February 2023 Quick Roundup

 Generally bright days, some beginning with mist and light frost. Cold, blowy, gusty whirling wind at times, a breath of true winter in a mild month.

Moving swiftly towards spring with days drawing out; awakening to lightness and Collared Doves cooing, by day-end drawing the curtains after 17:30. It's later than it feels: there's noticeably more light.

 

Looking for when winter birds migrate away and anticipating those to follow in spring. What's singing, what's growing? Looking for signs of spring, the changing season.

 

Checking camera settings as the winter sun sets. 

 

 

Short-eared Owl hunting over the marshes. Barn Owls also seen regularly on winter afternoons this month.

 

Oystercatchers and many others busily feeding on tidal pools.

 

Brent Geese, Shoveller, Teal, Lapwing and Golden Plover in large numbers early in the month. 

 

 

 

A Water Rail busy feeding in a Titchwell reedy ditch, much easier to spot between bare branches.

 

 

 

Curlews calling and flying from their coastal roost on a dull early-February dawn. Their calls a true sound of winter, childhood, marshes, cold winds, sheeting water.

 

 

 

Robins singing heartily and regularly.

 

Beautiful song of Mistle and Song Thrushes heard infrequently, often at a distance.

 Two Redwings scramble out from ivy; their warning calls, and those of Fieldfares, heard at times but the winter thrushes little seen.

 

 

 

Picnicking in the car, sandwiches and a flask of mint-syrup coffee. Robin waiting, where's my crust?

Walking in search of wildflowers.

 

Snowdrops, Winter Aconite at the start of the month with Narcissi and Daffodils flowering by the end of it. Many green shoots, buds and blossom observed. Bumblebee queens buzz low over grasses in search of pollen, hoverflies observed and a wasp nest--a finely-crafted lampshade--discovered in the shed.

 

 

Blickling lake: blue, brown and breezy. Hazel catkins turning from yellow to gold, Alder from red to yellow. Later in the month, five Cormorants hunting on the lake, four dive at once, another holds open their wings. Black-headed Gulls crowd a dead tree. Not seen a Kingfisher for a while.

 

Crunch, scrunch, crack! Ponies grazing in reedbeds.

 

 

St Valentine's. Country lore: the day birds choose their partners. Observed pairs of Mute Swans, Magpies, Long-tailed Tits, Mallards, Jackdaws (just missed the shot). Great-crested Grebes reported courting. Blue Tit peeps into nest-box hole. Not used this nest box for three years; will they choose it this year?

 

Lovely stars in evening, air mild. Full moon rising in east: viewing through telescope, I see a slender black spear pierce the lower left corner--edge of a branch?--reaching across, a javelin, a coal smoke trail soon apparent: an airplane, very small and black, cuts across the corner of the moon, soon gone.

 

 

Clarity of clear night-time away from yellow-lit indoors. Crispy grass in darkness. Sparkling Sirius, stretching Orion, orange Mars and Aldebaran in south, the Plough a hook in the north. Hunting the green comet E3 ZTF: seen through binoculars, but elusive through scope and camera. Comet speeds further south and down--further away--through the middle of the month

Waterfowl and waders busy dabbling, probing and feeding on wetlands. 

Long-billed Dowitcher (1st winter) still spending winter at Norfolk.

 

 

 Lapwings whistle but not yet seen displaying, although it's been reported. Still large flocks but not as conspicuous as in January.

 

Little Plover by the shoreline. Snow buntings on shingle and dunes, but remaining elusive.

 

 

 

Clear skies, cold winds and far views from the shingle at Cley.

Warmth of sun on legs when turn to walk inland.
 

 

Black-headed Gulls, some already sporting their summer black caps.

Some misty, damp mornings but many days clear and bright.

 

Glancing sun illuminates many green glimpses of new things growing.

 

Dog's Mercury spotted amongst the leaf litter. Many other green shoots soon to flower.
 

 

 Marsh Tit feeds and sings in woodland wayside.

 

 Light stretches to 17:30. Many pink-tinged sunsets. Jupiter and Venus close points in west.

 

 19th February: Opening the door to let the cat out, I stand to listen: Blackbirds are singing. Blue dusk 17:50. They seem far off, sometimes titter and scold, but are lovely to hear again. The next day, growing light at 6:30 but clouded, all grey-blue. Blackbirds singing now at dawn, far off but encircling, warbles and whistles. Doesn't last long, soon a solitary Robin singing.

 

20th February: first butterfly seen, a bright yellow Brimstone flying down the road in front of my car.

Reports of Beswick's Swans flying over the county and east over the sea, returning to Siberia.

Pink-footed Geese seen flying high and at a far distance, last seen and heard 20th February. Reports of them too flying out to sea, perhaps they're returning North. Greylag Geese have been much more conspicuous on marshes.

  

Mute Swan pairs seen regularly in marsh and field.

 

 

 

Seals, gulls and sea-defences on the east Norfolk coast. Breezy but mild, with many Skylarks singing just beyond the dunes. 

 

 

Bee clinging to Pussy Willow catkin in a breeze.

 

 

Marsh Harrier male. Buzzards, Red Kites, Kestrels and Barn Owls seen often. White-tailed Eagle juvenile returns to Norfolk, reported in the east.

 

 

Bright, but breezy. A cold wind blowing over the river Yare.

Open views, open water.

 

 

 Blossom buds soon opening.

 

 

 

 

Blossom, catkins, old leaves and new green growth. Pheasant crows on the path, Great and Marsh tits sing, Blackbird clucks and a Buzzard mews. Cold breezes, intermittent sunshine.

 

 

 

 

 Gusts blowing Lapwings crests. Wigeon still nibbling on marshes, Brown Hares seen often.

Starling flock singing in garden at end of month.

Potting up plants, planting Bluebell plugs, trimming the Wisteria and spotting aphids already attached to the newly-unfurling rose leaves. By the end of the month, many of the crocuses are sprawled flat. Hawthorn green buds on hedges, Elder leaves growing, Wild Cherry too. Buds on Oak and Blackthorn still tight and brown.

 

 Sun and winter showers to see off the month, with low rain clouds turning the landscape grey and silver. Redwings fly over pasture, calling.

 

My sounds of February: 

Curlew

Song Thrush

Robin

Skylark

 

Birds heard singing

Blue tit, Great tit, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Dunnock, Skylark, Marsh Tit, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Blackbird, Robin, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Wren, Sparrow, Starling.

Tawny Owl, Reed Bunting, Goldcrest, Nuthatch, Cetti's Warbler, Meadow Pipit calling.

Pheasants crowing.