Suffolk Sunshine (and Moonlight)

After a week of post-flood building work at home, we were keen to enjoy the January sunshine on Saturday, so we took a picnic to the coast ...

We woke yesterday to temperatures of -5 degrees centigrade, but Saturday was not quite so cold. The light was good and the path by the sea on Dunwich Heath was ablaze with gorse. 



There were very few people on the beach.

 

You can just see the town of Southwold in the distance.



The shadows lengthened and the light didn't last for long. The picture below shows the beach at the edge of the RSPB Minsmere reserve (I rather enjoyed the reserve's Epiphany blog post here).

I am always in my element when there are waves to watch...

I had read on the Cabinet of Curiosities blog that there are Earthstars about at the moment, and since we had once seen some here, we had a good look around ... but failed to find any this time.

There is a lot of coastal erosion in this part of the world. The photo below shows one very small bit of it.

More waves...

We kept a sharp eye out for deer, and indeed saw their hoof prints in the the sand, but they remained elusive. Gold (gorse), bronze (bracken) and silver (birch bark) were the predominant colours on the landward side. The photo below shows one of two toadstools I came across. I wonder how long it will be before a hungry rodent discovers them.

There are a few evergreen conifers on the heath ...

... but the brightest green belonged to this clump of moss.

It was good to get out and sniff the sea. I hope there may be more signs of spring next time; but, of course, (despite the spring Snowdrop and Crocus flowers in my previous post) we are still officially in the heart of the UK winter. 

I mentioned the chilly night time temperatures. Well, I woke early this morning on account of the cold, and couldn't resist a peep at the eclipsed 'super blood wolf moon'. My little camera just about delivered a record shot, as you see below. David took a couple of pictures on the small Canon, which I hope may be a bit better. Meanwhile, there are some wonderful photographs here of this remarkable natural phenomenon.   

The (Non-event) Eclipse from a Suffolk Window

The solar eclipse, the most significant since 11 August 1999, was the event that never really happened in my neck of the woods. This is the day on which the moon travels between us and the sun, thereby covering the earth in shadow.

I confess I was a bit disappointed that there was so little to see after all the hype. But surely the 'not-seeing' is just as interesting in scientific terms as the 'seeing'. The OED (@OED) tweeted a helpful reminder at about 9.35 am, explaining the true meaning of the trilingual origin of the word 'eclipse'; and having read it, I felt reassured that I had at least witnessed the failure 'to appear' of the billed phenomenon!

The solar eclipse was due to peak at 9.33 in my part of Suffolk, when the moon was at its closest to the centre of the sun. I kept a watchful eye out and posted the following observations on Facebook:

• 8 minutes to the max. (partial) solar eclipse in Ipswich, but we have woken to a cloudy morning.
• 7 minutes. Robin sings on a Silver Birch branch.
• 4 minutes. A flutter of pigeons.
• 2 minutes. Sentinel Robin still singing.
• 1 minute. Robin joined by Blue tit. Robin continues to sing.
• and finally, 24 minutes ago. The moment has passed and the Robin is still singing ...

I hope there was something a little more spectacular to see from your window. Apologies for any odd spaces in this post: do I attribute these to the usual vagaries of the internet or to a certain natural phenomenon?
  

Further information

• From The Daily Mail: precautions taken in ZSL Butterfly Paradise to ensure the safety of night creatures like moths

• 16th century records of birds during an eclipse