An Extraordinary Opening Day

Today saw the start of the 2025-6 Ashes series between the Australia and England men’s teams, with England launching a bid to achieve something last pulled off by Ray Illingworth’s 1970-1 side – come to Australia without The Ashes and leave with them (Three subsequent England skippers, Brearley in 1978-9, Gatting in 1986-7 and Strauss in 2010-11 have retained as opposed to regaining The Ashes in Australia). Perth was the venue, a city in which England have only once won a test match, during Brearley’s 1978-9 triumph.

PRELIMINARIES

Both sides had in different ways caused eyebrows to rise in the run up to the series. Australia had lost skipper Pat Cummins and, right on the eve of the contest, fellow pacer Josh Hazlewood to injuries, and their top order was in a state of flux as well, with Jake Weatherald, at 31 years of age no youngster, earmarked for a debut in this match. The vacancy opened up by Hazlewood’s injury was filled by Brendan Doggett, also 31 years old and making his debut at the highest level.

England meanwhile were much more settled, but their preparation had raised eyebrows. They had played one preliminary fixture, at Lilac Hill, a venue with no similarities to Perth, and rather than a genuine match it was England v England Lions, with everyone getting involved rather than two sides of 11. Correctly in view of everyone actually being fit and the nature of the Perth pitch they had omitted Shoaib Bashir, going with a full battery of pacers – in batting order from 8-11 Atkinson, Carse, Archer and Wood, with Ben Stokes also fit to bowl. Australia, short of experience with the injuries to Cummins and Hazlewood, had opted to pick Nathan Lyon, the veteran off spinner who has just celebrated his 38th birthday, in their line up. Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bat, probably aware that the side batting first has won every test match at this new venue.

THE ENGLAND INNINGS

Four years ago Mitchell Starc struck with the first ball of the series, removing Rory Burns. This time it took him until the last ball of the first over to make the breakthrough. The dismissal was the sort of dismissal that an AI bot asked to produce a typical Crawley dismissal would have come up with – a loose drive resulting in an edge and first slip being in business.

England scored at a rapid rate in spite of an outfield that was both large and slow (there were a number of threes and one all run four for shots where the ball stopped just inside the ropes). However they also lost wickets at a rapid rate. Harry Brook scored an impressive 50 but got himself out immediately after reaching that mark, while Ollie Pope and Jamie Smith both looked good but failed to go big, scoring 46 and 33 respectively. This was not a surface on which lower order batters were likely to prosper, and from 160-5 England fell away to 172 all out, Starc 7-58, a new test best. However, they still had the opportunity to bowl on a spicy deck, and had a bowling unit that looked both stronger and better suited to such a surface than Australia’s makeshift one…

THE AUSTRALIAN REPLY

Australia also lost their first wicket before scoring a run, Khawaja having left the field during the England innings and rendered himself unable to open the innings, a mishap that meant the debutant Weatherald would be on strike for the first ball of the reply, with Labuschagne at the other end. Archer’s first ball beat him, and the second pinned him LBW. Khawaja was still not allowed to bat at this point, and stand-in skipper Steve Smith (yes, he of sandpaper infamy) joined Labuschagne for a second wicket stand that soaked up a bit of time but not produce many runs. The second ball of the 15th over, bowled by Archer (by then into a second spell) rattled Labuschagne’s stumps to make it 28-2. Nine balls and two runs later Steve Smith edged one from Brydon Carse to be caught by Brook for 17 and that was 30-3. One run later Carse had Khawaja caught behind to make it 31-4. Travis Head and Cameron Green seemed to be seeing Australia through in a good partnership when Stokes introduced himself to the attack. With the score on 76 Travis Head fell to a catch by Carse off Stokes to end a 45 run partnership. Seven runs later Green edged through to Smith, leaving Carey and a precarious tail (Starc at least one place too high eight, Lyon two places too high at nine and genuine rabbits Doggett and Boland) to attempt to get Australia somewhere near parity. Starc and Carey fared well together for a time, until Starc, on 12, gave Carse another catch off Stokes. Three runs later came the dismissal that made it unequivocally England’s day, Carey becoming the third Aussie to be caught by Carse off Stokes, for 26 in his case. That was 121-8, and two balls later Boland, sent in ahead of Doggett for no apparent reason, was caught by Brook to make it 121-9 and give Stokes his fifth wicket of the innings. There was time for just one more over in this eventful day, and Australia survived it, adding two runs to their score as well. The day thus saw 295 runs scored and 19 wickets fall, and that with only 71.5 overs being bowled (32.5 for the England innings, 39 in the Australian innings). That 19 wickets was the most on an opening day of an Ashes match since Old Trafford in 1909 when both sides had completed their first innings by the end of day one. 51,531 people, a record crowd for a match in Perth, watched some or all of the day’s action at the ground (officially 10,000 of these were English, but there are also quite a few English migrants living in Perth who would have been counted as local sales). With this much happening on day one one can already strike out days four and five, and day three is far from certain to happen. In a day of two halves the brilliance of England’s bowlers, backed by some good catching, ultimately more than offset a rather slipshod batting effort, but the batters cannot expect the bowlers to dig them out of every hole like that.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A pied wagtail exploring Fakenham Market yesterday as I walked through on my way to work (it was practically at my feet when I took this picture)

100 Cricketers – 1st X1: The All-rounders

Continuing my “100 cricketers” series.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome the latest installment in this series. So far there has been the introduction, a post about Tammy Beaumont, and a post about the other specialist batters from my first XI. This post now deals with the all-rounders from that list, of whom there are no fewer than four (including the wicketkeeper)…

ANDREW “FREDDIE” FLINTOFF

He took a long time to really establish himself at international level, but then had a couple of years when he could seemingly do no wrong, which included the fantastic 2005 Ashes series. Later on injuries took their toll, but even at the very end of his career his last involvement in the action was a direct hit on the stumps to run out Australian captain Ricky Ponting.

His performance at Edgbaston in 2005, when he scored 73 and 68 and took four wickets in each innings was outstanding, and helped to turn a series that very nearly died a premature death into one that nobody will ever forget. His 18 overs off the reel at the Oval in that same series to give England an unexpected first innings lead was incredible. In the second match of the 2009 series at Lords he bowled England to their first victory over Australia at that venue since 1934 when Hedley Verity took advantage of a rain affected pitch (remember, they played on “ooncoovered pitches” in those days) to record match figures of 15-104).

England were rather more sensible about Flintoff’s departure than they had been about Ian Botham’s in the early 1990s, when many young cricketers had promising careers effectively strangled by having the “next Botham” label draped round their necks. This time they realised that a straight replacement for Flintoff was, to put it mildly, unlikely, and set about building a different kind of team.

Flintoff had two and a half really superb years (2004, 2005 and 2006 before the tour to Australia at the end of that year which was an unqualified disaster for him and most of the rest of the squad) and produced flashes of brilliance both before and after that period.

KATHRYN BRUNT

She started out as a specialist bowler, batting low in the order. At one point she dropped out of the game but then made a comeback. Subsequently she has remained the England Womens team’s first choice opening bowler and has improved her batting to the point that she can be regarded as an all-rounder (she now habitually bats at no 6 or 7 in tests and ODIs, and often comes in higher than that in T20s when quick runs are wanted).

So long as her back holds out (she has been plagued by problems in that area down the years) she will be wanted by England (in the final ODI against India recently she took 5-28, her wickets being those of the top five in the Indian order, and was on 18 not out when England completed their victory).

ELLYSE PERRY

I saw a very young Ellyse Perry live at the Adelaide Oval in 2009, playing in an ODI for the Australian Women versus the New Zealand Women. In those days she bowled fast with new ball, batted at no 8 (it was obvious that she would be moving up the order in the future) and had a superb throwing arm.

She still bowls fast with the new ball, remains a brilliant fielder, and is now just about the best batter in the women’s game (a test-match double century being her career highlight, along with her recent dominance of the Women’s Big Bash League – three individual centuries in the most recent tournament).

If you were selecting an Earth Women XI to take on Mars Women she would undoubtedly by the first name on the team sheet and it would go down in ink, not pencil.

She should still have a few years ahead of her at the top, and my advice would be: enjoy it while you can – talents of this magnitude do not come along very often.

BEN FOAKES

One of the best wicketkeepers in the game, he has played five test matches for England and averages 41.50 with the bat as well as having demonstrated his skills as a keeper. Yet ridiculously his international future is in doubt because of the difficulty (in the minds of the current England selectors at least) of fitting him and Jonny Bairstow into the same England team. If they do not want to use Bairstow as a specilaist batter, filling the no3 slot, then as far as I am concerned he, and not Ben Foakes, should be the one to miss out.

Providing the England selectors see sense Foakes should go on to have a stellar international career.

THE NEXT POST IN THIS SERIES

My next post in this series will feature the specialist bowlers from my first XI and introduce my second X1 preparatory to posting about them.

PHOTOGRAPHY

A few of my own photographs to end:

P1210740 — Seen from the Tuesday Market Place, King’s Lynn

P1210741 — Near the Gaywood River, North Lynn

P1210744 — My new beanie – from the part of Cornwall where my parfents live.

Detective Fiction Meets Ornithology

A review of a new find – Steve Burrows’ Birder Murders, with some Norfolk bird pictures of my own for company.

INTRODUCTION

This post concerns two books by a writer I discovered in the last few days:

MAKING THE DISCOVERY

When I saw these in the library there was never any doubt about borrowing them – detective stories set in Norfolk and heavily concerned with birds looks a darned good mix.

THE BOOKS

There is much of interest about birds and about North Norfolk in these books, and the strikingly different characters of each of the police officers makes for some good interplay between them.

In the first of these two books, “A Siege of Bitterns”, the first victim is actually a birdwatcher. The second victim is a suspect in the first case until he is found dead. It eventjually turns out that the first case was not murder but suicide, and that the murderer in the second case was the MP.

In “A Cast of Falcons”, the hero’s boss, DCS Shepherd, is shown up in a very poor light when she initially refuses even to entertain the notion that the exceedingly rich Sheik who has bought an old dairy farm for his pet project (research on method of carbon capture) could be guilty. She shows herself to be more concerned with not annoying someone who is rich and powerful than with justice, which given her job is entirely unacceptable.

There is a third book in this series that I know of, called “A Pitying of Doves”, and it is sufficient comment on just how good these two books are that I have reserved a copy (costs 60p) and am awaiting it’s arrival at King’s Lynn library.

If you get the opportunity to pick up a book with the name Steve Burrows on the cover please take it!

SOME NORFOLK BIRDS

To finish this post here are some new pictures of Norfolk birds…

Bird Pics on the #Inglorious12th

A post for the #Inglorious12th, featuring the right kind of bird shooting – that done with a camera.

INTRODUCTION

Today is August 12th, which is for well-heeled British hooligans the start of the grouse shooting season, known to them as “The Glorious 12th”. For folk like me, who view those who derive pleasure from taking pot shots at birds with utter contempt it is therefore the #Inglorious12th.

SHOOTING BIRDS THOMAS STYLE

I choose to mark today by posting pictures of birds shot the only acceptable way – with a camera. Most of these are from this morning, but I am also including some older pics.

Little Egret 1 — The Little Egret that featured a couple of weeks back.

Magpie — A magpie on the path alongside the Great Ouse

I was at the racecourse before my colleague arrived with a key, and this wagtail caught my eye while I was waiting.

CP1 — The first of the new pictures – this and the final cormorant pic are in their correct positions, but some of the rest of the cormorant series are out of order.

Jay1 — I finish with this Jay – two live photographs and the relevant page from my bird book.

Network Autism

An important autism related meeting in Dereham plus a few shares and some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

As well as my title piece, which as promised yesterday, is about the meeting in Dereham organised by Autism Anglia and ASD Helping Hands that I attended this morning. Karan and I were a little late arriving as she could not leave before the person who would be looking after her son had arrived and I had arranged a meet up point at The Gatehouse since while I was definitely up for the meeting I was not up for forking out the £11 it would have cost to me travel there and back under my own steam (at some point I will be putting up a post on public transport that will highlight why this particular shortish journey is so extortionate – for the moment suffice to say it has nothing to do with logic, reason, meeting passenger needs or anything else that has any place in the proper running of a public transport system). This meant that although we were able to introduce ourselves we missed most of the other people’s introductions.

THE MEETING

The meeting had been arranged to discuss amendments to an autism strategy document which as it stood was laughably incomplete. Autism Anglia and ASD Helping Hands were effectively doing the kind of outreach stuff that Norfolk County Council should have been doing but weren’t. The County Council’s own meetings about such matters are invariably in Norwich, generally with a requirement that one arrive by 9:30. Before moving on to NAS West Norfolk’s role in the events of this meeting I will mention two things from the preliminary talk that caused hackles to raise. First, Norfolk County Council’s person responsible for co-ordinating matters relating to autism appears to have his fingers in a suspiciously large number of pies, and extending from this seems to be overly averse to scrutiny (as a West Norfolk resident who has the incinerator debacle seared on his memory I am naturally inclined to be mistrustful where Norfolk County Council are concerned – although we eventually won that one and the thing did not get built). Secondly there is the role of Norfolk Steps, who seem to have a monopoly on training provision for parents and carers and to be very reluctant to see that change – one person at the meeting had tried to use their materials to provide training and was told to desist. Another strike against Norfolk Steps from our point of view is that their training is not autism specific.

The key pages of the inadequate document that we were trying to improve were pages 16-19, and there was little we could do about what was on page 16, so as we seated around three tables each table was assigned a page to look at and make additions to. Ours was page 18:

I have already covered a lot of the problems with Norfolk Steps, but there is one extra point – they have recently had their funding reduced, and no longer offer “steps plus” to parents.

There were a few additions to point 5, which started our page. Point 6 was the single most inadequately expressed point in the whole sorry document. For this point to be worth the ink and paper it has to contain chapter and verse – the specific Act of Parliament and the specific clauses contained therein that are of most relevance.

Anne Ebbage of Autism Anglia will be passing all the points raised at this meeting on to the council, and if the final version of this document is not massively changed and enlarged there will be trouble.

This was a very useful and productive meeting, and I hope it will play a role in dragging Norfolk’s approach to autism and autistic people out of the dark ages wherein it seems to have been stuck for some time.

A SEGUE LINK

The first part of this post has been about autism, and so I introduce the remainder of it by way of a link to an interesting piece by The Inked Autist. My views are rather different to those expressed in this post, but I recommend that you read it here.

A BUSY WEEK FOR DPAC

That title is no overstatement – this section contains a link to a post on the DPAC website and two embedded videos.

The post, which gives this section of this post its title, can be accessed by clicking the DPAC logo below. Then you can find the two videos, which are both about a protest outside Parliament. The first video was created by Let Me Look TV, the second by Steve Topple of The Canary.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I had planned to include more stuff in this post, but a malfunction has prevented that – I have just lost a large amount of stuff that was in here and have no way of getting back, so here are the photographs.

MNR1 — Three shots featuring a stretch of the Mid-Norfolk Railway in Dereham

One of the “Ecocity” towers near Swaffham – even in this picture, and still more so in the further edited version the observation room near the centre of the propeller is clearly visible. The original shot from which this picture and the next were both obtained was taken through the window of a moving car.

Dream Cabinet

INTRODUCTION

This post is my response to Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK’s challenge to come up with a dream cabinet. I do not quite have a full cabinet here but I do have names, positions and explanations and/ or justifications for all my choices. I will start by listing the names and positions, and will then go into a little more detail in the next section about my reasons.

THE SELECTIONS

These are the positions I have managed to fill:

Prime Minister – Debbie Abrahams

Deputy Prime Minister – Angela Rayner

Chancellor of the Exchequer – Richard Murphy

Home Secretary – Kerry-Anne Mendoza

Foreign Secretary – Clive Lewis

Business Secretary – Rebecca Long-Bailey

Health Secretary – Jo Rust

Environment – Caroline Lucas

Transport – Thomas Sutcliffe

Neurodiversity Minister – Paddy-Joe Moran (askpergers.wordpress.com)

Education Secretary – Michael Rosen

Arts – Anna Bohlin

Sports – Elizabeth Ammon (@legsidelizzy)

Scottish Secretary – Mhairi Black

Disabilities – Paula Peters (DPAC)

Science – Patricia Fara

Work and Pensions – Mike Sivier

Women and Equality – Kate Osamor

Welsh Secretary – Leanne Wood

Defence – Emily Thornberry

Housing and Planning – Sian Berry

We now move on to the the….

EXPLANATIONS/ JUSTIFICATIONS

I will take each position in the order in which they appear above:

Prime Minister – Debbie Abrahams

Debbie Abrahams has impressed me ever since she entered the shadow cabinet to the extent that I was determined to put her in a top position, and in the end I opted for the top position for her.

Deputy Prime Minister – Angela Rayner

Another who has been consistently impressive since her promotion to the front bench. From what I read of her performance on Question time when she had to contend with three very right wing fellow panelists, a Liberal Democrat and the mloderator, Mr Arch-Establishment Dimbleby (I was not able to watch for myself as I refuse to let the BBC have any of my money) she seems to have done a fine job of further underlining her credentials.

Chancellor of the Exchequer – Richard Murphy

We need his kind of economic vision as a matter of urgency, and how better to get it and than have the man himself as chancellor of the exchequer.

Home Secretary – Kerry-Anne Mendoza

Editor of The Canary and author of many splendid articles. I am sufficiently impressed by what I have seen of her that I have no doubts about putting her straight into one of the four so-called “great offices of state”.

Foreign Secretary – Clive Lewis

He was always going to feature somewhere in my dream cabinet, and I have decided that this is the right role for him.

Business Secretary – Rebecca Long-Bailey

Someone else who has said a lot of the right things since joining the front bench.

Health Secretary – Jo Rust

The Labour Party candidate for Northwest Norfolk (my constituency) at the last general election, active in many roles and a passionate supporter of the NHS. Exactly the right kind of person to take on the formidable task of repairing the ruin caused by the likes of Lansley and Hunt.

Environment – Caroline Lucas

I want environmental policy in the hands of someone who is committed to protecting the environment, and to me no one ticks that box more definitively than Ms Lucas.

Transport – Thomas Sutcliffe

I am aware that it is always risky for selectors to pick themselves, but I believe I can justify this one. I have a lifetime’s knowledge of and commitment to public transport. Although I am creator of a London transport themed website, London would actually be at the back of the queue for attention from me is at it is less badly off transport-wise than the rest of the country.

Neurodiversity Minister – Paddy-Joe Moran

Paddy-Joe is autistic, the author of several books about autism and also writes the askpergers blog. Having decided to revive the idea of this post (see here for more details) it was a question of who to select for it. I wanted my Neurodiversity Minister to be neurodiverse themselves and in the end I went for Paddy-Joe.

Education Secretary – Michael Rosen

He would bring a lifetime’s knowledge and passionate commitment to the post. Education in this country would improve massively with Michael Rosen in this role.

Arts – Anna Bohlin

I do not know whether we could persuade her to come over from Sweden, but I am sure that she would be excellent in this role and would work well with her cabinet colleagues. For more details about her consult her blog.

Sports – Elizabeth Ammon

Also known by hew twitter handle – legsidelizzy. In addition to her cricket writing and commentaries she has made some very sound political points.

Scottish Secretary – Mhairi Black

Always assuming Scotland have not yet declared indepence, I would want Mhairi Black, who is the youngest but also one of the most impressive MPs currently in the house, in my cabinet, and this would seem the ideal role for her.

Disabilities – Paula Peters

I have gone for someone who is disabled and heavily involved in DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) for this important role.

Science – Patricia Fara

Author of a book on the history of science, a scientist herself and an impressive speaker (I have heard her give a talk here in King’s Lynn). She got the nod ahead of Brian Cox because I decided that I wanted a woman in charge of science policy.

Work and Pensions – Mike Sivier

Author of the Vox Political blog, carer and very knowledgeable about the misdeeds of the DWP under the Tories he would be an excellent person to undertake the task of putting this area back on track.

Women and Equality – Kate Osamor

Like several of my other choices she has impressed ever since taking her place on the front bench, and she would be well suited to this role.

Welsh Secretary – Leanne Wood

Occasionally sounds too excitable for her own good, but says a lot of good things, and I believe would do them in this role.

Defence – Emily Thornberry

As shadow defence secretary (before being moved to shadow foreign secretary) she was quite impressive.

Housing and Planning – Sian Berry

She ran an excellent campaign for Mayor of London which deserved better reward than third place (in particular, it was a travesty that she ended up behind Goldsmith after he ran such a disgraceful campaign, but also for my money Khan could have had no complaints had she won outright). This is a position I would definitely want in the hands of someone thoroughly committed to protecting the environment. To reuse a remark I originally made as a comment in response to one of Anna’s posts:

Preservation of nature needs to be at the heart of planning decisions, not an optional (and often despised) extra. Your battle in Trosa is a battle for all of us everywhere.

PHOTOGRAPHS

After all that text here are some photographs for a bit of light relief…

dscn3969 — The first seven pictures are from yesterday – this is the East Rudham (my parents’ village) egg shop

dscn3970 — Starting with this one my remaining pictures are from today.

Pictures and Petitions

A couple of important petitions, a couple of interesting links and some photographs taken in and around King’s Lynn – enjoy!

INTRODUCTION

I have two important petitions to share with you, a couple of other links and some new photos to share.

RENATIONALISE THE RAILWAYS!

For my first offering I turn to the campaign group We Own It, and their petition calling for Britain’s railways to be publicly owned and controlled. Click on the screenshot below to visit and sign this petition.

AN ANTI-FRACKING PETITION

The latest area to be targeted by fracking companies is Derbyshire. Click on the image below to visit and sign the petition against this:

PHOTOGRAPHS 1:

A COUPLE OF LINKS

Autism Mom’s most recent post is entitled “Words My Son Can Use” and is a very interesting read.

Welfare Weekly have produced a list of the 10 worst excuses produced by employers caught failing to pay the minimum wage which you can read here.

PHOTOGRAPHS 2

We finish with a few more pictures, these ones taken this morning:

Hydrogen Powered Buses and Clean Air for London

Some environmental news and some pictures – enjoy.

INTRODUCTION

Having recently shared the latest of Anna’s posts about her campaign to prevent a big new road from being built through an area of outstanding natural beauty I thought a couple of stories showing a more sensible approach were appropriate (and I have some new pictures to share and was looking for something else to put in the post).

HYDROGEN BUSES AND A CLEAN AIR PLAN FOR LONDON

Hydrogen buses are already a feature of the streets of the city of Aberdeen, and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan intends them to be in service in the capital by 2020. Buses are less damagaing than cars anyway because they carry more people, but hydrogen buses have an extra plus point – zero emissions. To read an excellent article on this theme click the picture below:

hydrogen-powered-buses — A hydrogen powered bus.

Councillor and London Assembly member Caroline Russell has produced a very detailed plan for making London’s streets healthier, backed up with evidence of a successful scheme in Walthanstow. To read the whole document click on the infographic giving details of the Walthamstow success that appears below:

PICTURES

dscn7833 — A Brunel £2 received in change

dscn7837 — The next four pictures show ice on the surface of the lower Purfleet (yes folks, here in the north of the world it is winter)

Musical Keys and Imaging

An account of today at work and yesterday at Musical keys.

INTRODUCTION

This post has two very disparate strands – yesterday’s Musical Keys event for Autistic People and tody at work.

IMAGING

While I have imaged a wide variety of stuff today at work I am going to concentrate on some commemorative coin lots that were of particular quality…

353 — I did not have time to provide close-ups of all these coins…

353-a — …so I selected the one featuring a picture of Nelson (we are in Norfolk after all) for the treatmnent.

354 — This lot featured an extra requirement.

354-a — Namely providing a shot focussing on the coin and info sheet into which it is set.

357 — The last of the commemorative coins.

510 — A large collection of themed stamp books.

511-b — an even close up of two individual stamps.

MUSICAL KEYS

The 12 years and older session of the Musical Keys workshop run as an NAS West Norfolk activity started at 4:45PM yesterday and ran until 6:15PM. I was there both as participant and as one 0f the two designated committee members to be present at the event (the other was group leader Karan whose younger son was participating). As usual with Musical Keys the main piece of equipment we were using was a miniature computer:

For the first part of the session we were playing computer drums:

After a mid-session break during which a birthday cake which Karan had very kindly made (gluten-free as her son has an adverse reaction to gluten) and which was absolutely delicious, we moved on to the second part of the session, which featured a system whereby lines had to be drawn across the screen so that balls would bounce of them to create sounds. For those of my generation it looks a bit like a very early BBC Micro game!

The basic set up

An arrangement of lines which prevents any of the balls (released from the nozzle you can see top centre) from escaping. I do not know what kind of sound this generates, as at no time while the sound was on did I have this many lines in place.

As anyone who knows what the weather was like in King’s Lynn yesterday early evening will be aware it was not suitable for photography on the way to the Scout Hut, where as so often with NAS West Norfolk events this took place, but I did get this picture on the way home…

A Good Day for Birds

An account of a walk that was dominated by sightings of birds.

INTRODUCTION

I have been out walking again today. The temperature has risen sufficiently of late that I was able to do so without donning a coat (until a few weeks ago, one’s thickest coat was absolutely mandatory for venturing outside).

PART 1: HOME TO HARDINGS PITS

I set off as so often by following the Purfleet to the Great Ouse. The Lower Purfleet provided me with the first ducklings of 2016…

The river was at fairly low tide, so plenty of mud was exposed, which is clearly what attracted this bird (bear in mind that I was shooting across the Great Ouse, as I was walking along the east bank of the river while the bird was prospecting the mud on the west side)…

DSCN4004 — The long bill tells me that this one digs for food

Leaving the river bank to skirt round old Boal Quay I bagged a couple of long range shots of a cormorant with wings extended and a closer up shot of a magpie…

It was just before leaving the river that I bagged my second new species of the day (not dissimilar in size and shape to the first, but different colouring and a different type of bill)…

DSCN4009 — As with my first new species I was capturing these from the opposite side of the Great Ouse.

My last shots of this section feature some Caspian gulls, and a couple of non-avian pics…

PART TWO: HARDINGS PITS TO
GAYWOOD & THE ROOKERY

This was, as expected the least notable part of the walk, but I did get some photographs…

PART THREE: GAYWOOD & THE ROOKERY

Just a few photographs of this little patch of woodland for you…

HOMEWARD BOUND

I headed back the way I had not come, and was rewarded by my third new species of the day…

DSCN4038 — Three shots starting with this one.

DSCN4041 — My best effort. I felt that the feature image should be one of the newbies and chose this.

During the last few moments of the walk I bagged a few more shots of some older acquaintances…

	The First Two Days i… on A Successful Auction
	Marizanne’s Mastercl… on From Victory to Rout in Two…
	From Victory to Rout… on An Extraordinary Opening …
	amsutcliffebtinterne… on Thunder v Scorchers
	Thunder v Scorchers… on Brilliant Bray Bosses Sydney…

INTRODUCTION

THE NEXT POST IN THIS SERIES

PHOTOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

MAKING THE DISCOVERY

THE BOOKS

SOME NORFOLK BIRDS

INTRODUCTION

SHOOTING BIRDS THOMAS STYLE

INTRODUCTION

THE MEETING

A SEGUE LINK

A BUSY WEEK FOR DPAC

PHOTOGRAPHS

INTRODUCTION

THE SELECTIONS

EXPLANATIONS/ JUSTIFICATIONS

PHOTOGRAPHS

INTRODUCTION

RENATIONALISE THE RAILWAYS!

AN ANTI-FRACKING PETITION

PHOTOGRAPHS 1:

A COUPLE OF LINKS

PHOTOGRAPHS 2

INTRODUCTION

HYDROGEN BUSES AND A CLEAN AIR PLAN FOR LONDON

PICTURES

INTRODUCTION

IMAGING

MUSICAL KEYS

INTRODUCTION

PART 1: HOME TO HARDINGS PITS

PART TWO: HARDINGS PITS TO GAYWOOD & THE ROOKERY

PART THREE: GAYWOOD & THE ROOKERY

HOMEWARD BOUND

PART TWO: HARDINGS PITS TO
GAYWOOD & THE ROOKERY