Thursday, April 26, 2007

Covered in Jam!

Work delt me an extremely good hand today, for a change, providing a new bird and a second ever of something probably a bit more special! Having to go to Thetford first thing then return to Norwich I literally had to drive past where an Iberian Chiffchaff has made itself at home, on some scrub ground near Norwich Hospital instead of some high sided valley in the depths of.. er ..Iberia! The bird's song distinctly different from the monotonous Chiff-chaffing of our birds however its plumage, and just about everything else is exactly the same, so much so that you could probably never identify one in Britain unless it was singing. All the same a new bird has to be noted and recorded, and this was a first for Norfolk! Later on I had an appointment in Frettenham and as I was searching the houses for the name plate I was looking for a butterfly passed the car window and looked decidedly odd- and big! I jumped out with my old binoculars that stay in the car and watched as it landed on the road a few meters away as I slowly moved round the distinctly dark wings with broad yellowish border confirmed what I suspected - an immaculate CAMBERWELL BEAUTY!!! It soon moved on, ironically into the garden whose house I was looking for - my enthusiasm for the butterfly was totally lost on my customer-and it wasn,t seen again (Philistine!)

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