Searching for..........

a good residential care home that is registered for dementia or an 'EMI' home. I spent around six hours today, visiting local homes in Heacham, Snettisham, Ingoldisthorpe and Docking. I hadn't arranged any appointments – always best to visit unexpected for a true picture!!! There was only two I would consider for my Father, but currently neither homes have a vacant room. Docking was the last place I visited and then decided to get a spot of birding in, before going to parent's to inform Mother about the care homes I had visited.

At Choseley Barns I only managed to see a Pheasant, as there were lorries and tractors working on the concrete pad. At the village playing field at Thornham I watched 33 Whimbrels feeding in the pouring rain, along with a couple of Oystercatches, Red-legged Partridges x 4 and a Pied Wagtail.

At Holme I found something very unusual – a freshly dead Stoat on the roadside along Beach Road, just off the A149 – I can't remember ever seeing one dead. Along the Firs Road, by the 5-bar gate, I watched a cracking male Bullfinch which exploded from a hawthorn and then disappeared into the sea-buckthorn. No sight or sound of the Wood Warbler seen this morning by the pay hut, but had lovely views of a pair of Grey Partridges in the paddock next to 'Sandy Ridge'. A Grey Heron flew over the Holme Marsh. The weather was atrocious this afternoon with rain and cold winds.

Spent the rest of the evening with my parents. My Mother is not good at all and I stayed to get Father into bed, which resulted in me getting home late. My sister Vivien is joining me on Saturday to look round my short list of care homes, to make a final decision for when a room becomes available. Out birding tomorrow unless any emergencies crop up. Winds turning south west over the next few days, so should be considerably warmer!

PHOTOGRAPHS TO BE ADDED