.....and Life!

Well as I'm sure you've guessed by now, I wasn't in a fit state to do any birding on Sunday. My long twenty one hour care stint with almost no sleep, had exhausted and drained me. All I managed to achieve besides a very long sleep, was a quick spin round to the Fisherfleet late in the day to watch a few gulls, Mallards and a Moorhen – all exciting stuff! I didn't even see any of the Peregrines on the tower, but there were plenty of Woodpigeons around – Whoopie Doo! It really wasn't worth writing a post out of on Sunday!

Yesterday I had to take half a day's annual leave for a meeting at my parent's house with a gentleman from the CCG for an assessment for NHS Continuing Health Care for my father. This is a long process and the next stage is a Multi Disciplinary Meeting with several professionals, including Social Worker, District Nurse, GP and family etc. At this meeting it is decided if Father qualifies for the NHS Continuing Health Care. After this two hour meeting, I helped Mother with some important jobs in the garden. Father became very emotional later on and thought that the 'man' who had been there earlier, had come to take him away – I had to do lots of reassuring and hugs to try and settle him down – not very successfully though.

When I told mother there was a Willow Warbler reported in Norfolk today, she replied 'no way!' I don't know what the earliest Spring record is for Norfolk – does anyone else please? We'll soon be looking out for the first Wheatears, Chiffchaffs, Sand Martins, Swallows etc – exciting times, roll on Spring!

Willow Warbler Update: I've just noticed that Dawn Balmer (BTO) has written on Twitter this evening: "Birds of Norfolk gives 11 March 1989 at Salthouse as earliest record, then 20 Mar 1957 Thompson Water" – so the above report would be the earliest ever recorded in Norfolk! Wow! We need to keep our ears open this week! The small copse at work was good for singing Willow Warblers, but now most of the trees have been chopped down, I don't think they will return here – we will see!

Its freezing cold in Norfolk right now – my car was frosted up this morning and frosted up now at 23.40. Beautiful sunny days this week though – perfect for photography, walking and birding.... if you're not at work that is! We now have a MASSIVE wind turbine in the hospital grounds – I will be monitoring it for bird fatalities over the coming months!

Saturday, I'm off to Cley – couple of errands and some much needed birding. Sunday I'm at work all day. Hairdressers next week and I really MUST knuckle down to get loads of important jobs completed before Spring kicks in properly. My first holiday of the year starts at the end of March/Easter – it seems a long way off!

After that we have the fabulous NORFOLK BIRD & WILDLIFE FAIR at Mannington Hall on Saturday 21st & Sunday 22nd May 2016 – see you all there! Here are my reviews for Saturday 2015 and Saturday and Sunday 2014.