Welcome to the penultimate Cromer blog for the season, a day that felt more like winter than heading for summer. Thank you to Julia, Rachel, Graham and Debbie for todays damp blog
An amazing sunrise at Cromer this morning soon gives way to a wet and windy day
4.54 Both Birds are present on the box
8.00. Well I would like to say good morning to everyone but it looks like a pretty horrid day in Cromer. The Falcon, Poppy, is in the box sheltering from the rain standing motionless. The camera is ‘focused’ onto the NE turret, behind showing a heavy sky and dark sea.
8.48. The camera is panning all around, thanks Chris, but there is no sign of the Tiercel, Henry, so it left pointing at the NW turret. Poppy is unmoved.
9.12. She does a bit of preening.
9.28. The camera is on the search again but still no sign of Henry. This time it is left watching the SE turret. The rain is starting again. Sirens disturb the peace, no reaction from Poppy.
10.08. Poppy still hasn’t moved, sleeping now and taking shelter from the ever increasing rainfall. The. Image of the turret is blurred now as the rain covers the camera casing.
10.22. The view of the turret clears briefly showing Henry sitting on the fleur de lis next to the turret. Rewinding and studying the footage I can just make out he arrived two minutes earlier.
10.24. Henry can be seen flying away. He arrives in the box, there is a quick exchange of churps between them and he leaves after only 15 secs. He arrives back on the same perch as before. Poppy lays down.
10.41. The live feed is freezing intermittently and the visibility is very poor as the rain continues to come down. It can be heard loudly on the microphone. I can just make out Henry leaving his perch and flying inland. The image is breaking up as he enters the box, but it would appear that there is a changeover with Poppy? arriving on the same perch as Henry left. The bird now lying down in the box looks like Henry, size wise.
10.57. As my last shift for this season ends I hand over to Rachel.
10.58 I take over the watch from Julia. It’s a grim rainy day in Cromer. The nest box camera shows Henry (the male, tiercel) hunkered down in the scape facing away from the camera. The external camera is trained on the NE turret. Unfortunately, we continue to have some technical issues this morning and the sound quality is so bad I didn’t even hear the bells
11.00 the picture quality doesn’t seem too bad at present.
11.15 there is no change
11.19 the external camera is panned around ….
11.21 The camera settles on the SE turret where Poppy (the female, falcon) can be seen sleeping with her head under her wing.
11.30 the sound was disabled a little while ago as it wasn’t really working but there is no change to report.
11.40 Poppy has woken up but remains on her crocket on the turret
11.44 Poppy has turned 180 degrees and sits with her back to the camera but remains on the same crocket
12.00 It’s halfway thru my shift and nothing has changed
12.07 the sun is making an effort to break thru the cloud but this is short-lived
12.20 there are no changes to report
12.41 still no changes to report I’m afraid
1249 the camera feed is glitching but Poppy has just departed
12.50 Henry still sits settled in the scrape but has now lifted his head and is looking around he then sits in the scrape…. walks to the edge of the box and flies off
12.55 now neither of our duo can been seen on the cameras
13.00 the sun is again attempting to break through the clouds but it’s still rainy as I hand over to Graham for the next shift…..
13.00, Now taking over from the lovely Rachel for my last shift with no Poppy or Henry in sight
13.17, rain still non - stop with a view overlooking Cromer
13.57, no change in the footage, Grey, Raining and still no one in sight
14.17, sorry for being like a scratched record! Another half hour gone and still no change
14.29, thanks to Chris for a change of view from the camera, to now a rainy, gloomy grey sea with the N/E turret in the foreground 🤣
14.56, the camera now attempting to find Poppy and Henry with no joy
15 00, now handing over to the lovely Debbie. I'm going to finish on a high and call this to be my final year
15.00 Empty nest and NW turret
Grey skies, raining most of the day, flat sea
16.29 Poppy lands in nest box, unfortunately the picture is unclear and frozen
16.38 Poppy settles facing outwards
16.40 I think she is preening
16.44 I wondered if Henry came to visit but I think not......badly placed raindrops on camera lens
16.48 She is on edge of platform
16.49 Poppy flies off
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