A European 70th of Culture (In Bruges)
A Wild 70th in Norfolk
We overshot our approach the first time round. That’s because we were all caught transfixed at the crumbling farmhouse next door. The four of us, wide eyed, heads apprehensively turning in unison. Relief and excitement sprang as the actual house we were staying in (intact, roofed and rather impressive) came into view second time round!
Arriving in Norfolk for the first of two spectacular 70th birthdays this year, this famed county was very much a feature of my childhood with many a holiday and weekend break here. It’s been an age, maybe several ages since then and while time has eroded, obscured and clotted many of those memories, I still remember with great clarity seeing my first spoonbill on a formative family walk over Cley Marshes. I was tempted to describe the experience with the term “boyish” excitement, but the truth is that the thrill of experiencing wildlife in the natural world has only grown as I’ve aged and my reactions all the more ridiculous (just ask the family). And so the excitement and anticipation of returning to a county celebrated for its conservation work was almost too much to contain.
Visiting the Holkham Estate was incredible, the spoonbills I’d encountered as a rarity in my childhood seemed almost common, as did the three species of egret (little, great white and cattle) flying overhead, often disturbed by marsh harriers delicately dancing over the reserve. I could have sat in the dunes watching the little terns all day and I hope not too long passes before my next visit.
It was however the wildlife in the immediate grounds of where we were staying that captured my imagination the most. An army of brown hares weaving through poppy fields the buzzards, red kites and marsh harriers patrolling and scanning from above. The ruins of the farmhouse and stables next door presenting a natural treasure trove. There is often a lot expressed over the habitat and wildlife during the conservation battles over greenfield sites, but maybe not enough is shared on the host of wildlife that thrives in abandoned brownfield areas like this. A family of barn owls, little owls and kestrels all within the same ground, creating something like a triangle of danger for all lived and/or ventured nearby.
Waking up every morning to the sound of house martins investigating the bedroom windows though will always be the cement that holds all the wonderful memories of this wild 70th birthday in Norfolk…
Tree in the Wharfe
500km for a Wren, Seil Part 2: Wildlife Encounters
Oh What a Night, Seil Part 1: Northern Lights
A Festive Miracle on British Local Streets (Nacreous Clouds)
That line between awe-inspiring and crippling fear is never thinner than in the imagination of a child. I see it in our own kids, the scales of fear versus wonder strike a balance as they experience unfamiliar environments, people, and objects. And it reawakens those same emotions I experienced growing up.
As a child living in the suburban borders between Greater London and Surrey, there were many (seemingly) unearthly moments, typically after dark. Encounters that almost maleficently hover that boundary between amazement and trepidation.
Blood-curdling cries of foxes cavorting in the graveyard that adjoined our garden, sporadic flashes illuminating the night sky and piercing the bedroom curtains, caused by the sparks of local train lines, and deafening planes that sounded so close they might take the roof off the house.
As well as the gremlins and zombies, I also used to imagine wondrous marvels too and at Christmas time I would look out of the same bedroom window, almost expectantly, hoping to catch a glimpse of the “Bethlehem Star”. Naturally, I never saw the celestial apparition made familiar by all my parents’ greeting cards. However this Christmas, something just as wondrous and unbelievable appeared across British skies…
Rainbow Clouds / Nacreous Clouds in Yorkshire Skies
The appearance of Rainbow or Nacreous clouds in the UK is a rarity. And their unexpected emergence, for me at least, revived that same childlike sense of awe versus foreboding, as my limited brain tried to rationale these unfamiliar illusions.
Nacreous clouds are caused by light (usually when the sun is low or even below the horizon) catching the fine ice particles that typically hover high in the Stratosphere. They’re sometimes known as polar stratospheric clouds and can only form in temperatures below -78°C. The extreme temperatures make this phenomenon very unlikely outside of the polar regions and for us to see the event in the UK it requires the temporary displacement stratospheric polar vortex; or a Christmas miracle!
The Last Generation...
It was a couple of years before the stars aligned and I was able to join a licensed ringer and observe the ringing and recording of our local barn owl brood. It’s taken over a year before I could look over the pictures again; as these would be the last generation of a barn owl nest site that’s produced young for at least a decade.
I’ve been watching the barn owls in this territory for as long as I’ve been living here. A London suburb born and raised “towny”, I had to pinch myself when weeks after moving to the area I caught that haunting and unmistakable shape silently drift over the lane in front of me. In fact, as the days passed I began to doubt myself, maybe I imagined it? But the more I looked, the more I absorbed, the more I saw.
Ten years later and after thousands of images taken of the Sun Lane barn owls, I’m about to come eye to eye with the last generation this habitat will produce.
Less than six months on from this encounter and rumours of a bag blocking up this nest box would hit me like a stitch on a cross-country school run (probably the last time I got a real stitch). Fences up, foundations dug and show home close to completion within 12 months.
Progress is important, but so is remembering what went before and what’s been lost. A record of a magical, unique Summer’s morning…
Spring in the Land of Spec Savers
Springtime at the In-Law’s
As Summer slowly dissipates into autumn and a new generation of feathered friends prepare to either chase the summer south or fatten up ahead of the leaner months, I’ve been reflecting on the opposite side of our British calendar, when Winter relented to Spring.
Anyone familiar with the typical turnaround times of my personal photos will no doubt be dumbstruck at me sharing photos of anything occurring within 24-month window, but there you are!
Spring in the Land of Spec Savers
It’s the Easter holidays and we’re at my father-in-law’s where the North Yorkshire borders ambiguously blur into County Durham (not too far from Mr Cumming’s ‘lockdown’ opticians). Spring is back with a vengeance.
It’s the first family gathering since the festive season and while we have experienced an alarmingly warm winter, the green shoots and testosterone-fuelled birds are a most welcome development.
A cottage moved into by my in-laws after their own young had fledged, I’ve been visiting and watching the garden’s wild visitors and inhabitants for over ten years. Starlings looking for gaps in the roof tiles, solitary bees emerging from the lawn, courting collared doves flirting and flitting across telegraph lines. During our week’s stay this year, I made some time to turn my lens and celebrate the garden’s inspirational visitors…
