Vapourer Moth larvae by our front garden kerbside

At around 8.40am, a Vapourer Moth larvae or caterpillar was seen crawling along the front kerbside of our garden and wanting into the road, I carefully picked it up and put it in a concealed location in our Rose bush.

Finally the Black Stork seen at Horsey!

On Saturday 8th August, I was determined to see the Black Stork, having apppeared at Horsey early on it flew towards Martham so I checked martham Ferry (no luck) then Burgh castle where it was seen circling high. No luck there either, around c40 Curlew and c50 Avocet seen here. It was hot, so I went home had an ice cream and no sooner had I done so, then the Stork was seen at Horsey again at 1.26pm, so back I drove. At around 2pm I drove along the Horsey strait, good to see Chris S. again and we exchanged phone numbers as I drove further north, next stop along a load of people were looking in a grassy field suspecting they had Clouded Yellow, I was proved correct when a Clouded yellow was pointed out perched on a flower! Still no sign of the Stork but as we looked a ring tail Harrier with a white rump flew past, not enough to see which species but I suspected Hen. I rang Chris S at 2.21pm and he said the DStork had just been seen getting up from the Nelson Head track and flying north. I drove up to Waxham sands Holiday camp and from the car I could see the fantastic immature Black Stork gliding north over the camp, I parked by the Camp's entrance and immediately rang Chris to inform him. I had to move as a car was exiting, I had temporarirly lost the stork and drove up to Brograve Farm and looked back and saw it soaring over the road going eastwards towards Horsey Corner, it disappeared behind tall Leylandii, so I drove back to an area between walnut Farm and Waxham sands and parked up where 2 other cars had parked and we were very fortunately to see the Black Stork circle directly over us, it then appeared to settle in some trees just north of Waxham sands camp before it got again and soared over towards Horsey Corner again. I had probably been watching the Stork for around 30 minutes and I drove back and saw a group of birders parked up by Horsey gap, including Chris S. who was very grateful for the tip off, great to be able oblige when you re-find such a great bird and a Norfolk tick for me to boot! TBC

A wonderful Striped Hawk Moth & a Painted Lady in garden

On Thursday 6th August, I was off work and very fortunately chris L. tweeted he had just caught a Striped Hawk Moth in his Kessingland garden, so jenny & I went over, and visited Chris' wonderful garden and the Striped Hawk Moth was a real stunner but as so often happenes it started fluttering its wings so I only managed a few pics plus an assortment of other Moths including what I think could possibly be Dewick's Plusia, Puss Moth, Speckled Beauty, Mullein & Gold Spot possibly???I have already fogotten the names of! On Saturday 8th August, the Painted Lady that was previously in the garden was feeding low dow on a Buddlea flower in the morning and posed beautifully for the camera! Later in the evening at 6.35pm, a Hummingbird Hawk Moth found by Jenny spent a little time around the flowering Buddlea.

Storkless in Norfolk & camera shy Firebug on my hand

On Wed Aug 5th I drove straight over to Horsey in the afternoon in the hope of catching up with the Black Stork (would have ebeen a Norfolk tick!), but the near record dipping sequence continues all I saw was a House Martin at West Somerton, when I arrived at Horsey the Stork had been sighted flying over Carlton Marshes, plus another look at the Nao Victoria at Great Yarmouth. As I got out of my car on out front drive, a Firebug alighted on my hand but sadly it flew off as I was about to retrive my Macro lens camera.

Lean patch continues

On Saturday 1st August, I went to get some shots of the Nao Victoria ship along the South Quay and afterwards I looked from the South Wall at Breydon and didn't see a lot. A tweet to say the Pec Sand was shwing well from the hide & I went straight over there and was walking down to the hide when all the waders flew, 2 minutes before reaching the hide. Most had gone into the long grass so all I saw was some c15 Dunlin & 30 Black- tailed Godwits and 15 Curlew. No sign of the Pec, or Marsh Sand, or Spoonbills or osprey. A really lean patch at present.

Tribute to Bill Oddie

Very, very sad to hear this moring of the passing of Bill Oddie. Bill Oddie was a colossus on the birding scene almost single handedly promoting the hooby of birding and widlife watching from the 1970s onwards. I was a big fan of the series the Goodies that ran for 10 years on the BBC and he would often bring his love of birds into that series. Together with the late Tim Brooke Taylor and Graeme Garden this trio were a mad cap comedy genius's in my mind as funny as Monty Python with their slapstick comedy often comapred to an update of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. After the Goodies had finished, Bill diversified into wildlife documentaries with one of the first being about 'Bird about Town' on the life of the urban Black redstart, other series followed such Bird in the Nest which morphed into Springwatch which became phenomally successful. I particularly liked his teaming up with producer Stephen Moss and they produced some wonderful series such as 'Birding with Bill Oddie', 'Bill Oddie Goes Wild' and 'Bill Oddie Back in the USA.' Bill became Britain's favourite birdwatcher or birder. He wrote a series of best selling books including the all time classic 'Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book', 'Bill Oddie's Gone Birding', 'Follow that Bird!', "Bill Oddie Unplucked and 'Tales of Ludicrous Gardener', all all time classics. Bill didn't court fame and was often perceived as grumpy but that masked his bi-polar disorder which he suffered from. I met Bill Oddie 4X, firstly at the "Stop the Massacre' campaign in the Sparrow's Nest Theatre in 1980, where he gave a brilliant and impassionbed talk about the whole liming and netting of birds in Cyprus. In the break, I tracked him down to the very back kitchen of the Theatre band he kindly signed my book with the words "Cheers Bill Oddie." I next met him at Minsmere when I was walking with Ricky between the West Hide and South Hide and Bill Oddie rushed by saying 'I've just found a Blue-winged Teal at the South Hide', we ran to the hide and saw the bird a female Blue- winged Teal, a lifer for us both, thanks Bill! Next time was in London at the Natural History Museum in London when there was a Birder's Quiz and the audeience wrote questions on a card, I asked a question famously putting my name as Peter J. Ransome and Bill hilariously riffed on my name before asking the question I had written! I finally saw him give a talk at St. Felix School at Southwold, where his description of the mating habits of a species of Bower bird was so hilarious I fell off my chair laughing! Bill Oddie then went onto front Springwatch but it was the series he made with the producer Stephen Moss, 'Birding with Bill Oddie' and 'Bill Oddie Goes Wild' which proved so iconic and wonderful programmes that I was enjoy seeing.

Painted Lady in the garden

On Sunday 27th July, a Painted Lady was in the garden, plus an unidentified female Damselfly, very briefly alighted on vegetation. On Monday 28th July in the early evening about 6pm, a Hummingbird Hawk Moth flew around the Buddlea at the back of the garden and then to the Red Valerian neat the back door.