Another Norfolk jaunt..

I've been a bit quiet on the blog front of late, time seems to be whizzing by and the only surefire way to slow everything down and relax, is a trip to Norfolk.
For those who don't know, we plan on leaving the 'joys' of London for the beauty of Norfolk, in (hopefully) no more than 5yrs from now. In the meantime, we have to settle for short camping trips or the odd day out there, for our little dose of tranquility.

So a few weeks back we packed our smaller, short-stay tent and headed for Sandringham, which is a fantastic setting within the forest, yet still not far from the North Norfolk coast. I managed a couple of trips to Titchwell [thanks to Mrs Kerr (@ceashell7) for making that happen!] and as usual, was not disappointed. The highlights for me, being a couple of Wood Sandpipers, Spotted Crake and Arctic Skuas out at sea.

Wood Sandpiper up close and not phased one iota by anyone

Bizarre behaviour by the Spotted Crake, climbing the reeds to put on a show before diving back down for cover

Unfortunately, the Skuas were too far out for me to get any half decent photos but it was fantastic to watch two of these birds doing what they do - the Sandwich Tern that lost its lunch wasn't too happy though!

Beyond those Eiders somewhere is a Sandwich Tern getting the Skua treatment - trust me!

Back at the campsite, it soon became apparent that some of the site lighting made fantastic moth traps - only problem being that the best lights were those outside the toilet blocks! A few funny looks later, I decided that the best bet was to take Archie with me and make us look as unassuming as possible...by each holding a net and pots, and acting as enthusiastic as possible towards anything with wings! Yes. I know. However I word it - I was hanging around outside the toilet blocks. at night.
HOWEVER, loitering by the toilets did get me this lovely little selection of moths:

Lesser Swallow Prominent - Pheosia gnoma

Large Emerald - Geometra papilionaria

A rather fresh Agonopterix alstromeriana

Birch Mocha - Cyclophora albipunctata

It also was also a (sad and probably pathetic) excuse to celebrate my first Thorn!..told you it was sad.. I'm still yet to have any Thorn species visit the moth light at home, so this was a nice touch:

Canary-shouldered Thorn - Ennomos alniaria

As well as no less than 50 Black Arches, was a single of this little fella, which I think is either a Brown-tail, or a Yellow-tail. Admittedly I've not put much time into trying to ID this yet, but feel free to save me the time and give your 2 pennies worth on it:

Brown-tail or Yellow-tail moth

Also had a lovely day at RSPB Strumpshaw and saw so much that I shall save it for a seperate blog. Such a lovely place, saw Barn Owl and Bittern as well as a couple of minutes watching a Willow Tit 'working' the short trees that lined the path - not a bird that I've seen a lot of, so was nice to be able to sit and enjoy close views.
Various dragon and damselflies, Clouded Border moths and a Wainscot species I've yet to have a good look at. This next beauty though, was a real treat:

Caterpillar of a Swallowtail Butterfly

Lastly, within the surrounding Sandringham woodland, Archie enjoyed learning and practicing a few new outdoor tips. I love that he enjoys the natural world as much as we do (for now at least!)..

Leaving 'stick arrows' to find our way back

Locating and collecting Silver Birch bark as tinder for a fire

That carpets of moss make a lovely soft matress to lay on, under dryer leaves

..and that if the stick makes a good cracking noise - it's good to burn!

We're heading back to Sandringham in the coming weeks and so hopefully, I'll have more to share when we get back. As always, if I've made any ID mistakes - do let me know..

Thanks for reading!

Archie and Dads day out bug hunting - by Archie Kerr age 6

On a day off school on Wednesday me and my Dad went bug hunting at Windsor Park. The weather was really, REALLY sunny and we were hoping it would bring the bugs out. We took bug pots, a net, my lunchbox full of snacks just incase I was hungry, a camera and MORE bug pots.


The first thing we caught was a beetle that I saw and my Dad potted it. It was running and hiding under the dirt. My Dad thinks this Harpalus affinis:

I was looking for Ladybirds on a shrub and I saw a type of fly that I did not know and Dad caught it in a pot, interestingly it is a Snipe Fly (Dad says its Rhagio tringarius):

Funnily, Dad went running through the grass to catch a yellow moth and he said its a Yellow Shell:

I know that bugs love nettles so we checked there and suddenly a Damselfly flew by and Dad caught it in the net because it was flying. Here it is:

Dad found and took a photo of a beetle and here it is below. It is a Green Dock beetle:

Suddenly a Red Kite came out of nowhere and flew over our heads and Dad quickly as a flash took a photo:

We went back to the car so we could try a different area of Windsor park and by the car, we found a Red Admiral:

a 7-spot ladybird:

a Nettle Tap moth:

and another beetle that is called a Soldier beetle just like a human soldier except its a bug instead. Dad said its called Cantharis rustica:

 
In the new spot the first thing we found was this caterpillar but we don't know what it is yet?

I found these pretty flowers and Dad isn't very good at ID'ing flowers but I looked through the wild flowers book and I think these are called Greater Stitchwort and Bitter-vetch:

There were lots of these micro moths in the grass and micros are tricky to ID but my Dad said they were called Glyphipterix thrasonella:

Does anyone know what bird this feather fell off of during its flight? Because we're not 100% sure:

This is me running on the grass trying to catch a butterfly to ID. I had to run really fast and a long way to catch it and on the second swipe I caught it!

It was a Speckled Wood:

We found some Large Skippers as well. They looked very fresh:

I also caught this Cranefly in my net, it was very bright coloured and it was bright orange:

Look at the size of the legs on this beetle, it has been doing lots of exercise! Dad said it's a Swollen-thighed Beetle:

This is me holding a Meadow Brown butterfly and that was my favourite part of the day, I loved it and I wish I can do it again soon!

Thank you for reading my first ever blog, I really hope you enjoyed it.

By Archie.

Wildlife of Sharm el-Sheikh - Apr '14

***21/04/14 - I'd just like to make a correction: below I mention Brown-necked Ravens but it's kindly been pointed out to me that, they were in fact, (Indian) House Crows***



We've been back a couple of days, from a holiday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. It was a family holiday (with friends), so although the wildlife was not the reason for going, naturally I had my eyes open for anything and everything that crawls, flies, jumps or swims.

To add to that, I should say that everything I saw was purely from within the resort/beach.
This view right here pretty much sums up my birding for the 10 days:

One of the best wildlife memories I will ever have happened on our first day. We were in the sea and between us and the shore were a big school of fish. Out of nowhere appeared a Caspian Tern drifting up and down the beach, it later became apparent that this was its feeding routine.
Completely undeterred by us or anyone, it started dive bombing into the sea for these fish and flying off over our heads with its catch - all about 15ft away from us, I will never have a better view of a Caspian Tern again. Superb!

Here's a few shots of that beautiful Tern, that I grabbed over a few days:

The next two birds I saw, each had their own posts or poles that they rested on each and every day. When they did finally decide to get up and do something, I managed to enjoy great views and get a few photos.
Firstly, a White-eyed Gull:

As 'common' as they were, it was quite gratifying for me to watch these, knowing that they are pretty much, strictly Red Sea residents.

Made a nice change from looking at Black-headed Gulls though. A couple more shots here:

The next Gull, not as vibrant but elegant in its own way, was this Slender-billed Gull:

This next bird, also a Slender-billed Gull, was moulting or in between plummages:

The next bird to appear on the bouys and pontoon walkway, was this Striated Heron that we only saw on two different days so quiet lucky:

A Western Reef Egret was not bothered in the slightest by tourists, often making people actually walk around it instead of moving itself. We only ever saw the one, UNTIL our drive back to the airport, when we counted 25+ feeding along the roadside!

It was quiet funny because as the holiday went on, our friends (who are not birders!!) began to take an interest and start pointing out birds to me. Along with Mrs K, who always looks out for me, I now had another 2 pairs of eyes on the lookout.
We got on with a retired couple from Belgium, the guy was also into his birds and so he was also giving me the heads up of what he's seen on the resort - it was a FAMILY holiday remember :)

House Sparrows were EVERYWHERE, nesting in the gazebos above our heads, running around our feet and everything. Bit of a long shot, but I did check as many as possible incase a stray Spanish Sparrow was hiding amongst them, but that was not to be.

Just like our Jackdaws or Carrion Crows back home, the local noisy, bully boy corvids of Sharm were Brown-necked Ravens. They mobbed anything that had food, Terns, Gulls, Ospreys, anything! It was hard to show the brown necks of them with photos, but this was the best I could do:

A week into the holiday and a couple of Hooded Crows showed up. They liked to use one of the fountains as a dinner table, I often watched them pulling lizards apart for a light snack.

Plenty of Laughing Doves around too. Pretty little things really:

The Belgian man rushed down one morning to tell me about a bird he'd seen on one of the lawns. His English was good but not perfect and he only knew the Flemish name for what he'd seen, which was a "Hop". All I had to go was a bird with a sticky up bit on its head and this word "Hop"...a HOOPOE!
We went back to where he'd seen it but it had already gone. I was a bit gutted as I've not actually seen a Hoopoe before but out of the hedge popped a consolation prize, by way of a smart, little Bluethroat:

I sat quietly and enjoyed watching it pick worms out, eventually feeding about 10ft from me. Well chuffed! It was also a first for Arsene, our new Belgian friend, so a nice little touch.

Back to the beach and not long after our lovely little Bluethroat, did an Osprey drop in for a spot of fishing. It was bold and not phased one iota, usually sitting on a boat while the passengers where sitting beneath it. I was over the moon to get such close views of this beautiful Bird of Prey:

I'm particularly fond of this shot I got, as the sun was going down and it dropped down for one last feed. What a bird:

As fate (not that I particularly believe in all that) would have it, I had to go back to our room to grab something I'd forgotten earlier. As I looked up, I saw this outline against the bright sky:

You won't need 3 guesses at that; a Hoopoe - or Hop! I had good enough views where it was but it dropped down in front of me to feed and I couldn't have asked for any more really:

As well as the birds in the photos, I also saw:

• African Rock Martins
• Swallows
• Feral Pigeons
• Rock Doves
• Kestrels (I also had 2 that looked a good shout for LESSER Kestrels, but can't be certain)
• A single, big Swift sp. also flew over but didn't hang around long enough for a better look. As someone suggested, it could also, possibly have been a Sooty Falcon? I'll never know.
• Another one that got away was a single, brief look at what looked like a female of a Shrike species. Red-backed/Woodchat kind of looking - again, I'll never know. 

We also had a Little Owl fly over our dinner table shortly after dusk one day. It caused a little confusion at first as it looked like fine in shape/size and its call fit the bill too, but it was just so pale, that it was making me doubt myself.
It was only when I saw this in the Collins guide that it made sense. A Middle East race of Little Owl, by the name of 'Lilith'

For the other wildlife, we saw plenty of Plain Tiger Butterflies:

I've not looked into this next one thoroughly but, I believe it's a Little Tiger Blue Butterfly:

Lastly for the butterflies, this looks like a Brimstone species but when you compare the wing shape to our UK Brimstones, it's not the same but I've not got around to pin-pointing it just yet:

and one of our UK Brimstones for comparison:

This ladybird landed on the beach bag one day. It has 7 spots but clearly not a 7-spot as we know them:

Many thanks to Helen Baker, Helen Roy and Dr Richard Comont for ID'ing it for me. It is Hippodamia variegata.

Other than a few hundred Ants, we had a few of these Lizards let themselves into our room. Quite cute though:

Sorry it's gone on a bit, hopefully not too boring! Thanks for reading...