The TAPS wildlife blog - a Strictly winner and a visit to Cley

Hello everyone, TAPS Wildlife Watchers here, back with our latest blog.

We’re starting to see the first signs of spring in the air here at Dereham! Our pairs of blackbirds have had their first brood and we’re sure there'll be more. Some birds such as robins start nest building as early as January, but most start in March\April, including dunnocks, bluetits, great tits, greenfinch, and chaffinch to name a few.  Insects also started to appear in March and we’ve seen the odd bumble bee around as well as some butterflies (brimstone, holly blue and a red admiral). 

Claire was excited to meet Hamza Yassin at the science festival in Norwich, where he did a very interesting talk about his wildlife photography and film work. He signed a picture for TAPS which now has pride of place on our wall, alongside Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan. He also signed Claire's copy of his book Be a Birder, which in a lovely little book about his life and over 50 birds. Most people know Hamza from winning Strictly Come Dancing 2022, but we all know and love him for his wonderful wildlife photography \ camera work and Countryfile. Claire said he was a very nice, friendly, lovely, knowledgeable man, and really enjoyed the talk.

We are spending some time at the end of our wildlife sessions reading a book called Wonderland, a Year of Britain's Wildlife, while googling the photos of each day. A nice end to our day!

At the end of March we visited one of our favourite places, NWT Cley & Salthouse Marshes. While there we were lucky enough to see an exhibition of the work of Robert Gilmore who lived in Cley from 1998 and produced lots of artwork from his time there.

This brings us to the end of our blog, enjoy the new life and wildlife as we enter our favourite season. Until next time, keep watching wildlife and help where you can. 

Lucie, Jasmine, Tim, Stephen, Mark, Justin, Helen and Claire