Hen Harrier Shooting Update

Some of you may remember I reported that two Hen Harriers had be shot at the Queen's estate at Sandringham (actually Dersingham bog which is part of the Sandringham estate).

Well it seems that Prince Harry has been interviewed about this as a friend and he were in the area. According to Clarence House the prince and a friend were in the area at the time but had no knowledge of the incident.

Police are now interviewing three people over the shooting. Norfolk police would not say if Harry was one of the three.

"The investigation is ongoing," said the spokesman.

"We are interviewing three people and will be making a report to the Crown Prosecution Service for a decision."

Natural England say they are "shocked" over the killing. Apparently two members of the public along with a Natural England staff member saw the birds shot but not who did it.

Homecoming

OC likes some of the odd monuments I have shown here and I promised her a picture of the most unusual one I've seen in a Parish Church.

I've been here before obviously so here is Holy Trinity Stow Bardolph.






All so ordinary. There is some nice woodwork in the chancel.





So we turn to the Hare chapel. Its all very impressive but unusual?






Hang on what's this cupboard? It says here lieth the body of Sarah Hare.




Odd eh! There is nothing like it in any parish church I believe. The only other waxwork effigies are in Westminster Abbey. Sarah's will demanded this type of effigy. Hope OC is not disappointed.

I then popped into Welney. There were loads of Darter dragonflies. And the Swans are back!! It was nice to see quite a few young birds.

This Birdspotting Lark

And so I went to Holkham Pines I walked from Lady Anne's Drive to the Burnham dunes and saw ..... no rarities. Lots of Coal Tits, Great Tits, Blue Tits and Long Tails. How many Goldcrest did I scan through ? No Firecrests. Did see a few Treecreepers and heard a Cetti's Warbler. A couple of Marsh Harriers over the marsh, a few curlew and "one or two" Pink Footed Geese.

So nothing rare but a good time had by me.

By the A149 just east of Stiffkey there is an area called the flash. Oh look a nice big Great White Egret.

I've driven along the A149 many many times but never looked around All Saints, Morston. Its a pleasant smallish Norfolk Church. It has a nice font and some very fine screen panels.







And so onwards. Unfortunately I couldn't find the flipping Lapland Buntings at Salthouse, they were there earlier apparently.

Some images at Morston Quay.





I decided to look around St John the Baptist, Stiffkey (pronounced Stew-Kee). The church is famous for one of its Rectors Harold Davidson. Davidson was defrocked in 1932. Davidson did a lot of work in the East End of London with prositutes and this led to his downfall.

He had had run ins with local bigwigs and when he was late back from London for a remembrance service it seems one of the local landowners determined to have him removed. He then went for a career as a Lion tamer and was eventually mauled to death. Do read the wikipedia link he had a fascinating life.

Curiously his parishioners requested he be buried at Stiffkey.

The church is pretty dull. Well it couldn't compete with Davidson could it?






The tomb is that of Nathaniel Bacon a relative of Francis Bacon (the chap often claimed to have written Shakespeare) and apparently one of five places that could contain lost manuscripts according to some guy from the Bacon society.

To finish off some views of Wells Quay.






oh a bit of black and white.