view from a (house)boat

Since I don't seem to be getting round to detailing last week's activities, I shall give you a peek at some photos. We didn't have the car, so we hired a boat for three hours on the Tuesday and the Thursday morning, and took a taxi to Hickling Broad on Wednesday, where we ended up hiring another boat, but this time for one hour!

Greetings! (looking through the "balcony")

Barton Broad

The Greylag / Canada Goose stand off - the greylags won, despite lots of tongue sticking out and honking from the Canada goose. There aren't many birds which show you their tongues! You can just see the Canada Goose in the background keeping his neck low in the water. The pecking order shifted in front of my eyes.

View from the dinghy (which I sat in a lot, even if I only rowed once!)

Wayford Bridge at sunset

the river Ant

Hello!

The houseboats - ours was the third one down so you can just see the end of it behind the bush. The smaller ones were named after local rivers (like ours), the larger after broads.

Birds sighted include:

swallows

swifts,

greylag geese (4 families hung around the houseboat, of various ages)

canada geese (pair with 5 goslings)

2 probable marsh harriers, 1 possible marsh harrier, 1 definite marsh harrier (!)

1 kingfisher (gorgeous)

2 kestrels

2 mistle thrushes (was testing out Andy's spotterscope and was delighted to see them on the telegraph line - usually I only see song thrushes)

several Great Crested Grebe and young

2 lots of Egyptian Geese and young

mute swans (very up close and personal)

mallards aplenty - with ducklings of various sizes

and the usual wood pigeons, blackbirds, pied wagtails, crows, magpies, great tits, chaffinches, greenfinches, house sparrows....

Today: 4-5/10, headache medium