It has become a bit of a tradition for me now to always go for a long walk on New Years day, two reasons really to start my bird list off for the year and to blow away the cobwebs of the old year (and a few pounds gained over Christmas).

The last few years I have taken a circular route of about 7 miles, I start by walking down to the river Great Ouse from my house and then along the bank to Little Thetford, this is where I saw a buzzard going along the trees, a bird that would have been quite rare here a few years ago but now is quite common in East Anglia, as I approached Little Thetford a Kingfisher flew past me, as I was now nowhere near the river I guessed it had been looking for small fish along the ditches.

Little Thetford is a nice village with a mixture of new and old houses, some of the old houses are thatched, but I think the surprise here is the church, unlike Ely cathedral that can be seen for almost all of this walk St Georges church in Little Thetford is not seen until you almost on top of it, it was once thatched like some of the older houses but was given a slate roof in the mid 1800’s and not long after was struck by lightning and had to be almost rebuilt, it has no tower or steeple and was once known as a ‘Chapel of Ease’

St. Georges Church, Little Thetford.

Walking past the Church and then the thatched ‘Old Post office’, I left Little Thetford via a path between houses and the recreation ground to cross fields where my boots seemed to double in size by the amount of mud now clinging to them.

Church door of St Georges Little Thetford.

Soon I am walking between hedgerows and over the field I can see the Buzzard again sitting on a branch in a group of trees, a magpie sat nearby dwarfed by the size of the Buzzard.

I returned home via the golf course, where quite a few golfers were playing but they seemed to be outnumbered by the black-headed gulls on the greens which I guessed were looking for worms now the frost of the last few days had gone.

It usually takes me around 2 hours 45 minutes to walk this route but today took my 3 hours 20 minutes maybe because I was looking at the birds and wildlife along the way, and if you were wondering I saw 39 species of bird to kick my year list off.

Another bright, cold day dawns over the East Anglian landscape.

The Sun rises over the East Anglian Landscape on New years eve 2014

Time to reflect on what has been and images captured on camera and in one’s mind, sometimes images remain in your mind and others are captured to share, like red-legged partridges feeding in a frost covered field as the sun rises in the East.

Red legged partridges feeding in a field as the Sun rises.

What ever this day brings to you I hope it brings you happiness.

As we near the end of another year I sit and reflect on what I have seen and achieved in regards to the natural world, time to reflect on the happy memories and nearly time to look at the bird list and have I seen more species of bird this year than previous years.

Time to sit down and work out what subjects to cover in my monthly Wildlife Watch group meetings in 2015, work out where we shall go on our travels to see new things and maybe get some good images, this time last year I did not have a website so I will hope to have more images on here for you to see.

One thing I have already made a promise to myself to do is to walk and discover some of the footpaths in East Anglia, perhaps even walk some that I have not done since my childhood and capture some of the images along those paths as well as some of the East Anglian Sunsets like the one today.

Sunset over Ely December 29th 2014

Short Post today as I have had to pick my daughter and Son in Law up from Heathrow airport this morning and we have had a family day at home.

But I can report that on the way home from Heathrow (it was then daylight) I saw large flocks of Winter thrush, Redwings and Fieldfares also as the Sun was getting starting to melt the overnight frost Buzzards were starting to take to the wing, we had good views as they flew low over the road in front of us.

On returning home I topped up the bird feeders and soon the House sparrows, Chaffinch, Robin and Wood pigeons were feeding in the garden.

So tonight I shall have a beer and reflect on a good day with my family and open a good English Ale for my American Son-in-law.

But I will leave you with an East Anglian Sunset

East Anglian Sunset

If there is a building feature that dominates the East Anglian Landscape apart from the Windmills and Pumps of the Broads and Fens, it must be the Towers and Spires of the many churches and the Cathedrals (of which there are nine).

Because of the Landscape most of the churches can be seen from miles away, mainly the square Norman towers or the round Saxon towers dominate.

Kessingland Church, Suffolk

The more elaborate churches were built by wealthy families who were made rich by the wool trade, a typical ‘wool’ church is Holy Trinity Church in Long Melford, Suffolk. Constructed between 1467 and 1497 in what is called the Perpendicular Gothic style.

Ely Cathedral dominates the fenland landscape, the monastic church that stood on the site of the shrine of St Etheldreda became a cathedral in 1109 and the city of Ely grew up around it over the years.

Looking up at the Lantern of Ely Cathedral

Added to over the the following years  the most impressive feature of the cathedral is the Lantern tower built above the Octagon which was constructed in the 1320’s, made in wood and glass.

Flags from battles hang in the arches of Ely Cathedral

It is always worth entering these churches of East Anglia just to learn more about the history of the area as stories can be seen just in the stain glass windows.

I have walked through and round some of the graveyards of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire and sometimes you come over a small window of the past just by the inscription on a gravestone, like the youngboy in a Norfolk churchyard who drowned in the 1800’s after he fell through ice on a pond on his way to School, or the bodies of unknown sailors washed up on a beach in Norfolk also in the 1800’s.

Some churches stand alone in the landscape as the villiage that they once served have disappeared, maybe all the villiagers were taken by the Black Death of the 1300’s

Stain glass window in Ely Cathedral telling the story of its construction.