Skip to main content

The Hide

I don't know if any readers have seen the wonderfully dark film The Hide, but those that have will understand when I say that something like that could feasibly occur at Breydon Water, such is the bleakness of the place (and the fact that I have been on a Stag in Great Yarmouth, and on a separate occasion been sworn at by pupils from one of the local schools at a rugby tournament. I was expecting my students to step in for me, they were perhaps a little scared). Anyway,  it is well worth a watch. Trailer here, time well spent and an amazing twist which the trailer in no way divulges:



Watch the film, go birding at Breydon, don't go to the dog track.

Debs and I left wader-less in the large, some stuff was distant but these seemed to be Curlew and Ringos. In contrast, such high counts at Titchwell of Knot (600) and Barwit (950) have certainly got me thinking about Wader migration.
Instead of a planned visit to Strumpshaw for the showy Crossbill flock, we diverted to Winterton Dunes where we enjoyed my third, and Debs' first, Woodchat Shrike.
Yes, that is a man hiding in the bush behind. He just couldn't get close enough!

Another wander round Thorpe Marshes yesterday evening (I must have narrowly missed you, James). A Garden Warbler have brief views, a Gropper was heard briefly and I watched a Barn Owl devour prey on a  post. Usual array of warblers breaking into song after the rain, lovely stuff.

Today I tended to my patch. 2 Bullfinch flew over calling near the start of the trail and nearby was the small female Sparrowhawk I had seen the other day. The usual Warblers were all present bar Garden. The lagoon was again lacking in inspiration, the Lapwing either hiding its chicks, or have they already been predated? 1 male Marsh Harrier again hunted the marsh, joined by a female Kestrel and a Barn Owl food carrying. These Barn Owls must be knackered at the moment, it seems non-stop for them.
The breezy conditions meant Butterflies were again in hiding, a Holly Blue all I managed. I did photograph a couple of Moths though. I can see this again becoming a Bug Blog now the Summer (?) is evidently with us.
                                                                        Snout
                                                     No, not a Moth...some sort of Chafer?
                                                                      Silver Y

Comments

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