Skip to main content

Holiday fit for a King part 2

Just a different kind of King this time.......
Almost forgot I had entered the competition, so to receive an email from Zeiss UK congratulating me on winning a walk and lunch with Simon King at Birdfair left me speechless, for at least 5 minutes, then the expletives and phone calls followed. Goes without saying I cannot wait, but what to ask him???
I have decided to adopt Surlingham Church Marsh RSPB as my local patch. Just under 20 minutes drive from my doorstep, seems like a great reserve with bags of potential. Patch details and the beginnings of a list to follow. A visit saturday evening produced a Marsh Harrier, 2 Common Buzzard and Grey Heron from the church ruins 'watch point', ideal for viz-mig.
Having spent a few years in Norwich now, I feel the need to put some time in and focus on one area close to home. Furthermore, the list is getting there and I no longer feel the need to see anything and everything in Norfolk. I will still be hitting the east coast come autumn, and the usual trips up to Cley and Wells will be forthcoming I am sure.
I am off to Derbyshire, Milford to be precise, for a week so will attempt the odd update when possible. Now where is my passport......

Comments

  1. James Emerson10 August 2010 at 05:40

    Congratulations on winning the competition.

    I only tend to visit Surlingham Church Marsh in the spring, so I'll be interested in finding out whats there the rest of the year. I used to walk there from Norwich along the Wherryman's Way, but I think the Wood's End pub at Bramerton (my break point!) is shut at the moment.

    Looking back through my notes I don't have many good records because of the infrequent visits. Garganey May 2008 and Water Rail March 2007 probably the best two. I'd check when the gun club are active, I have been there when they've been shooting, which was a bit of a waste of time!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Everything is about edge

Hardley, where it is often confusing to define where the garden ends and the marsh begins. Tumble-down houses and rickety shacks, away from any bus route and Team Sky sorts wrapped in lycra, this is a village that by choice is cut off. The secret is out, and pre-storm Ciara as many as 10 large lenses littered the river bank firing at will. Their target- Winter ghosts. First, the classic Scooby-Doo type, as a Barn Owl responds to an ill-advised squeak in the grass and heads towards the onlookers. Another quickly joins the hunt, their formation a picture of double-edged stealth. But these year-round residents are not the key objective today, that honour is given to the Short-eared Owl. 3/4 of these can be seen from the staithe at the minute, floating like giant moths over the tussocks and edges.  In a recent article in The New Yorker, Jake Fiennes states "Everything is about edge". Hedges, ditches, scrub, forgotten tracts of land that link nothing and no-one. Fiennes, now ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Grey Phalarope- a new patch bird

The 7th of April was another bitterly cold Spring day, hats and gloves in prime position on pegs and in bags ready to be deployed. A few brave Garganey have been reported north of the river, but it was a bird from the north itself that had me rushing for the thermals and the telescope late in the day.  I was thankful for the local Whatsapp group who were quick to report that a Grey Phalarope had been seen on Rockland Broad. This tiny Wader would have come in on the northerlies over the last few days, although to grace one of the broads is a real surprise, since most stick pretty close to the coast before moving on. Indeed, my experience of the birds has usually been on a sea watch in the Autumn, waves crashing and foam flying, my eyes straining to pick them out as they fly low just above the surf. They are fantastic birds, and now one was here on the patch. I had a brief panic when I realised my scope was in my car at the garage (thankfully I do have a much older spare) but once th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Claxton-on-sea!

 Although it was not quite the Christmas we wanted here in the valley, the rain has bought its own gift. A grim vision of the future, perhaps. But right now, the patch is peaking and is alive with birds, and for that I am thankful. On Christmas eve, it was a job to navigate away from the village due to standing water that had left abandoned cars and undelivered presents in its wake. The rain had been persistent and unforgiving, the ground, saturated. Over on the marsh, where there had once been a muddy puddle amongst the pasture, a city had sprung from the leak, with a plethora of new occupants noisily laying claim to a patch of sodden marsh. Wigeon and Black-headed Gulls in their thousands now wheeled and whistled over and amongst the newly formed pools, accompanied by smaller numbers of Teal and Shoveler. A flock of two hundred-strong Lapwing enjoyed feeding on the less damp spots where green grass was still exposed, and thrown in for good measure have been a couple of Ruff, the ...
4 comments
Read more