@markgolley
Freelance TV sport producer || Limosa obsessive L3 ❤️ || BOURC voting member || Cley Moth Obs || TG04 = the Patch || ex-Norfolk Records Committee member || Gulls & Geese👌|| Music lover: give me as much Neil Young as you like ☮️🕊️ || Don't Spook The Horse.
An atmospheric clip of the Black-winged Kite, late afternoon at Ludham Bridge. We'd been along the footpath, no joy, but saw it distantly from the noisy road bridge. Curiously reminiscent of a gliding Leach's Storm-petrel at times.
@linnetincley.bsky.social
#norfolkbirding
#ukbirding
#rarebirdsuk
It was a tongue-in-cheek/facetious comment on Kent duckponds really. Almost any old Hoodie will do. I didn't see a lot in the birds I mentioned to convince me of wildness. I don't see a lot in many of accepted HM re wildness. Best of the bunch was at Titchwell, post Polar Vortex at Canvasback time 😉
The unseasonal female on Shetland kept coming & going & was deemed OK by BBRC. There appears to be an ad hoc approach, good candidates sink, duff candidates swim. Yours surely isn't any worse than the unlikely Wiltshire bird or the duckpond Kent HMs? Wonder how many true vagrants we've actually had?
Red Kite
Holkham Park
March 9 2026
@linnetincley.bsky.social
#norfolkbirding
#ukbirding
Absolutely love this Red Kite on the lakeside snags at Holkham as the watery sun started setting in the misty & murky sky this evening.
@linnetincley.bsky.social
#norfolkbirding
#ukbirding
A brilliant set of birds that day. We'd seen the Goole Great Reed Warbler at dawn & I had my head literally in a bush looking at the Thrush Nightingale by the canal (I think), not far from Savi's Warbler when all hell broke loose! Hurtled to the Obs., for the show down 😅 Big crowd by mid-afternoon!
The atmosphere at the Obs when the May Bank Holiday Blyth's Reed Warbler was trapped the following spring was so tense. People standing guard front & back of the Obs, in case ringers snuck out the back door with it. Such a rarity in 1984, maybe 2nd of the modern era & 1st ever twitchable bird...
Oak Beauty @ CMO this morning. Exquisite...
@linnetincley.bsky.social
#cleymothobs
#norfolkmoths
#teammoth
The 3rd Oak Beauty of the last week or so was the smartest we've had ~ absolutely pristine, like it's just been unwrapped from the moth box. Can't get enough of them ~ a proper 10/10 this one...
@linnetincley.bsky.social
#cleymothobs
#norfolkmoths
#teammoth
Just another murky Monday...
A walk over the heath to Salthouse wasn't awash w/highlights, bar a flock of Yellowhammers around the gorse & then 2 Spoonbills behind the duckpond. Better was to come, my 1st TG04 Cattle Egret of the year up from the marsh & off the valley.
#norfolkbirding
#cleybirds
It took a while to get there 😅
Got to love parents who take you to Norfolk birding 🙂 Mine took me to Sheringham for my YOC week (from Devon) & had a holiday themselves 🙏
Decent year to be twitching in East Anglia though Andy, especially in Norfolk for a few weeks in the summer 😅...if you managed to snag the Little Whimbrel, you'd be looking back now and taking a warden getting grumpy with you all day long 😂
The Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits are building in number on the marsh at the moment (100 on the south side & more on the north). Many retain the familiar grey garb of winter but there's the odd one already advancing into summer attire. Eyes open for an early L3 soon 👀 🤞
#norfolkbirding
#cleybirds
Nice to see 3 Spoonbills feeding around Pat's Pool ~ it's 42 years this summer since I saw my 1st ones at Titchwell on a truly revelatory YOC holiday (based in Sheringham) in August 1982 & I still absolutely love these birds. A special species & now a local breeder too 🙂
#norfolkbirding
#cleybirds
Before the murk descended & the sneaky easterly breeze made it chilly, there was some warmth to the day & blue skies this morning. Gulls galore in the newly ploughed fields along Old Woman's Lane + a Chiffchaff in the copse along the Drift was all I could find...
#norfolkbirding
#cleybirds
Last ones from today ~ our first Brindled Pug of the year, plus the second of the day's Twin-spotted Quaker + a nice reddish-looking Clouded Drab & a Dotted Border on the wall by the back door.
@linnetincley.bsky.social
#cleymothobs
#norfolkmoths
#teammoth
We've hit our annual quota of Pine Beauty already! Two in two days for a species that we generally only have a couple of every year (the exception being five in 2022). Such a smart macro 🤌
@linnetincley.bsky.social
#cleymothobs
#norfolkmoths
#teammoth
Today's Oak Beauty in full-on revving up mode. Love the way the left-hand antennae pops up into place just before a shuffle into position ahead of take-off.
@linnetincley.bsky.social
#cleymothobs
#norfolkmoths
#teammoth
A gorgeous Oak Beauty from the morning catch in the actinic at CMO. A little brighter than Lynnette's from the other morning ~ but any Oak Beauty is a good Oak Beauty 🙂
Top moff!
@linnetincley.bsky.social
#cleymothobs
#norfolkmoths
#teammoth
Quaker-mass...
Twin-spotted Quaker, Common Quaker & Small Quaker from a tidy tally of 57/11 for us this morning ~ 18 Common, 13 Small & two Twin-spots.
@linnetincley.bsky.social
#cleymothobs
#norfolkmoths
#teammoth
...also at CMO HQ in recent days, a few 2026 paddlers to keep the CEO ticking over. Clouded Drab has appeared this week, along with several Pammene giganteana (Early Oak Gall Moth) - to the FUN lure - and several Small Quakers too.
@linnetincley.bsky.social
#cleymothobs
#norfolkmoths
#teammoth
Pine Beauty from this morning at Cley Moth Obs.
March 7 2026
@linnetincley.bsky.social
#cleymothobs
#norfolkmoths
#teammoth
One of the elite macros of early spring has to be Pine Beauty. A proper bobby-dazzler of a moth, cloaked in intricate patterned shades of orange, rust, red & white. Still scarce here (maybe two a year), this is the 2nd earliest at CMO.
@linnetincley.bsky.social
#cleymothobs
#norfolkmoths
#teammoth
As lovely as Russian WFG are, when you see them amongst Greenlands, they look almost bland compared to the beauty of their cousins. Greenlands really are an absolute delight. Such an elegant looking goose (that olive tone is perfection & that coral orange bill 🤌)...
Chiff-chaffing & kronking were the highlights of a wander around the Bridgewater Canal on a beautiful early March morning. Not much beats hearing the first Chiffy of the spring but the wonderfully deep, resonant rasping almost echo-y sound of Ravens is magnificent.
Sunny morning flockette of Nuthatches! At least three (maybe four) cavorting around & about earlier. Smart as you like...
That goose! Super smart bird 👌
Done 👍 Thx Kane
No, haven't done that yet but I'll do them now. I did email the guy I'm sure will have ringed them (he does the Mute Swans around the Quays + Black-headed Gulls) 👍
