Monday, February 26, 2007

Big skies and wide empty beaches

Do you ever wonder how birds (and many others) make long migrations, based on instinct alone? How they know where to go is a question I can't even begin to answer but how they know when they've got there - I sort of think I know how they feel, maybe. I'll explain - my dad is from Norfolk, but I was born in Bedford and never lived in Norfolk. However, in the last 10 years, I've often holidayed in Norfolk and I can't put my finger on it but it always feels like home, perhaps it's genetic, perhaps the 'Norf-folk' are just good at making you feel at home, perhaps I'm just a wishful townie. If nothing else, I reckon I understand the chiffchaffs that turn up in the poplars at the back of the house, each April, just that little bit better.

Anyway, we spent last week in Wells-next-the-sea. What a lovely week, we got soaked in a boat out to see the seals and all got nasty coughs and colds but big skies and wide empty beaches were just so good for the soul that the mental repair was worth it at almost any price. Daily crab-lining and long afternoon naps helped too.

The top sketch is of the channel that runs from the quay, out to Wells Bar, and the black dot near the shore is a common seal's head. The bottom sketch is the birds we saw on our trip to Blakeney Point and, as it turned out, were our almost constant companions wherever we were all week.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Twitching


pacific diver
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.
Since the first of my kids were born in 2003, I really haven't done much twitching (chasing after rare birds). Even before that, unless you find the rare bird yourself, I didn't really consider twitching to be 'real' birdwatching, it's like comparing test cricket and one-day cricket. However, just like in that comparison, the inferior form is still great fun and very exciting.

So Friday found me watching the pacific diver that was found on Farnham Gravel Pits, not too far from Harrogate. This very bird adds a new species to the list of birds to be found in the UK and the Western Palearctic but this very bird is probably not going to be the first pacific diver found in the UK or Western Palearctic. A riddle? No, because a pacific diver was thought to have been seen off of one of the Hebrides some months ago, presumed wrongly identified as it was so unlikely that one could end up so very far from home. The Farnham bird (and another found in Pembrokeshire at the weekend) show that the Hebrides bird really could have been a pacific diver, so it, not the Farnham bird, becomes the first for the UK and the Western Palearctic (committee decisions pending). There, simple eh?

By the way, the dark chinstrap is the key to identification, apparently, and the sunny weather was lovely.