Visiting the tree graveyard

I visited Hickling NWT today, the first time this year.  Last time I went it was flooded and I had the choice of turning back or swimming for my life so I have been avoiding the place till the weather cheered up.  I am pleased to say I did not need my life jacket or even my wellies today, there was lots of mud but us hardcore birders (cough) are not phased by things like mud.

The reserve was quiet which is not unusual, I always think of Hickling as somewhere nice to go for a walk rather than a birding extravaganza.  Sorry to anyone who thinks its the birding capital of The Broads but usually I don't even take my scope.  The highlight of my walk was spotting a Skylark in full song flight.  Not rare but it always lifts my heart to see such a little bird so full of himself, singing his little heart out so ridiculously high. 

There is a lot of work going on at the reserve, they are putting in new flood defenses and have been chopping down half the trees on the trails to make room for the machines.  Every few feet there was a pile of shredded tree, it looked like rows of tree graves.  I hate to see trees cut down even if they are diseased or dead but seeing the slaughter of innocent healthy trees really saddens me.  My common sense says that flood defenses are very important.  After all I live locally, I don't really want my village to become an island in the new lake called Norfolk!  Also clearing trees and overhanging branches will make the trail easier to walk along, a lot of the path was single file so now it will be much wider on the rare occasions I am with someone else. 

There are signs saying that visitors should make themselves known to the workforce who will stop work and escort you past the workings.  That should be interesting.  Imagine approaching a big digging machine with its engine running.  You cough politely, they don't hear you.  You say 'Excuse me'.  They still don't hear you.  Yes it will be fun.  Not.  I can imagine they will love having to keep stopping to let all those birdy types go past, they will be real happy chatty bunnies as they escort you safely through!



Yes, they will really hear me making myself known...





The workforce we expect....





When I got back to the car there was a wonderful showy tit flock and two Treecreeper right in front of my car.  Typically by this time my phone had rung and I was trying to hold a sensible conversation while trying to take photos one handed.  It sounds flash but it really wasn't, I dropped the phone twice trying to zoom in and all the best angles were blurred.  I would love to know why all the good birds come out the moment your phone rings, I am sure they know my ringtone!









Getting Nostalgic

It has been a grey day full of drizzle today.  The only real high point has been the Song Thrush which has sung his little lungs out all day long.  He is the first I have heard this year.  I love those season's firsts, especially the Spring ones because they are so full of promise.  I like to think it is the same Song Thrush which sang all day every day last year.  I know it is probably not but the romantic in me likes to think it's the same bird back up in his high tree singing his song for me.  I think Song Thrush is just about my favourite birdsong, there is something comforting about it's repetition.  I can still remember identifying my first Song Thrush by song, I was walking my dogs in Claybury Woods.  Obviously I knew what they looked like but I was so chuffed to have picked one up on it's song.  It never ceases to amaze me how I have a terrible memory yet can remember most of my birding 'firsts' as clearly as if it were yesterday.  In fact sometimes yesterday is a bit blurry with me so even clearer than yesterday! 

I could pretty much tell you were I was when I saw/heard my first of most birds, not just the rare ones but the commoner ones too.  I especially remember my first Wren.  It's a very precious memory to me because it's one of the few really clear happy memories I have of my late father.  We were somewhere in North Norfolk on holiday.  We had hired a horse drawn gypsy caravan for a week.  It seems the most bizarre thing to do looking back now but that's what we did.  The three of us and our little Cairn Terrier, Sally, all together in a tiny gypsy caravan.  We spent the day clip-clopping along the country roads and in the evening would pull up on any available patch of grass, like a village green, tether the horse and camp for the night.  Thinking about it now I can't believe we were not moved on by the police of lynched by angry villagers but that's what the people who rented the caravans out told us to do.  Add to that we had no experience with horses at all it could have been a total disaster but it was actually really fun.  Anyway, on the day in we had stopped for the day on a common somewhere, I remember there were gorse bushes.  Dad and I were sitting on a blanket and I had my treasured bird book out.  I still have that book and I still love it.  I remarked to Dad that I had never seen a Wren.  He appeared shocked and looked around for about 20 seconds before saying 'There's one' and pointing to a lovely little Jenny Wren sitting in the bushes.  I was dead chuffed and so impressed that he had found one just like that.  So that was my first Wren and a lovely memory.



This was our home for a week!



The new-fangled garden microwave!

Sometimes The Hairy Hubby comes up with ideas which are really good.  Other times they are just plain wierd.  Check out his wonderful idea of how to defrost the fish for our tea tonight quickly..

I am not sure if it was total insanity or pure genius because it did actually work.  But I spent the whole afternoon watching out for swooping Herring Gulls trying to make off with my Haddock!

Spring fever...and Butterfly again!

Spring was bursting out all over in the garden today.  My grandson and I did one of our 'nature trail' walks around the garden looking for all the bulbs we had planted in the Autumn.  I am pleased to say that they all seem to be coming up.  There are crocus shoots everywhere and also some Tulips that I had forgotten about!  There are lots of snowdrops now too.  I have some extra ones which The Hairy One dug up from a corner of the wood where no one goes shhhhh.  

There are also tiny leaves on my Elder tree, I was most excited to see them!  It's not much of an Elder tree, actually it's a bit small and sad.  I'd love it to grow nice and bushy so I could harvest elder flowers for cordial and later berries for wine.  I am hoping to make some wine this year.  I've never done it before so lord knows what will happen.  My Dad used to do it and I always remember lying on the sofa with appendicitis and the doctor coming (they used to do that in those days) and all Dad's wine bubbling away behind the sofa and letting of a pong like a brewery.  I don't know what Mum was more worried about, my health or what the Doctor must have thought!  Anyway I want to have a go so will be on the lookout for some of those demijohn things at the boot sale.  Probably because I want some there won't be any!

I also have great drifts of Daffs coming up on the bank with the Sycamores, they even have some flower buds just beginning.  It's a shame but Hairy Hubby is planning to chop the trees down and dig up the bank to build yet another shed.  A double garage, summerhouse and lawnmower shed is just not enough storage space for all his crap important items.  I suppose that come next September/October I will be spending hours replanting the bulbs somewhere else that I will have to dig them up again from to make way for one of his projects.  I am sure that in five years time my garden will look like a housing estate with buildings everywhere!

My grandson and I also had a good look at my herbs and were thrilled to spot the first signs of growth on the mint.  We had a fantastic supply of mint for our locally grown new potatoes last year so seeing that really cheered me up.  The other herbs seem to have survived, even my Parsley which I was sure would go to the frost.  My plan for this year are lots of tubs of herbs.  I certainly need a new Rosemary, I totally butchered my old faithful one last year and it needs a rest!

We also had some drama today with my old adversary Butterfly the Squirrel.  He had found his way into the Doves enclosure again and got trapped in there....again!  The trick really is to watch how he eventually gets himself out because that's where he got in.  Then you have to block his entry route.  This time the little rat-bag had chewed a hole in the net.  I can tell you I am not amused!  Well, actually it was amusing watching his antics trying to get out of the net, he was hurling himself about and doing somersaults trying to remember how he got in there.  He is going to be a problem along with the Pheasants when the net is off because he will eat the Doves food and cost me a fortune.  I always loved Squirrels before I moved here but this one (yes I know it's not just one, far from it) is doing my head in. 

If you go down in the woods today...

Two entries in one day, I am surpassing myself!  After my chat with The Gamekeeper and my subsequent blog entry here I think I lasted 10 minutes before my feet forced me to go out for a walk round the Blackcurrant field.  I can't really call it the wood because I would only be walking through about 100 yards of wood.  Anyway after trying to look cool and nonchalant I grabbed my boots and went out there.

It was strange walking along the path after so long.  Like I had never been away but like it had been years.  Rather like visiting an old friend.  I walked slowly to savour the moment, stopping at the beginning of the path and just watching the birds and enjoying the sunshine.  It looked very much the same as the first time I ever went out there, which will be a year ago in March. 



I stood here for ages just looking



Last time I saw my wood she was wearing her summer clothes, decked out in shades of green and full of promise.  It's strange to think of the changes which have gone on since I last walked that path.  There has been harvest time, autumn time with falling leaves and not forgetting the snow.  I would have dearly loved to see the wood in all her colours and stages. 

The route I am allowed to take now goes through Home Wood then along the side of the blackcurrant field with the broad to your right through the trees.  Then a left turn where I like to look down the rows of blackcurrant plants to spot deer.  There were no deer today apart from a half eaten dead one which I assume had been shot.  Maybe it had just died, who knows but if it had been shot and not used for meat what a terrible wasted of a life.  At the end of the field you turn left down a lane then right back along the field again bringing you back to Home Wood.  It's not a very long walk.  I was out there about an hour today and I was walking very very slowly, stopping frequently.

One thing I have noticed about the wood is that it never fails to deliver at least one magic moment every time you go out there.  Perhaps that's why I love it so much.  Today as I walked along the path through Home Wood a female Kestrel took off from the undergrowth, with her kill still in her talons.  She took me totally by surprise, absolutely stunning and very close.  Then as I reached the blackcurrant field there were three Common Buzzard circling over the trees, crying their mewing cry.  One flew slowly towards me with the sun making it glow.  It went right over my head, I could see every detail through my bins.  Absolutely gorgeous.

I am very sad not to be able to go into the wood properly but am determined to make the most of what I am allowed to do.  Not everyone has something like that on their back doorstep so I really ought to be grateful and just enjoy it.



The reason for the ban



An expected disappointment

I just spoke to The Gamekeeper about access to the wood this summer.  Luckily I had not been banking on getting full access again because if I had I'd be heartbroken right now.  Well actually I am but not as bad as I could have been because I'd not got my hopes up, plus I'd had a bit of a warning that things would be different this year.

Apparently the pens containing the birds are going to be further up this end this year.  Or something like that.  So I can only walk around the blackcurrant fields.  Still nice, still better than nothing but when you have found somewhere that for some reason touched you more than any place you had ever been it just breaks your heart when you can't go there any more. 

The upside is that I can photograph the deer again.  I probably won't see Hare though, and I will miss sitting by the lake.  Plus it has to be better than the past seven months of looking out of my window and not being able to set a foot out there.  You can hear that I am trying to convince myself can't you? 

It's a conspiracy!

We have had a Muntjac deer visiting us twice a day for the past week or so.  Apart from a couple of brief sightings I have not seen Muntjac from my window in several months.  This little fella has been coming right up to the fence, at one point he had his head and foot in the garden.  Typically I was on the phone so was not able to appreciate the moment properly.  One hand on the phone, the other on the bins is not a good viewing position.  Why do people always ring me when there is something good out of the window?  I can go days with nothing much to watch then bang the phone rings and suddenly the wildlife springs into action.  Yesterday our deer was very close to the house, just behind my Laurel tree.  I tried to take photos but my auto focus just wanted to focus on the wire fence and sadly my manual focus skills leave a lot to be desired.  I could really do with some camera use instruction actually. 

After this close encounter I thought what a nice idea it would be to put some food out for the deer and try and tempt them into the garden.  As I always do I asked Google 'What to feed Munjac deer in my garden?'  I found a couple of useless threads but came upon one with some really sage advice which I am sure would work.  It said "Go to the garden centre, buy something you really, really like, or something very expensive.  Plant it in your garden, step back and watch"  With past experience of other wildlife, I reckon that would probably work!

We have also had a Tawny Owl visit several times at night.  I often hear him but he only comes into the garden when it's Hairy Hubby's turn to put the dog out.  I hear a shout of "Oh look, big owl......too late."  Apparently it flies across the garden when the floodlight goes on so it must be sitting in one of the trees.  There is a large ivy covered one in that sort of area and I have read that Tawny's like ivy covered trees so I suspect it's that one.

I have been promised by The Hairy One that an Owl box will be made.  However with past experience I know not to hold my breath.  He never specified which decade he was going to start making it!  Maybe if a large sheet of ply was to appear very cheaply I might have a hope but I can't see him dashing off to the wood yard and buying some.  But the main point is what sort of luck do I have that the dratted bird is never there when it's me putting the dog out?  I am sure the wildlife conspires against me!

A garden resident who does not mind me seeing him!