Morning all: Late checking tonight. Back later...
OH preparing car for Sunday, with roof box on for luggage so I can take large scooter in back of car, so I decided to catch up with Ospreys and friends!
Diane – sad if your apple tree doesn’t bear fruit this year for the various critters! Pleased to read that “Bear” acknowledged your presence with a nod of the head! How wonderful to watch the baby Wasps as they emerge into the world – sad to think they are destined to be prey for Wrens etc.
Annette – buzy whizzy day fro you yesterday – hope you’ve had time to be still today – maybe with the mission roses.
Cirrus – good that you have spoken with Brenda – pleased that you are not rushing straight round there but planning to fit it in at an appropriate time for you.
Chloe – enjoy your time in Northumberland – lots of beautiful places and quiet hideaways.
Alan – another nice Goldfinch – our young Goldfinches are coming on their own now – amazing how fast they grow up. Got this Great Tit earlier in the week - takes his food to the fence and holds between his ties to nibble it:
Joan – hope you get to see (and photograph?) the Spoonbills.
Dibnlib – saw a lot of early flights of various planes in development at BAe (not called that in the old days – might have been BAC) at Warton when we lived in Lancashire.
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
OH snapped Blue Tit this morning:
I thnk this poor old chap was looking for sympathy at lunchtime - rather ashamed of his moulting condtion (excuse shadow of chair across his head)
Hello Everyone, I am back in the land of cyberchat. Before I give a brief update on my fortnight in Scotland I really must say thank you to Wendy for meeting up with me. We had a wonderful chat over coffee at The Boat, and then spent another two hours together at the Centre. It was super to put a face to a name! I must also say to Margo you WILL have a wonderful time at LG, I promise! The staff are lovely and I am sure you find it so interesting. Of course having the opportunity to meet up with Wendy, Rosiemac, Heather and dibnlib will make it so much more enjoyable too. And just to say to dibnlib I hope the delay in your therapy has not caused you any more stress, but I see you have been busy keeping in touch in the meantime. I look forward to another opportunity to meet up, perhaps next year.
So, my time in Scotland. We were with our friends not far from Kinross during those dreadful winds. Somewhat naively we went out for a pub lunch on the Monday windiest day, at Balgedie. When we were heading home we decided to park the car not too far from Loch Leven Larder and walk along the shore. The water looked more like a really rough sea than a serene loch. We walked/blown towards the hide but the skies turned really black so we turned round into the wind. Gosh. We saw what looked like a water spout pass over the loch amid a lot of spray. I see that on Alan's forum for opsrey sightings one had been seen recently at Loch Leven! The return drive was somewhat hazardous with fallen trees and branches, and at our friends' house we found an 18m fir tree has been uprooted in their garden along with numerous branches and twigs from various other trees. Later we saw a tailless cock pheasant with a limp wandering around the garden, and discovered a pile of feathers under the fallen tree! A lucky escape for the pheasant. When we got back to the friends house after our week on the NW coast the pheasant was still around, but was no longer limping. Their long beech hedge suffered windburn on the newly emerging leaves.
OH's cycling plans were rather disrupted by the weather, but he did cover about 120 miles of the proposed route from our friends' house to the holiday cottage at Inverkirkaig, south of Lochinver. He did friend's house to Perth in one go, while friend and I visited Branklyn Gardens in Perth, a very attractive small garden which too had suffered from the winds. On the Wednesday I met Wendy I took OH to a minor road heading out of Dalwhinnie from where he cycled to LG, and I headed to the Centre. Wendy made a bee-line straight for me as I drove into the car park - must have been the frazzled worried look on my face! We enjoyed a reviving cup of coffee at The Boat and headed back to the Centre and spent an enjoyable couple of hours together, and chatting to staff and volunteers. We were there when the news of Rothes' journey north appeared. An extremely excited Caroline came in screaming and waving a copy of the GE printout. Richard was there at the time which added to the celebrations. Richard and one of the volunteers were debating whether it was egg 2 or egg 3 which had recently hatched. I was also delighted to meet again David Anderson, last year's osprey man, who was working there a couple of days a week while is doing an MSc, and another of last year's volunteers who this year is leading walks around the Forest. The enthusiasm of all staff dealing with the public was so evident that even the most reluctant visitor could not fail to be caught up with the lives of our wonderful birds. I listened while Abbi gave her talks over and over again, in her bubbly and friendly way. Odin duly arrived with a fish and we watched the tiniest bobbleheaded humbug have a meal. The staff were saying that EJ encourages the young chick to stretch its neck to take the food in order to help strengthen the neck muscles.
I went back again on both Thursday and Friday while OH did more cycling, first in the area, and then on Friday to Inverness. On Thursday afternoon we also went out to Findhorn, parking the car out by the harbour and walked to the seashore. Here it was windy and raining, but that all paled into insignificance when we spotted first one, and then two, osprey flying down the river mouth into the bay and out to sea on a fishing expedition!!!! Cheesy grin for ages from me!! We watched them for over half an hour despite the difficulty in seeing them through rain-splattered lenses!! Magic. One of the two volunteers I had spoken to on previous occasions suggested I might like to pop 'back stage' for a brief look at the changes in the hide. You will remember that last year the Centre was put on mains electricity, and as a result the 'elf and safety folk have decreed that gas in the hide was an 'elf and safety issue, so the gas heating and the double gas ring which we used last year for preparing a hearty porridge breakfast at the end of the night shift, had been taken out. Porridge will have to be of the instant variety, with boiled water in future! On Friday I went back to the Centre for another couple of hours, and said my farewells, leaving behind a contribution to their 'hatching party'. It seems such a long time ago now, but it was a really enjoyable time.
Friday evening we stayed at the Aultguish Inn, nicely in the middle of nowhere, but with the threat of a windfarm extension ....grrr. Saturday was far too windy for cycling, and rain was threatening (the road is not particularly welcoming for cyclists either, but particularly so in those conditions). So we both drove on to Ullapool together. There, in a downpour, OH decided to take the windy narrow road to Inverkirkaig and I drove up via Lochinver. Enough for now. I'll talk about our week up on the NW coast another time.
There have been some wonderful photos put on here over the past two weeks, what with wildlife in the back garden, of visits to parks and holiday shots etc. Thank you All so much.
EDIT: Apologies. I have just seen how embarrassingly long that all was.
Birdie's DU Summaries 2018 https://www.imagicat.com/
Hi OG have a great time. Looking forward to yet more of your absolutely stunning photos!
OH and I went spoonbill spotting today and SUCCESS ... saw five ... including one juvenile with a yellow beak. First time I've ever seen one, never mind five ... what with avocets and spoonbills its been a fantastic couple of weeks for birdspotting :-))
Joan - avid bird and nature watcher in Northumberland!
Index Thread
DjoanS said: OH and I went spoonbill spotting today and SUCCESS ... saw five ... including one juvenile with a yellow beak. First time I've ever seen one, never mind five ... what with avocets and spoonbills its been a fantastic couple of weeks for birdspotting :-))
Joan - Absolutely stunning!!!
Great spoonbill pics Joan. Never seen one.
There was a spoonbill at Rutland Water in April but it has not been seen lately. Also a hoopoe was seen at South Kilworth on 4th June. Also Tim Appleton reports that at least two pairs of Little Egrets have bred at Rutland Water - the first breeding record for the counties.
Alan I used to love my walks over Hengisbury Head in Dorset watching the Little Egrets.
Not happy about the dreadfull heath fires in Dorset such a sad loss of bird life also the sand lizards. Keep our fingers crossed as the same area came back from destruction in 1976. The Dorset Wildlife Trust are looking for our help so if anyone wants to go to the Just giving web site.
Love the spoonbills, another bird we do not get up here.
Friend was meant to come for coffee this afternoon after 2 trips ferrying daughters and friends to Rock Ness. She phoned at 2 0'clock to say that the traffic was so bad the 1st round trip had taken 2 1/2 hours so we called coffee off. This meant I spent more time in the garden weeding and tidying so have just had a nice hot bath to help the back. Nearly a ton of chips arrived late morning so OH was able to trundle those from the front to back garden where we are topping up existing chipped area. It has made a huge improvement. He headed off to work at 1.30 leaving me strict instructions not to attempt to finish the job off. I know my limitations!!!! He will finish off after work tonight or tomorrow am. I will help with the levelling off but wonky wheelbarrows and me, definitely not a good combination.