It was one of those winter days where soft light suffuses the air. The golden light from a sun still low in the sky despite the late hour of the morning, softened even further by hazy white clouds. Standing at the top of of a dune, spiky green grass poking up through the sand, I … More Christmas Seals
We are living in challenging and unusual times, and in the space of a few weeks life has changed in so many ways. For over 6 weeks we have been in lockdown, only leaving the house for essential reasons, daily exercise or food shopping. We are now homeschooling a 4 and half year old, looking … More Lockdown
Under a big bright blue Norfolk sky. A strong breeze blows across the marshes and lagoons. Grass and reed heads bend and flex, small waves ripple across the water. A flock of Brent Geese passes overhead, with a gargling call, moving from marsh to pool. Beautiful, elegant, smoky black geese with white crescents on their … More Birding with babes
It was the quiet between two storms that were battering the UK. Storm Ciara had passed and Storm Dennis was imminent. The wind was still strong, pushing and pulling trees, bending the tall grass almost horizontal and creating waves with small white crests on the pools at Cranwich. The sky overhead was a leaden grey, … More How did the toads cross the road?
It has been a while since I last posted, what with life, school, Christmas, New Year and the arrival of my little boy Toby. 19 days early but healthy and happy. Today, 3 weeks on, and I have returned to my routine and daily river walk. The tail end of Storm Ciara was still making … More River Walk
A calm Norfolk evening. The sky changing through shades of blue, darkening as the sun disappears below the farming landscape. A bank of cloud is building, and the breeze has a nip to it reminding us that it is not quite summer yet. Just off a main road and near a cluster of barns are … More Have I Got Newts For You
We had returned to the house from a bygone era where only a few weeks ago we had been delighted with a family of barn owls. On that day, once we had finished processing and ringing the owls, we had wandered over to check a number of other bird boxes erected in the surrounding trees. … More A kestrel surprise
To say that it has been a wet Easter weekend is probably an understatement. Blocks of persistent heavy rain have swept across the county on each day, with the sky never varying from a sombre grey. Dodging between these periods of rain we did however manage to squeeze in some bird ringing sessions over the … More Easter Ringing
It’s not every day your colleague comes into work and says he has seen a humpback whale from his sofa! And living in Norfolk this absolutely never happens as this whale has never been recorded here, that is until now! Humpback whales are widely distributed throughout the world’s oceans, undertaking long distance migrations between winter … More A Wild Whale Chase
The gravelly sandy path crunches beneath my feet as I follow behind the others. They are in a hurry, rushing to reach a particular point along the path. I am happy to dawdle, taking in the beauty of the evening. A huge sky stretches above, ahead it hits a wall of dark purplish-grey cloud, menacing … More Rainstorm Roller
