Steph' Thorpe. Bird Artist and Illustrator

Artwork of bird species from the British Isles and beyond (specialist in UK Rare birds)

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Hummm, not keeping up with this at all am I?!Bad show this, not added anything on here for ages, well since spring in fact..... I badly cut my right hand at easter, and have been unable to work for a long time. I am just getting back into working! I added some of the recent, and not so recent, field sketches on a new page. Not a lot done this year though....hope to get back at it soon but we have a family illness at the moment so time is short for birding and sketching.

If you would like to keep up more often check out my Birding website... gonebirding... through the link on the homepage or by clicking here.
North Norfolk 16-02-2008We had an afternoon in North Norfolk as it was such a lovely day. First stop was the White-crowned Sparrow, where we had a frustrating one and a quarter hours waiting for the bird to appear...when it did it showed well on the seeded area. Also here was a nice brambling and loads of Chaffinches etc.

White crowned Sparrow, Cley.

Snow Bunting, Salthouse.

Also here were loads of Turnstones etc. We then drove over to Tichwell for the last couple of hours of daylight. On the way over we saw 10 plus Little Egrets alongside the road at Siffkey. At Tichwell I found the Black Brant, very distant in the flock of Brents in the fields beyond the visitor centre, you could just pick it out with the neck collar when it put it's head up and the odd glimpse of the white flank patch! However as dusk approached it flew on to the freshmarsh with the other Brents, and made life a lot easier!

Distant Black Brant at Dusk.

Little Egrets were here too along with loads of Avocets and a Marsh Harrier...sign of the changing times. We were commenting when we first came to Norfolk well over 25 years ago Little Egrets were very rare, and Marsh Harriers and Avocets didn't spend the winters there as a rule!

Little Egret at Sunset, Titchwell.

Titchwell is always excellent IMO and lived up to this today, with a good selection of Waders and Wildfowl on display, however it soon started to get very chilly so we decided to set off back to Derbyshire and an excellent Chinese meal!

Moon at Titchwell.

Loscoe Dam DerbyshireA beautiful afternoon tempted us out dispite my being unwell. We visited Loscoe Dam as the darke Ferruginous Duck seen at Shipley Park last week on the old American Adventure Park Lake had decamped over here.

On our arrival it showed well amongst a scattering of Pochard and a single drake Tufted Duck. The bird looked like it was carved out of an expensive wood as it caught the sunlight. The white eye standing out well along with the sparkling white undertail coverts. As it preened a bright white wing bar was also seen to be present. Also present were a single female Goosander and a hoard of coot. 3 BHGulls dropped in and a sinensis Cormorant paid a very brief visit. A group of Long tailed Tits moved through as we left.

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