Ingham’s W RLD
ALL good things must come to an end – and they are ending far too often for my liking at the moment. In the past 18 months I’ve said goodbye to my mum and now my in-laws. All three had Boycott-esque good innings, but that doesn’t soften the blow. In fact, I wish the Grim Reaper would give us a rest.
But my wife and I spent last weekend with her brother and his wife clearing out my in-laws’ treasured home, putting the remains of their lives – naval uniform, Valentine’s cards and the like – into boxes.
We all knew this would be the last time we stayed at what we regard as an idyllic spot overlooking the Norfolk Broads, elevated well above the Waveney, which meanders past herons and egrets, kingfishers and dunlin towards Great Yarmouth. For nearly 30 years we’ve enjoyed lovely, relaxing holidays here, surrounded by wildlife and the eternal rustling of reeds, all lubricated by wonderful pubs.
It’s no use telling us that the house is only bricks and mortar. It is so much more than that. We feel part of those bricks. Seeing it releases so many memories, right back to the first spring day that we saw it in 1990 when the hedgerows were full of the songs of yellowhammers and partridges scurried along the furrows.
For me the jewel in its crown is the view from the patio. It looks out over the water meadows, which change with the seasons: fresh and green in the spring, alive with cattle in summer, silver-flooded in the autumn and a winter wonderland when the frost bites.
In January, I saw a glossy ibis from Spain on the marsh a few yards from last winter’s only record of a lesser white-fronted goose visiting Britain from Scandinavia. One year I saw one of our rarest birds, a Montagu’s harrier, racing past, and I’ve lost count of the times marsh harriers have filled my scope.
So I was rather mournful as I looked out on a view that I had always taken for granted.
On the bank of the river was a Chinese water deer, grazing near the cattle. Well before dusk I watched a barn owl, snowy white from afar, its moth-like flight interrupted by sudden twists and dives in pursuit of voles.
After nearly 30 years of checking every mute swan, I finally got what I was looking for – a lone whooper swan in from Iceland, its yellow and black bill marking it out from the residents. Then a completely white pheasant strutted past. What a spectacular farewell.
But Jim and Barbara are gone and so the house must go too. I just hope the new owners are birdwatchers. They will never regret it. A LOST world of wildlife has yielded two new horned tree frogs. They were found near the top of Vietnam’s tallest mountain, 10,000ft Mt Fansipan, by Zoological Society of London experts, reports Zootaxa.
Indochina’s jungles are alive with new species: 87 new amphibians have been found since 2004 in Vietnam alone. ONE of the downsides of swimming in the sea is being stung by jellyfish. Well, Sea Life London will tomorrow put on display Rhizostoma luteum, a venomous umbrella-shaped monster of a jellyfish that can grow to more than 6ft long.
To avoid its tentacles in the wild, keep out of the eastern Atlantic. GREEN TIP: MICHAELMAS daisies provide an autumnal dash of colour – and precious nectar for late bees and butterflies. LLAMAS could help beat the scourge of flu, an international team of scientists claims. They gave llamas flu jabs and then took antibodies from them which offer “near universal” protection against influenza A and B and bird flu, reports Science. Any creature that survives in the High Andes has got to be tough. BIRDS are our last living dinosaurs – and the colours of their eggshells owe much to this ancestry. US and German scientists tell Nature that birds inherited their camouflaged shell colour from dinosaur ancestors that laid eggs in open nests. Analysis of velociraptor eggs found traces of pigments – just as in bird eggs.