"Odds & Sods" (old version) - please add to the new thread 2020 instead !

Hazel and Paul A, Thanks for the recent pics. Especially love the Kestrel and the sweet little camouflaged birdie!

Great shots of the Stonechats Hazy, especially the female in flight, and of course the Kestrel is always a pleasure to see. Nice to have the sunshine, but you're right about it getting cold late afternoons, I'm going out walking the dogs with coat and hat on these days.

Paul I could only just see an eye on my laptop, well done for spotting it:-)

Good Lord Paul, I had to zoom in on maximum magnification to see it. Super shot!!

Amazing how well the Snow Bunting blends in to the background; they are pretty little birds so can you send a couple a little further south for us to see lol

Many thanks for lovely Kestrel pics aitch, mine have gone awol again!

Unknown said:

they are pretty little birds so can you send a couple a little further south for us to see lol

If I see another one I'll mention it.!! :-)
I didn't actually find it myself. Mrs A always collects plastics from any beach we're on, and she inadvertently put the bird up when she was looking for plastic waste. Two bags this time.!! Now if everyone who went to the coast was to do the same I think it would make a bit of a difference. We always pass people who'll say 'well done', but we never see anyone else collecting.!!

You are right about that Paul, I remember some time ago when we were last at Leasowe area on the Wirral there seemed to be a lot of plastics washed up on the beach including a large piece of open weave orange soft plastic barrier used when the cordon off the area around road works/drainage channels, etc., plus large water containers that they use on boats. Mike and I collected what we could (difficult with a camera and harness strapped round me and camera/lens dangling precariously as I stooped down ! ) there were a few plastic bottles washed up and general paper/plastic litter which we put into a nearby waste bin (can't believe people walk by when a bin is so close at hand and they are going past washed up waste by their feet ). There were quite a few people on the beach that day and a lot of dog walkers but not one person that I saw picked a single piece of rubbish up; if it had been a £5 note I'm sure it wouldn't have remained on the beach for long ! . I thought media were getting the message through about ocean plastics.....but require more than a well done from folk (or quizzical looks we got in our case ! ) Although there are days set aside for "clean the beach" , there are not nearly enough of them to be honest. We live a little bit far away from the sea but try do our bit when we are visiting the coast. Even if folk picked up just one piece it would make such a difference; we didn't collect much that day as we would have been there for a week (and also the bin was too small and car parked too far away) but the orange netting barrier was such a terribly dangerous item to have by ocean and beach waiting for the next tide to take it out again. btw, I'm one of those folk who also pick up items off the shop floor and return them back to the rail or shelf after someone else has knocked them down and then walked on !!! I'm not quite OCD but I am generally tidy, as is Mike lol

A couple of pics from the courtyard where I put a feeder out and sprinkle a few treats down for the birds;  

suet cake with mealworm 

If lQQks could kill from a cheeky BT   !

GT loves the mealworm suet too …..

I'm still not over the thrill yet of seeing House Sparrows    lol       

and Starlings 

eyes bigger than belly in this instance     lol