January

Currently ill at home which has given me the chance to update my blog.

These are some of the highlights of the month so far:

Dramatic winter scenes with lots of snow and ice

Lots of birds in the garden including Nuthatches, Great Sp Woodpecker and this Brambling

The birding highlights of the year have been: Hen Harriers (Cley and Strumpshaw), Waxwings in Norwich (on way to work yesterday), Merlin hunting in Norwich City (again on way to work), Taiga Bean Geese at Buckenham and a few Snow Buntings at Cley

This 'leucistic' Brent Goose was seen at Cley. A recent article in British Birds magazine described the various plumage colours of birds and talked about 'brown' plumage rather than leucistic. Something I had not heard about before. I think 'brown' Brent Goose is therefore the correct term for this plumage variation

And finally. While waiting for the weather to warm up and Moths to start appearing again it was nice to find this Herald 'roosting' for the winter in a jacket.... They are often found wintering in old barns etc. This could be the herald of a good season for rare and scarce Moths in the gaden in 2013 .. I hope so!