Poppyland Nature: February 2013

Thursday 28 February 2013

A pretty uneventful month

In stark contrast to January, February passed off extremely quietly on the patch without a single new species for the year being seen.

The only noteworthy birds seen were the Long-tailed Duck which continues to winter amongst the dwindling flock of Common Scoter offshore, a couple of Pinkfeet were noted amongst the Greylags at Felbrigg which were the first ones ever I've seen there on the deck, but the biggest surprise was a Kittiwake which was briefly roosting on the flooded meadow there before heading off north-west which was my first record for the site.

Also the Bittern continued its extended stay at Felbrigg, and I eventually got a photo of it whilst out in the open which I was rather pleased with!

The other interesting find at Felbrigg during the month was some 'Space slime' which was present amongst the grass on the eastern side of the lake. The linked story below, which was published following the discovery of some similar slime in Somerset, tries to link it to the russian meteor strike, but as I found mine a fortnight before the meteor struck that is rather wishful thinking to say the least, and whatever it is, in reality its undoubtedly of natural origin.

http://news.sky.com/story/1053694/green-space-slime-baffles-nature-experts

My Patch

My patch covers roughly a 10 mile stretch along the north Norfolk coast, from Beeston in the west along to Trimingham in the east, plus a small area inland including Felbrigg Park, Roughton and Northrepps, although the vast majority of my time is spent concentrating on the area from West Runton along to Overstrand.
The main habitats of the area are the coastal bushes and scrub which attract migrants in spring and autumn, a few clifftop woods and fields, the park & lake at Felbrigg, rocky and sandy beaches, and the cliffs and sea which both present great potential for observing coastal passage.

My Photos

The bird photos on here are all digiscoped using a Panasonic Lumix TZ3 compact camera and a Kowa TSN 824 scope. I use a 50x wide angle lens on the scope with no zoom on the camera which seems to go against all the 'expert' advice you read on forums etc, but it works for me and I'm pleased with the results. Additionally I also just hold the camera in place by hand rather than use any adapters to fix it in place, and apart from altering exposure levels, I just go with the automatic levels on the camera so it is really just a case of point and shoot.
The Butterfly and Dragonfly pictures are taken with the camera alone using its macro setting and again mostly using no zoom, which naturally requires a lot of careful stalking of the subject to get close enough to get the quality of picture that I desire.

Poppyland

In 1883 the London based playwright, poet and theatre critic, Clement Scott, visited Cromer as a travel writer for the Daily Telegraph taking advantage of the newly opened railway to the town. On arrival he walked east along the coast to seek accommodation and fell in love with the idyllic villages of Overstrand and Sidestrand and the solitude they presented away from the nearby town. With fields of poppies carpeting the clifftops, he christened the area 'Poppyland' and subsequently wrote a series of articles about his visit in the Telegraph. These were later published as the Poppyland Papers, and his writings made the area probably the best known holiday destination in the country with many victorians visiting the area to enjoy its delights, and the most wealthy of them having houses built in the area, with Overstrand soon becoming known as 'The village of millionaires'. The term Poppyland has stuck ever since, and although it originally just referred to the Overstrand and Sidestrand area, the extension of the railway line to Sheringham and Mundesley, known as the Poppy Line, led to that whole stretch of coast becoming known as Poppyland.

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Thursday 28 February 2013

A pretty uneventful month

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Felbrigg Bittern