I may just have the only gay pheasant in the village!

It is an absolutely beautiful night tonight, there's not a cloud in the sky and the full moon is illuminating the garden with a silky silent lightning white brightness that is quite magical. No sign of the Milky way as it is far too bright a night to perceive such fine detail but I can see every plank on the roof of the windmill behind our garden which is probably a thousand yards away. There is an added stillness in the air too making it really very quiet indeed, the sort of silence that comes with newly fallen snow, so much so that I feel I should be able to hear a cacophony of snoring villagers, but yet there is nothing other than a harmonious peace and it sounds delightful!

I'm not sure if it is because I am getting older or if this area (Norfolk) creates the 'magical moments', or indeed as a result that my life balance has come of age, whichever it is I am finding that I appreciate the everyday things in life with so much more awe.

A few days ago I was driving through country lanes with the objective of getting to Wells to photograph a high tide in unison with the sunset. However a black cloud was moving in from the West and with every mile I went the possibility of a sunset diminished further. Then I got stuck behind a big lorry and so life slowed down to the standard Norfolk time. As I got nearer the coast a large flock of some 150 plus geese flew, in formation, right over the car then less than a mile later a slightly bigger flock followed them, right over my sun roof, FANTASTIC! Moving my head back down, swiftly, to the driving position I saw a Barn Owl fly straight into the path of the lorry ahead of me. The Owl hurriedly swerved and niftily dodged the vehicle shooting off to the right at a rate of knots, it darted over a tall hedge on the other side of the road and seemingly still trying to regain its composure it appeared to flip over the moon as if doing a frosby flop swooping back to an upright position it then flew parallel to me on the other side of the hedge for several hundred yards before I took a corner and lost sight of it.
That whole episode was just so brilliant, a mere 5 minutes of nothing very much to most people was simply priceless to me. When I got to Wells-Next-The-Sea the sunset was a damp squib but it really didn't matter the journey was already worth the time and anything else would have been a bonus.

Curlew

The most productive times to take photographs are at dawn and dusk as the light is so much more interesting casting abstract shadows and creating really unique colours especially in the sky. So I drifted up to Cley to try to capture a sunrise behind the windmill there and was lucky enough to be treated to a stunning sunrise. It was bitterly cold as I found my position out on the sea defence wall. There was only a slight breeze but it bit with a vengeance and as I stood waiting for the day to break, my fingers stinging with pins and needles, all around me came a dawn chorus from the salt marshes of many, many birds not least led by the highly distinctive Curlew. Again despite the cold it was one of those magical moments.

My chosen position was bang on and eventually the sky became golden with the early sun filtered by the earth's thick atmosphere and the broken dark clouds gave an added dimension to the view. The windmill is a really lovely one architecturally and  is currently used as a B&B, it has many windows and I managed to catch the rising sun as it shone in through one window and back out at me through another. A little later I saw the silhouette of a guest at the window looking at me looking at them.

Cley Windmill

As I stood looking at this scene a Barn Owl flew right across the reed beds looking for its breakfast.
Getting a little too cold I headed back towards the road where I saw what I first thought was some ones small dog only to suddenly realise it was actually a massive Hare. Sadly I was too far away to photograph it.
Nearer the road the sun was behind me lighting the reed bed and the windmill, it could have been a hundred years ago as it just seemed to be a timeless panorama.

Cley Windmill

The skies are truly magnificent, especially by the coast below is a picture taken from the marshes at Blakeney, once again beneath this blue ceiling hundreds of waders are filtering their food from the mud in the estuaries.

Blakeney

I need to finish by telling you a short story of trickery and mischief making on my part. Whilst refurbishing the Annex I had to remove a large mirror as it had a small chip in it. Rather than waste it I thought I would copy an idea that I had first seen on Ground Force and I placed it in the garden against a wall, behind the trunks of my Clematis. Well it had a great illusion of looking like there was a massive hole in the wall as it simply reflected my gardens lawn.
The very next morning two of my guests had to ask when I had knocked the hole in the wall?
As time went by I 'allowed' both friends and relatives to discover this new hole for themselves and took great delight in watching them slowly bend down to take a peek into next doors garden only to be presented with their own face staring right back at them!
Very mean I know, but you know that given the opportunity you would have done the same.

Well the twist is that I am now fooling the animals. Firstly our cat, fairly amusing, then we started to notice that Black birds were putting on unusual flight dances and it quickly became apparent that they were challenging a rival that looked just like them and who was challenging them right back with EXACTLY the same moves! These challenges can go on for up to 20 minutes!

Just recently we have had a regular visit from a Pheasant who is continually attracted to the mirror. Originally he too felt he was being challenged and the photo below shows him facing off the other bird (him).

Mirror, mirror on the wall.......

However he now has a habit of eating some bread that I leave out then going over and having a good look at himself in the mirror. Either he is checking his beak for any embarrassing crumbs or I may just have the only gay pheasant in the village!

Interestingly and by another one of our strange co-incidents whilst trying to sort out our sewerage issue last month I happened to notice that in the exact self same position on the neighbours side of the wall they too have an even larger mirror placed. Is it just me or is that a bit weird?




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