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Tuesday, 26 September 2017

Memory Walk at Blickling Estate

In December last year I lost a very important man in my life, my Uncle Ian.  He had Alzheimer's, it was awful seeing him deteriorate so badly. I am glad to say we were with him when he passed away so he wasn't alone.

After we lost him i decided I wanted to do something to help raise money to eradicate this money. We signed up for the Memory Walk in Norwich.

However my day off at work changed so we ended up not being able to actually attend the official one. Let's do our own we said!!

We chose to do a 5 mile walk around the Blickling Estate incorporating 50 species of wildlife!!

We set off on the 19th of August and actually did 5.88 miles and found 70 species!! Here they all are...

1: Honeybee
2: White Tailed Bumblebee
3: Wood Pigeon
4: Speckled Wood Butterfly
5: Crow
6: Common Darter Dragonfly
7: Migrant Hawker Dragonfly
8: Speckled Bush Cricket
9: Large Red Dragonfly
10: Meadow Brown Butterfly
11: Meadow Grasshopper
12: Red Admiral Butterfly
13: Common Wasp
14: Lacewing
15: Lesser Black Backed Gull
16: Large white - Butterfly
17: Swallows
18: House Martins
19: Robberfly - Dasypogininae
20: Gatekeeper Butterfly
21: Bee Wolf - Digger Wasp philanthus
22: Greater Black Backed Gull
23: Ruby Tailed Wasp
24: Ichneumon Wasp
25: Weevil Wolf
26: Flesh fly
27: Red Tailed Bumblebee
28: Brown Hawker Dragonfly
29: Southern Hawker Dragonfly
30: Marmalade Hoverfly
31: Common Buzzard
32: Garden Spider araneus diadematus
33: mallard
34: Egyptian geese
35: black tailed skimmer dragonfly
36: common carder bee
37: common blue damselfly
38: green aphids
39: anthocomus rufus
40: blue bug zicrona caerulea
41: dock leaf bug
42: broad bodied chaser dragonfly
43: great crested grebe plus 3 babies
44: 22 spot ladybird
45: reed warbler
46: kestrel
47: roe deer plus baby
48: robberfly - promachus
49: field vole
50: magpie
51: dorbeetles geotrupes stecorarius
52: violet ground beetle
53: longtailed tit
54: pheasants
55: rooks
56: grey squirrel
57: tawny owl - heard
58: frog
59: grass moth
60: comma butterfly
61: chaffinch
62: wren
63: bluebottle
64: dung fly
65: sparrowhawk and baby
66: jackdaw
67: common blue butterfly
68: blue tailed damselfly
69: moorhen
70: black headed gull

We had to rescue loads of Dor Beetles as they were getting squashed on the path, we also got to see them burrowing.  Amazing behaviours!

We got up close and personal with a hunting male kestrel and got to see the swallows feeding and play on the wing  it was almost like a ballet.

After all the money has come in we have actually raised so much more thab yhe initial £150 we were aiming for. We have got £420.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us through this journey!!

Coming soon... Memory Walk

Going to write up the blog for our Memory walk for Alzheimer's that we did. Coming soon

Tuesday, 9 September 2014

Date Night

Wow! What a perfect date!!
Its the first chance that the wife and I have managed to get out and spend some good quality time together and it was amazing!
We decided we would go to Rspb Minsmere in Suffolk as a lot of things have been sighted there.
This is what we saw;
goldcrest, coal tit, chavafinch, great tit, blue tit, grey squirrel, tree creeper, green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, adder briefly, shield bug, miriad of dragonflies, small white butterfly, speckled wood, small copper, red admiral, magpie, cettis warbler, redshank, spotted redshank, greenshank, water rail, konic ponies, swift, pomarine skua, long tailed skua, little egrets, dunlin, lapwing, cormorants, great black backed gull, black headed gull, and if I've forgotten any... Sorry :-/
Afterwards we headed into Norwich City for a bite to eat at La Tasca. It was delicious!!!
We also had tickets to go and see award winning author Deborah Harkness (@debharkness) at Waterstones. What a lovely person! I also won a small bottle of wine (from Matthew Clairmonts cellar) with a special label, which Deborah signed for me, along with my 1st Edition hb Book.
What a fab date!!

Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Catching up..

Well, here I am, going to post my updates on a few days out. Sorry its taken so long.

3rd April 2014 - RSPB Minsmere
Goldcrest
Red Deer
Adders 3 x female 4 x male
Common Lizard
Green Woodpecker
Black Cap
Blue Tit
Rabbits
Crows
Hobby
Marsh Harriers
Little Gulls
Black Headed Gull
Cettis Warbw
Fish
Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Magpie
Wren
Robin
Peacock Butterfly
Small White Butterfly
Grey Squirrel
Goldfinch
Pheasant
Partridge
Bullfinch
Siskin
Nuthatch
Long Tailed Tit
Mallards
Blackbird
Chiffchaff
Oyster Catchers
and a mouse/vole under leaf litter.
A very good spotting day!!

23rd April 2014 - Pensthorpe Nature Reserve

Oyster Catchers
Egyptian Geese
Sparrows
Swallows
Robin
Blackbird (leucistic)
Chaffinch
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Mallard
Pied Wagtail
Chiffchaff
Marsh Tit
Orange Tip Butterfly
Small White Butterfly
Slow worm
Painted Lady Butterfly
Dunnock
Greenfinch
Black Cap
Pheasant
Beefly
Wasp
Honey Bee
Buff Tailed Bee
Nuthatch
Bank Vole
Peacock Butterfly
Stork
Little Ringed Plover
White Throat
Red Breasted Pochard
Roe Deer
Merganser
Muntjac
Hares
Rabbits
Buzzard
Sedge Warbler
Cormorants
Lapwing
Greylag Geese
Black Headed Gulls
Goldeneye
Mute Swan
Willow Warbler
Small Tortoiseshell
Barnacle Geese
Goldfinch
Pintail
Ross' Geese
Avocets
Redshank
Common Tern
Coot
Moorhen - in a tree!!!
Shelduck
Shovelers
Mandarins
Ants
Reed Bunting
Teal
Flamingo

Wednesday, 14 May 2014

M.I.A

Hi guys
sorry I haven't posted for a while, I shall catch up, have got a few days notes...
Watch this space!

Tuesday, 29 April 2014

oops...

hi peeps,

sorry i haven't been on here much, i have got lots to catch up on which i will do later this week.

we had a bit of a crisis on the home front, a missing teen, all ok now.

A sneak peek for you...
adders... Sedge warblers... Black caps...

Tuesday, 11 March 2014

Quick spots!

Am sat here outside waiting for work and hadn't realised what a bird metropolis it is...
robin
wren
dunnock
long tailed tit
blackbird
thrush
blue tit
collared doves...
all singing to attract the attention of a mate!
also, saw a barn owl on the way.
What a way to start the day x