Historic Churches of Norfolk – Route 8

Jul19

On Thursday I was back on the bike doing some more historic churches of Norfolk, a county that boasts some 900 – which I’m currently attempting to cycle to and photograph! I based my route on a loop of approximately 50 miles to the south and west of the lovely Georgian market town of Aylsham. I also took the opportunity to visit a couple of churches I’d missed on previous rides.

The Route

The Churches

St Andrew Felmingham, St Lawrence Ingworth, St Michael the Archangel Aylsham, All Saints Marsham, St Boltoph Hevingham, (All Saints Hainford), St Swithin Frettenham, St Peter Crostwick, All Saints Rackheath, St Peter Spixworth, St Mary & St Andrew Horsham St Faith, All Saints Horsford, St Margaret Drayton, St Margaret Felthorpe, St Andrew Attlebridge, St Margaret Swannington, St John the Baptist Alderford, St Faith Little Witchingham, St Mary Great Witchingham, St Mary Reepham with St Michael Whitwell, St Michael the Archangel Booton, St Agnes Cawston, St Nicholas Brandiston, St Peter Haveringland and St Andrew Blickling

The photos

St Andrew, Felmingham – first of two ‘catch-up’ churches

The exquisite little church of St Lawrence, Ingworth

Interior of St Lawrence

St Michael the Archangel, Aylsham – start of the day’s circular route

All Saints, Marsham – tucked back from the busy A140. Another splendid church with many interesting features – described by Simon Knott, in Norfolk Churches, as ‘outstanding’

The elaborate roof structure of All Saints

Window detail

St Boltoph, Hevingham

All Saints (new church), Hainford – I previously did Hainford old church on Route 5

St Swithin, Frettenham

St Peter, Crostwick

All Saints, Rackheath

Interior of All Saints

St Peter, Spixworth, with it’s very odd ‘off-centre’ tower

St Mary & St Andrew, Horsham St Faith

All Saints, Horsford

Detail of early stained glass window

St Margaret, Drayton

stairway to heaven..

St Margaret, Felthorpe

St Andrew, Attlebridge

St Margaret, Swannington

St John the Baptist, Alderford

St Faith, Little Witchingham

Details of mediaeval wall paintings – taken from outside, through the window!

The Assumption (St Mary), Great Witchingham – undergoing major repair

Detail of the intricate stone and flint exterior

St Michael, Whitwell with the adjoining St Mary Reepham

St Michael and All Angels, Booton

with Gothick interior

St Agnes, Cawston

Interior, with painted rood screen and elaborate roof timbers

St Nicholas, Brandiston

The organ, St Nicholas

St Peter, Haveringland – approached along a former WWII airfield perimeter track

Last church of the day, St Andrew, Blickling

In all I cycled over 90k, visited 25 historic churches, one Victorian ‘new’ church and a ruin – not a bad day!

Felbrigg stuff

Jul18

Juvenile Common Cuckoo, Felbrigg NT, 18th July, 2014

Not in the same league as recent North Norfolk rarities, I grant you, but for ‘local patch’ birding this evening’s stuff at Felbrigg was of considerable interest. First I spotted a wader-like bird on the far side of the lake, turned out to be Common Sandpiper – not just one but six! Then on the way back I flushed a young Cuckoo, which obligingly flew to the top of a nearby gorse bush. Felbrigg never ceases to surprise me, day after day the same stuff and then ‘bingo’!

Distant shot of six Common Sandpiper, the Lake, Felbrigg

More shots of the Cuckoo

Mid-summer Madness

Jul17

Woodchat Shrike, Gramborough Hill, July 16th, 2014

The run of rare and scarce birds in north east Norfolk continues. Yesterdays offering came in the shape of a Woodchat Shrike at Gramborough Hill. A pretty colourful 1st summer bird, seen almost immediately after parking the car, in hawthorn bushes on the south side of the hill – still present mid evening.

A couple more distant digiscoped shots:

Publication of this blog creates a small bit of history in that it’s my 200th since I started at the beginning of 2012! To all those people, from over 100 countries around the world, who have taken the trouble to view this stuff – a big thank you! TW

Norfolk’s Rare Wader Fest continues

Jul15

Black-winged Pratincole, Simmond’s scrape, Cley, 15th July, 2014

It started at the weekend with that elusive Stilt Sandpiper at Hickling. Yesterday it was the turn of Breydon Water and the fabulous Great Knot – first for Norfolk, and then this evening the Black-winged Pratincole, which has been making it’s way south down the coast from the North East, finally arrived at Cley NWT! Here, from a packed Dauke’s hide overlooking Simmond’s scrape, are a few more photos of this rare Pratincole:

.. and this one, courtesy of Jane

Norfolk Great Knot (dot!)

Jul15

Part of the admiring crowd, watching Norfolk’s first ever Great Knot

Why is it that most of the decent birds in Norfolk recently have turned up on a Monday, when it’s my ‘duty day’ at Cley NWT? Well it happened again yesterday – I logged on to Birdguides first thing, to be greeted by the news of a ‘mega’ Great Knot at Breydon! Throughout the day news of it’s confirmation, disappearance, reappearance, and further disappearance distracted me from what was actually a pretty good mid-summer day on the reserve. We were just on our way home when a text came through to say that the bird was back – albeit a mile and a half’s yomp up the estuary, so we decided to try for it. We parked up and speed-walked to where the crowds were visible in the distant evening sunshine. On the way we were told that the bird had flown across the estuary to the Norfolk side (yippee!) but, as a consequence, was now rather distant. They weren’t joking! Careful study of the Great Dot revealed most of the distinguishing features of this adult summer first for Norfolk, and GB tick. The bird flew several times, but never nearer, when it showed its distinctive elongated profile, white under-wing with black primary tips and white upper tail patch.

Digiscoped photo of the bird, taken through a Kowa 30x with 2x optical zoom! – it’s the small bird, facing right, directly under the tallest gatepost!

And now a couple of horrendously magnified images, showing the general structural and plumage detail – dark breast band, blotchy back, white belly and elongated ‘rear end’

Anyway, more import than it being a fantastic bird, a first for Norfolk and a British ‘tick’, is the fact that it’s a ‘grip-back’ on my old birding buddy Neil, who saw the first Great Dot on Teeside in 1996. Those birders present yesterday, who had also seen that bird, all agreed that the Norfolk bird gave far better views…. !!

Poscript: Here’s a picture of Great Knot, taken in Thailand, November 2012

Tour de France, Grand Depart – Yorkshire style

Jul7

Marcel Kittel, Giant Shimano, winner of Stage 1

Spent the weekend in Skipton watching the first two stages of this year’s Tour de France – fantastic! We stayed at the very accommodating Rendezvous Hotel and joined the throng in Skipton for the first day – watching the race live then the closing stages on the big screen. For the second stage we went to a minor climb between Haworth and Oxenhope. The atmosphere on both days was electric – the crowds fantastic, in both size and enthusiasm! The only down-side was that, with so many spectators, it was near impossible to get any decent photos -here are a few of the better ones from both days.

A small breakaway of three weave their way through the crowded streets of Skipton

.. followed a couple of minutes later by the peleton! Spot Mark Cavendish, riding his first and last stage in this years Tour – six ‘rows’ back, in the black colours of Omega Pharma – Quickstep, with a pale blue helmet. He says he’s ‘gutted’ – well so are we!!

Now on to the second stage and another early breakaway

And here comes that peleton again..

In the front half of the peleton, the riders who will eventually top the general classification and provide this years winner, including: Vicenzo Nibali, Alberto Contador and defending champion Chris Froome

Winner of the first stage, Marcel Kittel, in yellow – and alongside him, eventual second stage winner, Vicenzo Nibali riding in the pale blue of Astana

The maillot jaune..

Now a couple of ‘atmosphere’ shots

Onward to Sheffield, Cambridge, London and France!

More Historic Churches – route 7

Jun27

On Wednesday, with a favourable forecast of sunshine and a modest breeze, I decided to do some more historic churches, concentrating on a cluster west of North Walsham, to the coast, and north of Stalham – based on a circular route of about 40 miles. On my return journey I took the opportunity to ‘tick off’ a church I’d missed on an earlier ride – in total I cycled 85km and visited 18 churches.

The Route

The Churches

St Peter & St Paul Knapton, All Saints Mundesley, St Margaret Paston, All Saints Edingthorpe, St Andrew Bacton, St Margaret Witton by Walsham, All Saints Crostwight, St Peter Ridlington, All Saints Walcott, St Mary Happisburgh, St Andrew Hempstead, All Saints Lessingham, St Mary East Ruston, St Peter Brunstead, St Nicholas Dilham, St Peter & St Paul Honing, St Nicholas North Walsham and, missing from Route 1, St Margaret Thorpe Market.

The Photos

St Peter & St Paul, Knapton

Detail of the roof with elaborate fluttering angel supports

All Saints, Mundesley, in the heart of ‘Poppy Land’

The gallery at the west end

St Margaret, Paston

In the chancel, several tombs of the Paston family – who live on through the extensive collection of their letters

Never one to ignore a birding moment – these Whooper Swans, depicted in one of the stained glass windows

All Saints, Edingthorpe, with it’s unusual saxon round tower topped with a medieval hexagonal addition

Inside, extensive 14th century wall paintings

St Andrew, Bacton

And an unusual grave stone – rather Arts and Crafts looking I thought

St Margaret, Witton by Walsham

All Saints, Crostwight, with it’s unusual tiled tower roof – tucked away down a grass track

St Peter, Ridlington

Inside, an interesting fragment of medieval? glass

All Saints Walcott

St Mary, Happisbugh, a huge church perched on the cliff edge

The light and spacious interior, decorated for a wedding I assume

St Andrew, Hempstead, undergoing extensive renovation to the chancel

Detail of a gargoyle water spout

All Saints, Lessingham – a lovely wildflower haven

St Mary, East Ruston

A delightful rood screen – the entrance to the chancel guarded by two carved lions

St Peter, Brunstead

St Nicholas, Dilham – re-built in the 1930’s, with little of real interest, except perhaps it’s isolated location

St Peter and St Paul, Honing

Interior of St Nicholas, North Walsham – the exterior is currently covered in scaffolding!

Finally, missed during my very first Norfolk churches cycle tour – St Margaret of Antioch, Thorpe Market

Spectacled Warbler, Norfolk

Jun18

I’ve just updated my 2nd June post about the Spectacled Warbler at Gun Hill with some better photos.

Weird or what

Jun16

A month ago, having got back from our birding trip to Lesbos, practically the first birds I saw on my next ‘duty day’ at Cley NWT were Temminck’s Stints – a scarce species in Britain, but one we’d seen well in Greece only days earlier. Today I arrive at Cley, having just returned from Iceland, only to discover that a Red-necked Phalarope was on the reserve – last week we were seeing hundreds! How weird is that? Heaven knows what might turn up when we get back from Goa!

Although rather distant, todays adult female in full summer dress (a plumage we rarely see in Britain) was a real ‘spanker’. This digiscoped grab shot doesn’t do it justice:

However, it does give me an excuse to ‘show-case’ a few more RNP shots from Iceland!

Aren’t they gorgeous..

Land of Ice and Fire

Jun14

Last week we spent a few days in Iceland with brother Rob and his wife Gi from Australia and Bob and Sue, our long time birding buddies. We flew easyJet from Luton and stayed in two places – the excellent guesthouse and cafe of Vogafjos, on the shores of Lake Myvatn (Lake of the midges!) and the hotel at Stykkisholmur – location for some of the filming of the recently released Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Iceland has a pretty limited resident bird population, which is augmented by a range of summer migrants. Our ‘not to be missed’ list included the ‘big three’ Harlequin Duck, Barrow’s Goldeneye and Brunnich’s Guillemot – which mostly have their only European breeding presence in Iceland. We did see sixty or so species in the five days we were there but missed out on Gyr Falcon and Red (Grey) Phalarope – oh well, gives us a reason to return. By way of compensation though was the spectacular scenery – volcanos, waterfalls and fumerals.

First though the birds, starting naturally with the water birds. Fourteen species of duck breed on Lake Myvatn, the main reason being the abundant food supply, as can be seen in this photo of a male Wigeon..

.. and from this shot. They aren’t the biting kind of midge, like you get in Scotland, but boy there are a lot of them and they get everywhere – making birding impossible at times!

Long-tailed Duck are present in small numbers – males in breeding plumage are difficult to beat

First of the ‘big three’ Barrow’s Goldeneye – two males with three females. Myvatn is the principal location for this rarest of breeding nearctic ducks in Europe

Slavonian Grebe is the only member of this genus which breeds in Iceland – just gorgeous

Second of the ‘big three’ is the stupendous Harlequin Duck, which move from the icy, fast flowing streams to the flood plains of the Laxa river for just two months of the year to breed