at work.
Garganey also still present near the Lido on the Serpentine today. Bet everything's gone along with the sun by the time I'm not working tomorrow.
You could be the new Bill Oddie..bet you would love that job.
A heron has been house hopping around our estate this week. Deepest suburban Dublin. All very exciting. Our cat has been levitating around our sunroom.
Pied Wagtails make my wife smile. Therefore they are fine with me :-)
AC: Not sure where you stand one them but we went to see british sea power play a live soundtrack to some films this week the main one was man of arran the famous doc , but the supporting feature was a section from winged migration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_Migration
its got some amazing footage. worth checking out as is the great skua from bsp last lp.
I'm a big softie, AC. It's all front.
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