Easter eggs

Saturday 3 April
Up early and hiding the first few Easter eggs for Tom's special saturday warm up hunt before the big day tomorrow. It was turning out to be a lovely day and the Jays had already started taking an interest in the garden, hunting out their own easter goodies in the form of peanuts.

We can get up to five of these great birds in the garden at once and if they put their minds to it, reduce the peanut feeders very quickly, so I have taken to putting peanuts on the ground now, as they do tend to scare off the other birds when they come swooping in.

Every time I see these birds I remember making fishing flies as a youngster and sometimes using the blue feathers from the wings of Jays. That in turn reminds me how long ago that was , so moving on....
General stuff in the garden followed, and then, a flash of white by the feeders caught my eye - it couldn't be the Bullfinch could it ? I've been waiting so long for an opportunity to see these clearly in the garden but they are always so jumpy. I crouched down by the garden table and raised the camera to see if I could actually find the bird....... and there it was looking like a Zebra on the feeder !

a white rump yes, but white rump and up the back combined with the exquisite mottled mantle, black wing coverts and a blast of orange, no Bullfinch here, rather a stunning male Brambling, still in winter plumage but looking great.

a there he was, head coming into summer plumage a bit, give it a handfull of weeks and this bird's head and bill will be all black.

it was actually quite confiding, which was just as well as by now Tom had emerged, the dog was running about looking like a fox, and generally the disturbance level had risen significantly.

and finally here you can see the white on it's rump and lower back. Eventually it flew off but revisited the garden a few times. Called Emma (next door) round to see it but unfortunately it was not playing ball, probably something to do with Emma, Rob, Jasmine, Lilly and Tom all hovering around in baited anticipation. So let's hope it's back tomorrow so they can see it.

Quick trip up to the farm to dump some clippings and stopped briefly by the lakes. It was a day for surprises ! as on arrival saw some Geese that were not Greylags, not Egyptian and were grey not black and white, with heart pounding I leapt out of the car and had a Pentney tick - eleven Pink-footed Geese, awesome. Now I know these things are all over Norfolk but, it's late in the year for them still to be around and in over ten years of living here I have never seen one in the village. A quick record shot was all I could manage as they quickly flew off.

and nearly all eleven on the pic. Back to the house via a Pheasant just opposite the drive.