All over the place

A busy schedule, a disorganised hard-drive and a terrible memory have caused me to neglect to post details of our travels over the Easter break. So to make amends, here is the first of two posts with some photographic highlights of an unseasonably warm week in Cornwall and Devon:

Chough near the Lizard

Chough, the bird which appears on the Cornish coat of arms, returned to breed on the Lizard several years ago after a long absence. The Cornish population continues to increase steadily

Fulmar also breed on the cliffs at the Lizard

A Common Sandpiper was on an ornamental lakes at our cottage on the Bonython Estate

An early morning visit to Church Cove on the Lizard produced a few migrants, including this Willow Warbler

A vigorous songster

A common enough bird, the Rook, but still deserving of the occasional appearance on this blog

Hard to believe that when I started this blog, the one on the right was much shorter than the one in the middle, and the one on the left was still in a pushchair!

Green-winged Orchid near Mullion Cove

More from the Far East

A couple more posts should wrap up the remaining highlights from our recent East Anglian trip, and, what with it being so flat and wet an all, they are mostly in the waterfowl department. Geese are of course a Norfolk speciality but Suffolk has a few too - the highlight being the wintering flock of Russian White-fronted Geese (race albifrons) at North Warren. These birds sometimes hold a rarer Bean Goose though not this year it would seem. The White-fronts were accompanied by a flock of Barnacle Geese which are considered 'feral' - but then so are the Canadas and Greylags so I'm ticking them for the photo year-list!

White-fronted Goose, North Warren RSPB, Suffolk (#110)

Adult White-fronted Goose in flight

Juveniles lack the black belly markings

Juvenile White-fronted Goose

Part of the wintering flock

Barnacle Geese, North Warren RSPB, Suffolk (#111)

Barnacle Geese in flight

The Konik ponies which do such a good job of habitat management on Suffolk's RSPB reserves 

Marsh Harrier causing mayhem among the White-fronts

Pintail were very close in to the excellent new raised platforms which give improved views over North Warren 

This the female Pintail

A beautiful duck

Skylarks were in song at North Warren

Rook (#112) at Covehithe - we walked down to the beach through vast and whiffy pigfields but it was too windy and cold to look for Shorelarks so we retired to the excellent Southwold pier for refreshments

The faded glory of the church at Covehithe...

...this area faces rapid coastal erosion and a road I remember walking down to look for a White-tailed Eagle many winters ago is now closed as the tarmac is getting munched into the crumbling cliffs

Responsibilities

I try very hard in my interactions with friends and family, and through the pages of this blog, to cultivate a reputation for fecklessness and unreliability. This is in the hope that none of them will ask me to mind their kids, look after their pets or accept other weighty responsibilities, at least at times when I might otherwise be out photographing birds.

Despite this, over the course of the last year I have somehow become a Godfather to three previously heathen, now good Christian, children. This has required me to swear, on a variety of holy books which don't exactly get well-thumbed in the Moore household, to drop everything for these young souls at times of trouble, without any get out clauses such as 'unless a first for Britain turns up'. Fortunately, this hasn't been put to the test yet, and let's hope it isn't any time soon.


The latest unfortunate waif to be entrusted to my unique brand of moral guidance, the lovely Tilly (6 months), lives in Cornwall and was welcomed into the Church amidst the biblical rainfall of last weekend. She at least has a fighting chance of regular autumn visits from her Godfather as I can crash at her Mum and Dad's when a rare bird turns up, as I did with the American Bittern in 2010. Assuming she hasn't already moved into my spare room of course, the selfish madam. The other two live in London, so don't stand much of a chance unless the Wetland Centre in Barnes turns up a goodie, which it hasn't for a while. Fortunately, God moves in mysterious ways these days, so I can send them Amazon gift vouchers in lieu of spiritual leadership.



A bird: will I ever see one again?



Anyway, all this vaguely theistic drivel is a long-winded way of saying that, what with parenting, godparenting, studying and working, I haven't got much birding done lately. During the long winter evenings, however, I have managed to update my website which had been badly neglected in favour of the more trivial responsibilities listed. Check it out, if only so I'm not the only one reminiscing about the times when I used to go outside and take pictures of stuff.

P.S. In the unlikely event that any of the mums and dads of any of my gorgeous God-children are reading this, I'm obviously joking about all of the above. Except the 'first for Britain' bit: Leviticus, Chapter 10, Verse xii clearly states 'thou shalt not dip on Black-throated Blue Warbler'. And who am I to argue with the good book?