My Garden Birds

So far so good regarding the visiting birds to my garden.  There is wide variety that have become regular visitors.  I expect this to increase during winter and summer migration too as we are very close to the coast as the crow flies.

Here is a list of visitors so far with a few pics..

House Sparrow, Dunnock, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Song Thrush, Collared Dove, Wood Pigeon, Starling, Pied Wagtail, Robin, Fieldfare, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Jay, Long tailed Tit, Greenfinch.  Flying over,  Pheasant, Kestrel and Red Kite.

A Redwing eating berries...can be mistaken for a Thrush or Fieldfare but you can tell it's a Redwing by the Red on it's flank underneath the wing..hence Redwing

The same bird but I have zoomed in to highlight the Red on it's flank

Friendly little Robin is always passing by

Four Long Tailed Tit's on the feeder

A close up of a single Long Tailed Tit..you can see where it get's it's name from

A nosey Fieldfare on the garden hedge

A Pied Wagtail taking advantage of the feed I have put out

Let it snow let it snow let it snow

Well there's only one thing to blog today and that is the snow.  Lots of it.  My car is going no where today which means I'm working from home.  But before all that dullness i took a walk around the village..

Our snowy house with the village church behind us

The cars are not going anywhere today..

Some tracks are beginning to appear in front of the house but when you have the option to work from home, you take it.

The main lane through the village

The road out of the village to Billingborough, past the famous whalebones

The road to the pub...need this clearing!

Have a day off today

Inappropriately named today...

Coffee, reading and the view for today

Albino Deer!

I'm back!

A new year and new impetus.

After a couple of months of being busy I'm back on the blog.  Got quite a bit of material to post so keep coming back to check for updates.  Please send me contributions too as I'd like to see (and will use) any material you want to send be it interesting articles for debate, photo's you've taken or anything humorous!

Todays post is literally hot of the press.  Today i've visited my local wood for a walk and to see what was about...i wasn't disappointed...

Firstly, this shot is actually taken in my garden.  A bird i hadn't seen until last year and now it's visiting my garden to feed!  This is a Fieldfare.  The Fieldfare is a rare breeder in the UK but visits us in large numbers in the winter.  

Fieldfare again but this shot is taken during my wood walk this morning.

Again from my garden.  I spotted this one from the kitchen window...there was (and still is) a flock of about 30 to 40 of them around the houses by me.

What a bonus for me during the walk.  I spotted this group of deer on the edge of the wood...the last deer in the pack suggests these are Fallow deer but i stand to be corrected.  What is highly unusual though and VERY rare is the Albino amongst them!

The deer actually ran right past me, then took off across the field after noticing me.  At one point they were about 5ft from me.
Again notice the Albino deer.

Off they go to safety 

Another good spot for me.  The elusive Goldcrest.  The Goldcrest is the UK's smallest bird.
Although there are many of them they are just hard to spot!

Another shot showing it's famous Gold stripe on it's head.

Shades of France

Well, I've been in a France for four weeks over the last month.  Unfortunately I cannot post too often whilst in France as my Mum and Dads I.T. kit is not quite up to it!

Had a cracking time visiting my Parents who are both battling on and doing well under the circumstances.  Had the fortune to spot some good wildlife whilst out there including Fallow, Roe and Red deer, my second only Red Squirrel, both Male and Female Hen Harriers, Wild Boar and even Adder!

To put the Hen Harrier sighting into context, Wikipedia states that there are only 4 breeding pairs currently in England though summer visitors swell the population to 600 - so quite rare indeed.

I also managed to capture on film 5 Great White Egrets together, another quite rare sighting.

Anyway - heres some pics...

Vines near my mum and dads - these have red grapes

Less than 5 mins walk from my mum and dads, great countryside

An avenue of trees leading to more vines - next to my friends house 

A rare sight - 5 Great White Egrets together on the ground

A pair of Red Legged Partridge

An even rarer sight - a female Hen Harrier.
To put it into context there are only 4 breeding pairs in the UK
I have more pictures of this bird and also saw the male too

The delightful Chateau at Saint Loup
Jo and myself enjoyed an unforgettable night here and dined in the private dining room of the chateau. we were hosted by the owner and his wife who both served us a wonderful five course dinner with wine.  The owner is related to the Sun King,  Louis XIV! Dinner with nobility!

The Chateau has a 13th century keep in which King John (the Black Prince) imprisoned the French king after the battle of Poitiers in 1365.

After a walk around the grounds i noticed the reflection of the chateau in the moat...

Our room...70 square metres of it! 

Part of the grounds..enjoying some late afternoon sun

Mum and Dad enjoying a stroll around Saint Loup

Walking in some local woods ...I spotted one of it's inhabitants...

Yet to be positively confirmed..i think this is a water rat?

Always worth having a camera handy, i spotted this deer next to me on a local drive.

An amazing find.  I came across this fellow strolling through some local woods..an Adder!

The Adder is venomous though fatalities are rare with only 15 known deaths this century.

the five Great White Egrets from earlier...taken off and possibly migrating..
(Quite a rare shot as in the UK there has never been more than 8 photographed together and that was only once and was this summer)

well it wouldn't be right not to include this!

Lets celebrate eh

When I woke up this morning I wasn't expecting to be celebrating by this evening.  But why not? It's not every day that you become a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Yup, today I have become the winner of the Nobel Peace prize, great eh!

And so have the rest of the 500 million inhabitants of Europe.  Today the Nobel Peace prize was awarded to the 'European Union' , all it's member states which includes all it's citizens.

How strange?  Still, as young Mr Grace used to say, we'll done everybody lol.

Short films

In the early days of this blog I used to link you to short films, some amusing some thought provoking.  I'm resurecting this item again with two reccomendations ...

The first is called 'Last man on earth' about who man who takes some drastic action

click on this link to view  http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p00pf28k


This second one is a short comedy film called "A Warm Welcome" based on a very old joke!

click on this link to view  http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p004qk37

Both films are courtesy of the BBC Film Network


Enjoy!

France - Mum

Hi all

This is my 2nd full day here in France so i thought I'd drop a note to let you know how it's going.

The journey here was better than anticpated.  The drive down to Folkestone was uneventful and took 5 hours.  I stopped at the Holiday Inn Express which is 4 minutes from the Channel Tunnel and was really useful access wise.  I managed to get on a train an hour earlier than booked.  The terminal didn't look that busy and I expect most trains are running well under capacity at the moment.

Once in France it was straightforward on to the roads south.  I managed to cling to an audible 5-Live on the Radio until just through Rouen.  Luckily I had no navigation issues and the only issues was rain around Rouen, then a pea souper of a fog between Alicon and Le Mans.  Just after Le Mans there was a dog roaming across the two lane motorway which required quick braking and careful steering.  However, as anyone who travels these roads knows, there is little traffic at all and so was not an issue. I arrived at Mum and Dads around 6 hours after leaving Calais which is as expected.

Unfortunately neither Mum or Dad were at home as Mum had to stay in hospital overnight as further tests and observation were needed folowing this third round of Chemo.  So, after Dad returned home for night clothes etc for mum we had a quick tea then I drove us both to the hospital in the Golf.

Mum in her private room at the hospital in Poitiers

Both tired but for different reasons...but Mum is not looking too bad to say she is having the Chemo treatment...(it is being drip fed into her via the tube at her left shoulder)

 

We all had a good day yesterday (Thursday) and Mum was even able to chat to Val, Lynne and Oliver and she was in good form managing to do some sweeping up and keep herself busy in the kitchen.  However today she is not well at all and unfortunately remains in bed at 3pm.  Hopefully she may get up for a bit later but at the moment she needs rest as she had a bad night feeling sick and in some pain.

 

Mum and Dads car is in for it's MOT as I speak so fingers crossed it will pass without too much grief.  The French Airforce has just had one it's fighter jets fly exceedingly low overhead and looked quite impressive sweeping down the valley..I'm going to resist the "where were they in 45 jokes"  ;)

 

Anyway, keep an eye out for updates on here..Au Revoir!

Leeds Rhino's - Champions AGAIN!

Well, another Grand Final and the World of Super League watch and wait for the inevitable, another Rhinos title.  Just to put it into context, that's two titles on the bounce, five titles in the last six years, six titles in the last nine years and the last two coming from 5th place in the league table.  The Rhinos are truly THE big game team of the modern era.

So it was that yesterday, around 3pm Des and myself set off on the annual jolly boys trip to Scumchester (all vaccinations duly taken) to watch yet more lambs to the slaughter.  The difference being that for our last five titles we had spanked St Helens, imagine being a Saints fan, five finals against Leeds and lost them all - ahh those loveable scousers.  So after the Saints dismal record against us they decided to throw Warrington at us as they had beaten us on three occasions this season, they couldn't put Wigan against us as we had already dumped them out the previous week - ahh those loveable pie eaters.  This would be Warringtons first ever Grand Final and their fans had bought all the flags, all the t-shirts, were singing their victory songs before the game -bless em eh.  Then the Leeds machine kicked in, and at 7:45pm it was business as usual as Sir Kevin Sinfield stepped up to lift the cup as the Wire fans sulked off home with the beginning of hangovers and shock of meeting the Rhinos annual steamrolling of all comers in the one match that means all.  And as they trudged of into a dark chilly Salford night they would have heard the strains of 'Marching on Together' reverberating around the sty known as Old Trafford..On on on

A few pre match wet ones in the lancashire County Cricket Club pavilion..."Yorkshire, Yorkshire, Yorkshire!"

Des's turn this year..

There was even a woman floating around the ground under a balloon - hope sh'd finished all the washing up first!

Not a bad view..

The lads celebrating with the cup....CHAMPIONS!

Click on the video above for scenes of celebration

Another vid

Expect the usual post about this time next year!