A near head on................

Monday 16 August 2021

A trip to Cambridge for Sam to have two operations on her ankle meant a 10 hour wait so as it was in striking distance of Sandy I had arranged to have breakfast with Steve Rooke after leaving Sam at 7am and not being allowed to go inside the hospital. It felt really sad not being allowed to accompany her inside but others have had to endure so much more through the necessary covid restrictions.

I was somewhat distracted during the morning drive to Sandy, hence ending up on the new A14 heading North when I shouldn't have been but after a Steve "special breakfast" we were off to visit his local patch at Gypsy Lane East near Broom Sandy. This is Steve's local patch and I had heard quite a bit about it.

We arrived and scanned the pits, no waders but a movement of at least 5 Yellow Wagtails, probably more and then suddenly everything lifted form the pits as the blur of a Peregrine hunted low over the water. It disappeared behind some vegetation and I tried to re locate it and then equally as suddenly saw it heading straight towards us. I dropped the bins and grabbed my camera, with no time to change any settings I managed a quick fire of five shots, then it was straight over our heads and gone.

A quick look at the back of the camera and three out of the five were totally blurred as I had failed to lock on. Overcast skies with a fussy background so I wasn't too surprised until I looked at capture no 4 - this seemed ok as did no 5 possibly. I have learnt not to get too excited about back of camera images but I secretly hoped I'd got something useable.

A bit dark and I should have lightened it on developing but... time and all that... "more than a minute bin it" my motto for post development so when time allows I'll go back to it and have a play, for one more minute. The next image turned out to be better and more action as it banked in flight......

and here cropped in.......

This was a juvenile bird but nonetheless a master of flight already. Steve and I walked behind the pits to where we thought it may have landed and there it was.........

What a start to the morning. We stayed for a while and then a tour of local villages and a visit to Little Paxton Lakes which I had heard so much about from Sandy based RSPB staff in the past - it was busy and starting to drizzle so we had a protracted visit but Steve did find me a tick in the form of a Hornet Hoverfly.

Mimicrcy in nature is something I've always loved and this master of the art was equally as impressive as the preceding Peregrine - two species at the top of their game.

The Hornet Hoverfly mimics the dangerous, stinging hornet but is actually harmless and it's fierce looks keeps predators away. It also buzzes like a Hornet just to complete the deception.

The larva of these insects live happily in the nests of social wasps without getting stung, where they eat the debris and rubbish in the wasp nest and in return the wasps have a free cleaner. Brilliant biology in action. Phoooowwar as Mr Packham would say !

This spectacular hoverfly first colonised Britain in the early 1940s, and was once regarded as rare. Since then it has become well established in London, the South and South East of England. As the climate warms the fly is heading north ........................

......as did I after a great morning and early afternoon with Steve. I was eventually reunited with Sam and we headed back to Norfolk. Crutches, painkillers, cushions etc were order of the day and once those were sorted I was straight into downloading the pics........ this story above.

Pacific, American or Eurasian...?

The last time I saw a non-European Golden Plover was longer than I care to remember but what I do recall is how blooming difficult they can be when they are on their own with no reference to our normal Golden Plover. Various clinchers such as greyish underwing and call really help but this morning that wasn't happening.

Norfolk has hosted a number of Pacific Golden Plovers in the last few weeks so I felt I should at least have a stab at one of the local ones that had been at Wells for the last few days. I arrived at North Point after dropping Tom at work to find myself the only person there - lovely yet a bit daunting. It had recently been seen on the west pools so great as the light was behind me. On those pools I saw a couple of Greenshanks, at least one Wood Sandpiper and I suspect probably two plus half a dozen Green Sandpipers and two Spoonbills. But no Golden Plover of any sort. The East Pools were directly into the light so difficult viewing, but plenty of Ruff and some 17 Snipe. Then a Golden Plover - now as to which one it was ? Probability pointed to Pacific as it had been there for the last few days, this bird also was a moulting adult so surely it had to be. I've been caught out badly in the past by auto suggestion so was determined to identify it properly starting from the beginning.

First thing to do was rule out our normal Golden Plover.......... I recall people saying that at this time of the year if you see a Golden Plover in adult plumage then it's most likely to be Pacific or American, but first things first - why was it different to this pictured below (Eurasian Golden Plover - Norway)

The first thing that struck me was it's longer legged and more attenuated structure. The bill looked heavier but given it was so long ago I'd last seen one there was only one option - google ! For me sadly not at North Point.

If it flew I'd see the grey underwing but it was feeding and sleeping. I decided to take a few record shots as it was into the light and quite distant.

I'm constantly amazed at how well modern cameras can cope with "zooming in" so here and I realise it's a bit fuzzy is a blow up...........

Although this pic doesn't show it well the bill looked quite thick and the bird looked overall lanky. I couldn't remember what the tail projection and primary thing was all about but looking at the long tertails and I was getting quite happy it was the previous sighted Pacific GP.

A few people arrived and I pointed out the bird hoping no one would disagree and then Richard Webb turned up who enlightened me to the under tail covert id feature - that being Eurasain GP are all white and USA/Pacific have some black in them - Phew another nailing feature. I was now very happy and about to post on the local app when a Common Crane ( easier to identify ) turned up and flushed absolutely everything !

I returned home for late breakfast and set about some notes...........

As I write this some 21 Swallows have appeared on the telegraph wires outside the house a mixture of adults and young - equally as nice a birding moment as North Point this morning, less challenging but a great reminder of the wonder of migration........

Red Arrows fly past

The Red Arrows were due to fly past the adjacent village of Stanhoe this evening (sunday 8th) on their return from Biggin Hill. They were bang on time at 19.31 two sets of five planes.