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Saturday 27 June 2015

New Tripod from Cleyspy!

Too hot for me today. Jobs to do in the morning, didn't get out until later on. Went to Cleyspy to pick up and pay for my TSN-IP6 Kowa Photo Adapter for my new iphone 6. Whilst I was there I was very tempted by a new tripod, as mine is so difficult to use now – the release clips for the legs are very difficult to open because of sand, salt and general abuse! Upgraded my sea corroded Manfrotto Tripod to the new Manfrotto MT190x3 Tripod which has fantastic quick release levers to extend the legs quickly, such a joy to use. The only problem being that this tripod when fully extended is much taller than my previous one, so as Andrew suggested, I will have to mark the legs with pink nail varnish or something similar (LOL) so when in a hurry, I can get the correct height quickly for me.

Spent the rest of the day at Cley. Popped into Walsey Hills NOA, where I managed to find a Blackbird and a Painted Lady butterfly on the top ridge, no more birds at all! I sat on the side of the hill soaking up the spectacular scenery over Arnold's Marsh, Pope's Marsh and beyond and waited for MY Bee-eater to cruise through – ha ha!

Coastguards only produced arty farty objects on the beach, including a very funky looking hide! A large form of this would be pretty awesome in place of North Hide that was! I didn't know until today that North Hide (apparently) was not screwed/nailed down to a base as the other hides are, so it now makes sense why it was swept away in the floods, when the other hides survived! So could we have a new hide, screwed down to a concrete base, so it has a good chance of staying there please? The current viewing screen does not work for different heights and certainly doesn't work in bad weather!

Dauke's Hide, sitting with Eddie produced 4 Spoonbills, loads of Avocets, Black-tailed Godwits, Shelducks, Redshanks, Lapwings, Pied Wagtails, Little Egrets etc. I missed the Gargeney that Eddie saw just before I arrived in the hide. Tested out the iphone 6 phone scoping kit  – very nice indeed! Much nicer to phonescope with a larger screen. I was so tired on the way home, I had to stop the car for a snooze!

2 comments:

  1. The new arty farty 'seawatching hide' is the wrong way round and in the wrong place! A new North hide screwed to concrete base? You'll be lucky, fat chance, even a new hide not screwed to anything is a dream, the current screen is IT till it blows away in the next gale. The chances of NWT doing ANYTHING properly start at zero and taper off rapidly....

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  2. Hi Sue, your comments inspired me! I have just sent a very long email to NWT headquarters about a number of issues including the North Hide. Will keep you posted!

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