November 2024 Quick Roundup

 November 2024

Very Quick Round up

 

 

Heading out for a walk

 

 

Very dull grey, grey and relatively-mild, to start the month.

Little Egret

Starlings and a crow

Faraway Cranes feeding in the gloom

Now seemingly-commonplace, bright Egrets (Great white, Little and Cattle) drew the eye on dull days.

Little Egret

I popped in to make some close sketches of the cranes at Pensthorpe, and enjoyed watching the social behaviour of the Flamingo flock as I did so.

The most delicate legs

 

Rambles to the beach at sunset and dusk were greatly rewarding.

Gulls flying in to roost

 

Pink-footed Geese seemed low in numbers at the coast; although one night, I heard them flying over.

Brent Geese were also gladly observed.

 

 

Brent Geese

 

 

 

 

Heading out for a walk

Pears ripened, and so I made my traditional pear crumble. No Catillac pears were available, and my Doyenne du Comice tree is still immature, but I fortunately found a Comice glut which I fully exploited.

A thin layer of frost greeted me on the 18th. A very cold clear night on the 19th gave me a sharp view of Orion rising in the south east, wonderful to see again, and the Plough bright in the north. 

The 20th brought snow, the first it seemed for a long time -- I can't remember any snow from 2023.

 

Snow falling

Norwich

Norwich

Turning to winter

October 2024: Quick Roundup

 October 2024: Quick Roundup

A very quick roundup this month, perhaps more pics to be added later.

 

Hoopoe

 

 

Good news worth celebrating started the month.

 

Norwich

 

Ivy bee

I was delighted to connect with what was a very confiding, very sweet Hoopoe during its sojourn at North Walsham. Discounting a disappointing mission to West Runton in 2022 (which granted merely a view of a retreating Hoopoe's rump), I had not seen a Hoopoe since an encounter with one at Cromer in 1998, when I was in the company of my grandfather.

 

Hoopoe

 

 

Hoopoe

 

 

Making the change. Harlequin Ladybird pupae

Popular snack, Fly Agaric

Hybrid tea rose, garden

Early morning mist and sunlight, garden

Popping out a sweet chestnut from the spiky shell

Cyclamen

 

3 cygnets remaining of the former 5

 

Ready or not, open up. Sweet Chestnuts.

Parasols

Pumpkin patch

Banana buddy: ripening up the last tomatoes

Collecting sunflower seeds

September 2024 Quick Roundup

September Quick Roundup

 

 

 

 

 

Mallards' retreat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cromer

 

 

 

 

View from the Theatre Royal, Norwich

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rainbow behind the birch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coffee and almond croissant

 

 

 

 

 

St James's park

 

 

 

 

Prom 59

 

 

"Not only is it the end of summer, but the end of the Proms!" -- Overheard at the Albert Memorial.

 

 

 

 

 

Sloes

Comma on ivy flower

Squab/'Pidglet' on the rotary drier

Large/Cabbage White, male

The tomatoes continued cropping, but by the end of the month vigilance for blight was required.

 

 

Old Cherry tree

 

 

Cygnets

Moon rise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dead Swallow-tailed moth upon the path

 

 

 

 

Pinkfeet small skein

High flying and calling Pink-footed Geese 'Pinkfeet' returned, their evocative calls always a joy upon its first hearing of the season.

In conversation: Cattle Egret and cattle

Pinkfeet descending

X marks the spot

Four cygnets remained of the five seen earlier on this lake in July.

Countless leaves of matter, light and shade.

Overnight it seemed, the trees showed a warm blush to their tops. Not just Horse Chestnuts and some early beeches changed their leaves.

 

 

 

 

Pinkfeet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spoonbill preening

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stubble to stretch your hooves upon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunlit Spoonbill

 

 

 

 

Greylag Geese to the west

 

 

 

 

 

Pink-footed Geese to the east

 

 

 

 

Setting sun, Starlings

 

A small Starling mumurmation formed one evening, ahead of the larger gatherings soon to take place later in autumn and winter.

 

 

 

 

 

Cranes family trio

 

 

 

 

Pink-footed Geese

 

 

 

 

 

Pink-footed Geese at twilight
 

 

 

Tawny owls called at night, a sure sound of autumn. Bats still flew about at dusk.

One night, a frog crossed in front of the car; the headlights illuminated what appeared to be gargantuan leaps.
 

 

 

 

Sloe gin

 

Following the fresh harvests of summer, preservation or transformation processes followed in with the autumn. It's a poor year for sloes after the wet spring, but I found enough for the traditional gin, as well as leaving plenty behind for nature (and perhaps another forager). A portion of a glut of Cox apples was used for apple liqueur.

 

 

View across the marshes

Rain over the broad

Cygnets

Rain over the river Yare

Red Admiral on bramble

Fresh, newly-emerged Red Admirals attended brambles and ivy, the latter just beginning to open its flowers. 

September ended on a very wet and dull note.