It's been a while

I haven't posted for over a week things have been a bit hectic with work so just haven't had time!

Last weekend we did a Saturday afternoon National Trust visit to Hanbury Hall not far from Upton. We had a coffee to set us up then wandered around the estate, highlight being a flock of Redwings down in a copse on the edge of the estate, didn't get any decent photos as they were well in the trees and in the shade, but very enjoyable none the less. Plenty of Blackbird, Blue & Great Tit, Chaffinch, Crows, Wood pigeons etc. A flight of 5 Teal flew over us heading towards the masts, so I guess they were on the way to Upton.

There were also some Pheasant wandering around, it was a very pleasant couple of hours. We walked on up the hill to the Church, first time we had done this in all the times we have been there, the views are brilliant, well worth it. The walk up there took us through the a field full of Sheep with Lambs, so an obligatory cute photo is required:

So back to the car, where we saw more Redwing and a Jay. So pleased with that. We hadn't left ourselves a lot of time, but we sneaked in 45 minutes at Upton the way home. We went to the Moors and chose the wrong hide as the sun was shining directly at us, didn't think, so only one photo of note: 'Makin BHGs':

So, the usual culprits:
Great Crested and Little Grebe, Teal, Wigeon, Shoveler, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, mallard, Canada Goose, Cormorant, BHG, LBBG, Herring Gull, Snipe (just the one), Coot, Cormorant, Kestrel, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch and Long Tailed Tit.

The Garden has been more interesting this week, with rare visits for us of Chaffinch, Greenfinch and Long Tailed Tit and a first for the garden a very brief visit by a  Goldcrest. We also now have a pair of Magpie building a nest in the Leylandii at the bottom of the Garden, but sadly our 3 bird boxes, whilst being checked out are at the moment empty!

The pond has burst into life, its a frog orgy down there, it's rapidly filling up with frog spawn, so interesting times ahead!

Don't know yet what we are doing this weekend, depends on the weather!  But we do have a trip coming up to the Attenborough NR in Nottinghamshire to meet some friends and the at the end of the a month a long awaited return to Mull, cant wait to see the Eagles again and this time hopefully get some better views of Otters.

TTFN