Corton OSW visit after work

On Friday 4th October, after work I looked around Corton, seeing little save for Robin in St. Bartholomew's Churchyard and hearing at least 2 Goldcrests from the eastern hedge. A look around the Corton OSW failed to reveal the OBP sensationally found by Rob H., this morning, I saw a fine Green Woodpecker fly out from the static Caravan Park just north of the OSW and into another one just west of there.

Redwings over the garden

After a weekend of back problems, I had recovered enough on Wednesday 2nd October to hear at least 2 fine Redwings, first returning winter migrants from Scandinavia flying south over our back garden with their evocative 'tseep' calls permeating the atmosphere of the fading light on this autumnal evening.

Corton patchwork

On Saturday 21st September, looking around Corton Churchyard and Old Sewage Works, walking down there was a charm of 5 Goldfinch, which flew off. I saw a really showy female Stonechat regularly returning to a stick and foliage perches on the eastern perimeter. At times the bird was really close and one occasion it was too close to photograph being only 3 feet away! A Robin flew up to the Broadland Sands fence line. Walking away I saw a juvenile Goldfinch. I walked down to Corton Old Rail Track, just before the bridge a Redstart flew across and disappeared into a dense bush.

Return to the Black- necked Grebe

On Friday 20th September, I left work a little earlier at 4pm, on a much brighter day I drove over to Kessingland and I parked up and walked down, the fine immature Black necked Grebe was still there and once it had dived I got into position and managed to get some shots. It spent time at the back but then started to flap its wings preen and and pop up on its haunches. It then swam closer over to the middle of the pool, one of the volunteer Little Tern wardens came over and stood a little way back, I spoke to her for a while, until the Grebe swam closer, once the Grebe dived again I got back into position and I obtained a few shots in the golden hour before sunset. As we walked back we saw Cliff W. on the steps scoping the bird from which still on the shore pool from a distance, the bird was still there at 6.20pm.

BN Grebe at Kessingland Shore Pool

On Thursday 19th September, directly after work, I drove over to Kessingland from work and the new bridge cut my time crossing Lowestoft in half which was great. At about 6pm, I parked up and Andrew E. also drew up too and we walked over to the cliff top to descend the steep steps, stopping to view the much reduced shore pool where the fine immature winter Black- necked Grebe could be seen albeit distantly, but Andrew then mentioned "Peregrine!", and a fine Peregrine flew north low over the beack fortunately not going for the Grebe. We walked across the beach and we viewed the Grebe at closer quarters, it spent a lot of the time diving. I managed a few pics but the weather was quite overcast and cloudy.

RIP Tony Soper

Yesterday I was saddened to hear that Tony Soper had died at the age of 95. Personally, Tony did so much to engender a love of birds and wildlife for me which endures to this day and this is still a personal life long passion. Tony was a founder of the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, he was a cameraman initially but seemlessly took to presenting his smooth, calm, suarth yet authoritative presnting style was ideally suited to wildlife programmes of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. He was initially on 'Animal Magic', but Johnny Morris's anthopomorphic take on animals was not Tony's style and he presented programmes such as 'Discovering Birds', 'Go Birding with Tony Soper' and the 'Birdwatches' which had such an impact. I vividly remember 'Birdwatch' at Minsmere and especially the Farne Islands when panning through a Sandwich Tern colony, the camer briefly stopped on an orange billed Term, a Lesser Crested Tern, yet Tony didn't mention it. He later explained he couldn't as the colony was on an inaccessible island where landing for twitchers would be impossible! The series 'Discovering Birds', was iconic and I particularly liked the programme on autumn migration, which featured the Scillies and the episode where he visited the Camargue in France! 'Go Birding', followed a similar pattern and Tony again visited Scilly. I never met Tony in person, which is a regret but his programmes instilled a great love of nature in me, he will be sadly missed, rest in peace, Tony.

Return to Benacre

On Wednesday 18th September, I returned to Benacre Broad, quite a bright day and good to see Dick as I walked down. Still in front of the hide was the Greenshank and also the Redshank and a Green Sandpiper. Again there were lots of birds on the Broad with 43 Pochards, 218 Coot and good numbers of Wigeon and Gadwall too.