Devils Coach Horses

On Thursday, 2 small Devil's Coach Horse beetles found today, at the Burrage centre, James Paget Hospital, 1 in my colleagues office and 1 in the Burrage centre corridor, which were caught and released outside.

Fallowfields, save our orchids, save our wildlife!

Protect our Orchids! Protect our wildlife! Fallowfields proposed planning application meeting at the Waveney District Council offices, Conference room, Riverside, Lowestoft at 6pm on Tuesday 18th September 2018- I am speaking to object to the development of land that has had 2,967 Southern Marsh Orchids, 40 Bee Orchids etc, around 30 hybrid Spotted X Southern Marsh Orchids. The land also had breeding Blackcaps this summer, regular wintering Woodcock particularly in hard weather, Green Woodpeckers, Hobbies, Brambling, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat. I have seen a young female Blackcap visit the garden twice recently. The land also had Green Hairstreak butterflies, Small Copper butterflies, Broad- bodied Chasers, Grass Snake and Hedgehogs. Contact WDC Jane Murray if you wish to speak to object her e-mail is: jane.murray@waveney.gov.uk See you there! Pics follow of wildlife seen and much of it photographed on Fallowfields or the garden.

Dead Hornet

On Monday 17th September, in the morning, I found a freshly dead Hornet on the path bordering the Burrage Centre and the old bowling green at the James Paget Hospital.

Black Redstarts at Ness Point

On Sunday 16th September, It was great to see 4 Black Redstarts in the usual place at Ness Point mid morning, in the usual place at Ness Point this morning, I could hear the adult male singing as I arrived and there was a female bird just the other side of the fence. The male bird was seen around the tractor, what appeared to be 2 immature birds plus an immature male bird not as strikingly marked as the other male. Considering the plumage there could well have been 5 birds present? The 2 immature birds spent a lot of time by the northern fence area. I managed a few pictures but the arrival of the Lowestoft Bird Club chairman and his ringing gear, meant I decided to leave.

Return to usual Lowestoft fare

On Saturday 15th September early evening 5pm onwards, a look around "Flycatcher" (any Flycatcher seen here now would be a red letter day!) Alley, Lowestoft North Denes, Net posts, Ness Point and Corton OSW revealed precisely no sightings. Lowestoft North Denes can be honourably excepted as someone was flying a horrible inexcrable whining (sounding exactly like a Luftwaffe Stuka bomber) drone over the middle of the Denes scaring the wits out of the local 3 Greenfinches seen there. Drones are one of my pet hates, together with the totally unwanted predictive text on sites like this and twitter that converts Denes to Denies! That and dog excellent collected in bags and left on bushes/ floor make up my 3 choices for Room 101! The only reason I am writing this blog post is that I heard a lovely and wonderful Black Redstart sing briefly at the usual place at Ness Point.

Corton OSW finally produces the goods!

On Monday 10th September delighted to see the juvenile female Blackcap, with her chestnut cap a little more pronounced now, showing by the arch near the back bedroom window hawking for insects with a couple of Blue Tits and a Great Tit for company at around 7.45am. She'd gone a minute later so sadly no chance of a photo. On Friday 14th September, hearing that Steve J (the Scores birder) was back and had seen a few goodies at Corton OSW, I tried my luck, I personally hadn't seen anything here all autumn, arriving at 6pm and I immediately saw a Whinchat perched on the eastern most fence which was a great start. As the sun was shining brightly from the west, I decided to walk around the OSW in a clockwise direction taking the southern, then western and as I was walking along the northern fence, a fine and obliging Redstart was sat in a bramble bush, bathed in the lovely golden sun. I managed to get a few pics before it hopped deeper into the bush. Walking along the eastern side, 2 Whinchats seen on the fence whilst 1 Whinchat was seen in the compound, so 3 in total. A dog walker spooked 2 of them who flew to the weeds and perched on the weed tops by the eastern edge of the field just south of the sewage works. Finally a male Kestrel perched on the 30 mph sign by the road and only took flight when the car drew level.

The Legendary Earl Slick at Norwich

On Tuesday 11th September I attended an Earl Slick Q&A session at the Norwich Arts centre, St. Benedicts Street, Norwich. As a big Bowie fan and I also really liked his album with David Coverdale "Into the Light" plus his work with John Lennon on the "Double Fantasy" album, it was a must attend event for me. The format of the evening was a chap introduced him and would prompt him with recollections about his life. The chap made a joke about touring the country at Hull, Colchester they hadn't quite been to Ibiza but here they were at the Norfolk Broads, a nice pun taken from the very famous line from Bowie's seminal classic "Life on Mars!" He started he learnt the American version of "Tales of the Unexpected", he learnt on the guitar as a young lad. At the tender age of 20 he was invited to audition for a big star in New York, he worked out it was for David Bowie replacing the legendary Mick Ronson on guitar. He was asked to play along to some basic guitar tracks supplied by Bowie himself in a darkened room with red lights on the control panel. After about 20 mins Bowie walked in and he knew he had the gig. he joined Bowie for the Diamond Dogs tour. EL stated that Mick Ronson was Bowie's best guitarist. His two favourite licks were both David Bowie's tracks "Stay" & "Valentines day" on the Next day album. He helped compose the hit "Fame" with DB and John Lennon but was off his head for most of the time and when he came to meet John lennon again for the Double Fantasy sessions he arrived around an hour early at JL's house and was shown into a large room, he was a bit start struck at meeting his hero who walked in straight away, who said hi slick do nice to see you again & EL couldn't remember and JL ribbed him about this afterwards. At some stage he tired of rock and roll went into selling houses. Shortly after Bowie rang him to see if he could play with him again and was asked to audition again, this was to see if he still looked the part and could still play and EL stated he wasn't go through all that cr*p, so he was in again! EL said the "Reality tour was one of the best tours he had played on. Asked him why was the Reality tour such a happy time/ best tour he was on. Both he and DB had cleaned up by thenHe said there were no s stirrers in the band then and everyone got on really well. Another chap in the audience asked him about his work with David Coverdale on the "Into the Light" album, he said it was a really good but underrated album, nothing like his Whitesnake stuff and he wasn't going to see DC again soon when he visited Lake Tahoe. He was asked about his name, El said he came from an Italian immigrant family and his name wouldn't cut it in the business, so when he was cooking he put too much oil in the pan and it created an Oil Slick slightly changed to give him his iconic stage name! Finally we queued up to get his autograph and our picture taken with him, I asked him if was doing the Mike Garson Bowie celebration tour to which he replied he didn't know yet (despite his name being advertised as definitely appearing! let's hope he does).