New Beginnings

Hello again folks,   we finally completed on our house sale at 11.09am today and handed over the keys to The Laurels, said goodbye (tear) to "our" faithful garden birds and as a farewell parting gift chucked out a whole bag of final mealworm treats for them and chunk of cheese for Earl the Crow  !!    Seemed strange after 9 years there but looking forward to more free time, less garden/housework and more wildlife adventures.     At our temporary rental place we are just 3 miles down the country lanes and its really peaceful; a few doors up from where I grew up  :)         we are on part of a large country estate which is beautifully maintained and so far we've seen a Common Buzzard, Hares, Pied Wagtails, Swallows, House Martins which are nesting above our door !  along with tons of Gatekeeper ?  butterflies and no doubt lots of other insects if I wasn't so tired at the moment to wildlife watch !      Here's an example of what we saw yesterday on our first recce outside the front door …………..

Think these are Gatekeepers as we also saw Meadow Browns

was frustrating as 99% of the time they had their wings closed and I couldn't get decent shots

Skipper   (many thanks to Hazel for ID) 

this next may be Meadow Brown ?

and even a quick glance at a Small Tortoiseshell 

The House Martins and Swallows I put on a thread the other day but here's a Pied Waggie outside the property

and yes, I saw the Polo Ponies too    lol

poor horses were flagging under the heat and the flies …………...

and almost from our front door we can see a very famous Cheshire landmark !      Jodrell Bank radio telescope 

We need a few days to recover from the handover and process but hope to be back shortly with photos of one of the wild hares and anything else that cares to pop its head out !!   Only problem is that somebody (not mentioning names here ! ) left a crate in one of the rooms that got packed by accident -   it had my two BR camera straps in (thankfully not the cameras or lenses) and also the little Celestron spotting scope which we won't see again for the next 8 months   !!     I'll have to go shopping at Wex now the bank funds have just been transferred :)    !!!!    

First it will be feet up on the sofa and chill out (if that's possible in this heatwave) and recover.