Of birds and butterflies

So Norfolk is quite good isn't it?


We saw loads of stuff, including some life firsts (bearded tits, long tailed duck, bittern, various warblers, and a certain amazing bird of prey) , but just as impressive as the fact that Norfolk has so many birds that you practically trip over them, we also racked up an impressive mammal and butterfly list. So in light of the fact we found a veritable shitload of biodiversity, here are some very edited highlights...

orange tip butterfly

speckled wood butterfly

a common cockchafer, which seemed to not be very good at staying the right way up

early purple orchid? (maiden is welcome to correct me on this )

A muntjac that lept in front of our car

An obvious highlight of our Norfolk trip was a boat trip to Blakeney Point, and saw plenty of common seals, a grey seal, all four tern species, piles of oystercatcher and more suprisingly brent geese, and a sing female long tailed duck flying over our heads and landing on the water as we landed on the shore.

Common seal trying not to float away apparently

four sandwich terns (copyright Parus for this one)

One of the most entertaining birds we saw wasn't massively rare, but was absolutely stunning. I think Parus has a video of this sedge warbler somewhere, I'm hoping that he will be putting it up for us to share :)

sedge warblers are awesome :)

Other highlights included barn owls and tawny owls keeping us up in the night, loads of cuckoos, bearded tits pinging over the reeds at Titchwell, a little ringed plover at Cley, and a bittern flying out of the reeds at Lakenheath on the way home.

This is the best barn owl picture I have out of about 20. Oh well :)

ahh, East Anglia how I love thee...

I am sure we will be visiting again in the not too distant future, and camping was good fun. As long as we don't have a screaming 18 month old in the tent next time I'm definitely up for a revisit.

One day I might tell you about how I lost my mobile phone somewhere in a forest for a day, and the adventure we went on to recover it...

I will do better than this...

I spent this weekend (well it was actually 5 days) camping in Norfolk and had a brilliant time with some other bloggers I happen to know.


I was going to write an awesome blog post about everything we saw and everywhere we visited, but after The Great Snail Hunt this evening to try and reclaim my tank from the almighty snail army, I don't really have enough time to do it justice. So watch this space...

lazy bloggans

I haven't got round to writing a post about my trip to Abberton on the weekend yet, so you will have to contain your excitement on that one for now.

I managed to find a bit of time this weekend to get a few more plants for my aquarium, and a couple of new fish. First off was another panda corydora, to keep my other one company when zipping up and down the side of the tank. Secondly I wanted something a bit more interesting.

This is my dutch ram, and he's very pretty. He was a bit shy to start with, and is very good at swimming through the plants unlike my rubbish minnows which tend to just see them as obstacles to go round. He's very colourful and is getting more confident, after working out the catfish aren't a threat. I contemplated getting angelfish, but my tank isn't quite hot enough for them (and i can't turn it up any higher without boiling the minnows). I think this guy is a bit different though, and seems to get on with all my other fish.

In other fish tanky news, there are still no platy babies, so maybe the white platy just has eating issues and I shouldn't draw attention to her sudden weight gain. Oh, and what started out as two tiny stowaway snails on a plant about a month ago has turned into snail city inside my filter, and half the pebbles are now snails. Shit. Any suggestions other than a bucket of salt?

i do work in a zoo, honestly

First, a little update on my personal living collection: We are still awaiting the arrival of my free fish...

The Cat is fully supportie of my foray into the world of aquariums by the way :)

In other news, Regent's Park has been looking so awesome lately that I thought I should probably share it with you (and because I know at least one person quite likes botany).

Hoorah, tulips everywhere :)

Meanwhile, in the zoo there have been loads of animals looking quite pleased with all the sunshine and leaves on trees etc that we've been getting. Coming into baby season, so it's really quite cute :)


After reading about some Choughs in Cornwall, I thought it might be an idea to point out that we have some nesting in Regent's Park too. Sort of.


The enclosure that these guys are in is REALLY difficult to take photos of, because the mesh is angled perfectly to catch your focus every time (not included in this blog post: about 56 similar photos of chough completely hidden by dirty great big grey lines).
For this reason you do not have any photos of baikal teal, night herons, wood ducks, radjah shelduck... But I did get a nice photo of a sparrow pretending to be a reed warbler.

update

One of my platys is very ROUUUUNNND... keeping my eye out for teeny fishes.

All other fish present and correct, with the addition of some awesome rocks to make some hideaways for the catfish. Getting there slowly :)

To the coast for easter

Seeing as how I have to stay up late in the hope that TFL will update their system so I can sort out my lost oyster card before going into work tommorrow, thought I might as well update my blog :)


I managed to get away for a couple of days to Swanage with the parents this weekend, and was very lucky with the weather. Not great in terms of bird rarities, but some nice photo oppurtunities everywhere so thought I'd take advantage of the sunshine.

My parents don't really understand this whole nature and birding thing that I seem to like, so I thought going on a guided walk at Durlston Country Park (just down the road from our flat) might help to explain it, seeing as this is the perfect time of year for birds singing, trees in blossom etc etc etc... It was a shame then that said guided walk was run by a local with a penchant for folksong and different species of sedge and grass (there are many in case you were wondering) rather than pointing out the more "sexy" species they have on their site. I was hoping to get some tips particularly on bird song, but no such luck. Even so, we saw some pretty interesting stuff...

Green veined orchid. Not pictured: the green veins. You will have to trust me on this :)

Spider orchid

There weren't really any birds pointed out that I hadn't already noticed and told my parents about already (skylark, blue tit, chiff chaff...) but there were heaploads of stonechats perched on fences/gorse bushes looking particularly stunning, and hopping around with nest material.

Stonechat with a goldfinch (please note actual real life lighthouse and everything)

We spent sunday on the beach for a bit being annoyed by some posho's on jetskis, before going on our climb up to the top of old harry, you know just because.

old harry rocks from ballard down.

It's nice once you're there, but can't say I've never been much of a fan of hills. I blame growing up in Essex :)

Umm, can't think of a link but here is some gorse, it's very pretty no?


PS Anybody know what this is?!



This bird was calling repeatedly for hours on end, always staying just out of your line of view and hiding as soon as you got out your camera or binoculars. Bastard.

Anyway, TFL are still being annoying so I am giving up and going to bed. Hope this post wasn't too plant-heavy for you bird lovers :)

Callichthyids everywhere

Phase four of project fish tank went underway today, with the addition of some bottom dwellers... I'm sure there is a hilarious joke here. Anyway, these have come in the shape of two Corydoras panda and one Corydoras schwartzii...

This one is awesome, and so pretty :) Doesn't take any shit from the platys either, who seem to think they are allowed the catfish pellets, how rude.

Much like their mammalian counterparts, this panda likes to hide amongst vegetation and has no thumbs.

I DON'T THINK THIS IS A PANDA. I feel cheated... As long as it doesn't grow to 3 feet long and eat me in my sleep I might let him stay. Still though, I'm a bit annoyed with that one because I was looking forwards to a gaggle of pandas, or whatever the plural of pandas is (if there isn't one I'd like to propose "a failure of pandas"). Quite photogenic though.

Can you tell I have nothing to do with my Saturday evening? Rubbish...