Great White Egret at Caister

Excitement in Caister On Sea, lovely Great White Egret spotted in scrubby field near bypass, adjacent to stables.

Moon

Couldnt resist trying to take photos of our lovely moon couple of nights ago.

Views of Caister Beach.

Some pics of our little beach, a couple may be a bit on the Huh( good old norfolk saying meaning wonky)

Caister Dunes flowers and Butterflies

Went early for a walk Caister Beach North, the top path is completely overgrown now so had to take the lower path near the slope of the sea wall, lots of lovely plants and a few butterflies, including my first Grayling of the year and a Cinnebar moth. the butterflies shown are a Skipper and Small Copper

Caterpillars found on Caister Dunes

Whilst on a plant hunt these caterpillars were found on Dunes, one is the caterpillar of the either Brown tail Tussock or Yellow Tail Tussock moth, and the other very hairy one i believe also known as the Woolly Bear caterpillar, is the caterpillar of the Garden Tiger Moth both very beautiful Moths.Also seen today on the Dunes, the strikingly Blue, Common Blue Butterfly and a Small Heath Butterfly, a bit too flitty for photos, sorry.

Caister on sea Dunes plant hunt.

Living at Caister I dont think people appreciate quite what we have here, to the south is Gt Yarmouth North Denes an SSSI area and to the North is Winterton Dunes a huge area also with an SSSI, but Caister seems to be overlooked.
At least once a week I go walking on the Dunes either south or north, walked south today with my sister,we were on a hunt either for butterflies or interesting plants, of which we saw apsolutely loads, unfortunately i forgot my camera, so I will try and remember to take it and get some pics to post up next time, there were loads of lovely plants a couple we couldnt recognise, but got Yellow Rattle, Birds foot trefoil, Sea Lupins, Wild Rocket, Mallow, Sea Sandwort, a few others i will need to look up , there is a particular interesting area behind Caister lifeboat shed which is quite shingly and rocky, there was plenty to see there, just past this area was a large expanse of shrubs, Lilac looking but white and on these shrubs were some lovely caterpillars. need photos there too, hopefully they will still be there when we go back.

Little Terns Caister Dunes

Walked along the beach today to see the Little Terns , previously ive seen 50+ flying just offshore but today there were only six, two were landing now and again just inside the fencing, i watched them for a bit, they were flying along the shoreline between Elm Beach Dunes and Caister Camp Dunes, fishing just offshore, as i walked along, two landed right infront of me on the shoreline, needless to say i didnt have my camera, and a bit later one was hovering about a foot offshore brilliant view, no pics sadly tho, it was lovely listening to their chattering, and seeing them so close.
The Ring Plover which previously the other week seemed to be nesting and paired up was alone, but seeing as the beach was crawling with dog walkers and dogs off lead no surprise there.

A festival of birds

That is exactyly what it was last Saturday, a festival of birds, we were on a walk around West Caister, it was dull and drizzly but not cold.we walked from the marshes up to the pine trees at West End Caister.
Rather than go through to the concrete path that leads to the chicken sheds Mautby way, we took a shortcut path over fields, this incorporated a lovely pond, here we saw Redwings, Fieldfare, and Siskins, we stopped at the corner of the scrubby edged field, where probably in the summertime there will be lots of lovely wild flowers, and thus attracting lots of butterflies hopefully.In the distance we saw two Barn Owls, nearby over the trees at Waters Covert we saw three Buzzards, they had caused the Corvids to fly up from the trees.
There were Goldcrests everywhere feeding feverishly in every scrubby bush, willow tree and Sycamore we passed, it was amazing.There were Yellowhammers, Ring Ouzel, and once again along another part of the Pickerell Holme we saw a Kingfisher, this is becoming a regular sighting, everytime we cross the stream.
The day was very dull and drizzly and there was an east wind, so in bad weather migration stops, the little birds drop down to find a nice sheltered bush or tree, to feed and rest and hunker down before they continue their journey in finer weather.

Exploring new paths and old.

Last Thursday the weather looked good again, so decided to do a reccie of the new path we found. It was halfway down the concrete track to the river in Caister, never noticed it before. So we set off was ok at first but quickly became hard going, long wet grass, so we decided to turn back, but good news was we found the original path which skirts the fields and goes over liggers.The yellow arrows had been covered by reeds.
We decided to take the path along by the stables, lovely country lane hedges laden with berries, lovely views again over the marshes, carried on to the end and I normally turn right to get back up to Caister West End, but we had found a path on the ramblers site showing a path turning left, it did look private but no signs saying this, so we ventured on there was some farm equipment, but it was a nice path, I checked a post and saw there was definitely a yellow arrow, pointing right once again by the edge of fields , they were stubbly and dry so we sat right in a corner in the sunshine and had lunch, views once again over the marshes where we saw riding the thermal breezes three Buzzards, beautiful sight.
After lunch carrying o9n following the ramblers map, I found it a bit difficult, distinct lack of footpath signs, but came out at another concrete track and rather than turning towards river and chicken farm, we turned right and back towards Mautby, we turned right again along pretty country lanes , saw a Kestrel hunting above us and later, saw a bird of prey take small partridge in its talons and fly off very low only to drop it, it got away.We crossed the Pickerell Holme, back towards West End Caister, and back along the road towards the blue footbridge. This walk was quite a way but worth it, in the glorious Autumn sunshine.Will save this one for the Caister walkers once they are maybe a bit fitter.

Caister on Sea Wildlife Walkers

Very original title there I was hoping for something a bit more Norfolk!!! incorporating the words Troshin, ie walking like Do yew go a troshin boi?
Well im back and needles to say been doing a bit of walking, I started a little group discovering country lanes  around Caister on Sea where I live, the first walk was a couple of weeks ago.We started at the blue walk bridge over Caister Bypass, it was a glorious day, we got 7 people altogether including me, we followed the back path past the paddocks off of West Rd, There were still a few butterflies about and one or two Dragonflies mostly Darters but there was a Southern Hawker I believe, there were speckled wood and comma butterflies. The hedgerows were laden with fruit, Blackthorn Elderberries, Blackberries, Rosehips, and also Gages, which were quite sweet, We carried on to the end of the path, and at the cross roads at the bottom of Clink Hill turned on to the concrete path to the river, it was lovely and warm and there was a gentle breeze, we stopped to look at the trees, ash trees were laden with bright yellow seeds, they glowed in the distance.like huge bunches of dripping yellow blossoms.When we got to the river embankment we stopped for lunch, I took along strawberries as a treat. Sat and chatted for a while then wandered back
On the way back along the concrete path a noticed a newish sign with an arrow showing an unknown path I hadnt noticed before, decided to save that one for later.Well that was the first walk and there may be more , a couple of us were seasoned walkers but some werent and I was worried I had taken them on too far a walk, they may want to carry on we ll see.

Where has our Caister beach gone??

Went for walk today between the showers, along Caister Beach, i d heard that the Manor House Hotel which had fallen into the sea in the 1930 s, had been uncovered by the rough weather of late, the erosion of the sea had left a 6 foot or more drop the beach looked unrecogniseable, metal groins or sea defences were now uncovered, and you couldn t actually walk along the beach very far North because you would have to clamber over the metal posts.

So where did all our beach go, opinions are divided and there has been much said about various works which have been  going on recently and over the past 25 years, causing the erosion, who knows, or is this just a normal cycle of Easterlies taking it away and Westerlys bringing it back?