What have you seen

Wow that's great and doesn't surprise me at all. Great place for wildlife generally. Miss going there since our van went. Did pop down to walk that way along the wall. It was so lovely to watch the barn owls quartering over the paddocks and hares running among the horses from the van.

Surprise there's no barn owl or little owls listed. I hope they're still safe!

Heard the cuckoo a few days ago whilst walking in Crown Lakes.

Saw some swifts and swallows a couple of weeks ago from the garden but they've been missing for several days, but back in numbers today.

The crows certainly chase the kites, a novel experience for us happens several times a day here.

Beautiful male pheasant visits our garden and the nextdoor school playing field. Not seen a female but neighbours have seen young in their gardens. We have lots of birds nesting in our tall back hawthorn hedge and in the front tightly clipped leylandii hedge . Several blackbirds, robins and numerous sparrows. We get lots of goldfinch - treated them to Niger seed and a feeder which they decline to partake of... we even have a jackdaw and chaffinches. Very happy 😊  no squirrels 🤞sad I've yet to attract a hedgehog, but I might have seen evidence in the close 🤞🤞

I'm sorry I didn't reply sooner, but althought we're on holiday at the moment, part of it is staying near a friend in Suffolk who lost her husband last August and who is not in the best of health herself now.  So the last few days have been taken up with helping her with various things as she's about to sell her house.

The area you were in certainly sounds very interesting, reading about the various birds you saw there is something we're also interested in; as for Giethoorn - well, that's always been a tourist trap.

Keep on pedalling WN!  Hope you mostly have "wind mee" (wind behind you), and not "tegenwind" (wind against you)

Good luck with your helping hands Ina.

Stayed local today so didn't see a great deal but did startle a Hare into a mad sprint down a field and also enjoyed looking at the Jacobs Sheep, which funnily enough we first encountered at the top of the Malverns last year (well not the same ones obviously).

Ospreys for us today, at Threave. Nesting pair, some great views. Roe Deer as well. 

Although I’ve seen photos of buzzards on the coast I’ve never seen this until today and then three. Two circling over the sea and then one ripping at something washed up on the strand line. What next? Note to self, must take my camera everywhere with me!

Coming back from Cockermouth the other day I thought I saw a Red Kite but there was nowhere to stop to confirm. I didn't know there were any in this area. Today I thought I saw and heard a Wood Warbler, but not being an expert and not good in identifying birds by there song, I couldn't be sure.

Back on the bikes today and over to an island off the north coast of the Netherlands.

Lovely to finally get some extended views of waders as they've been sadly lacking in the places we've visited to date. Quite a lot obviously in Summer plumage, Dunlin with Black Bellies and Turnstones in their orange coats. There was a also a Little Stint in with the Ringed Plovers. A Wheatear in the sand dunes, several Marsh Harriers and a Hen Harrier plus Skylarks, which were sadly missing in the arable fields we have recently left. 

Noticed some Large Speedwell, Broad Leafed Marsh Orchid and an Early Marsh Orchid in the sandy areas.

Walking in Rock Park, Dumfries, when we noticed a group of school children peering into the River Nith, and what they were watching was a mother Goosander with 10 chicks, some riding on her back and the others in line astern behind her. When she dived under the water they of course dropped off, only to scramble back on when she surfaced.

Well I thought it was going to be a quiet day today as we weren't doing a great deal.

This morning we were woken up at an ungodly hour by the drumming of a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and to top and tail the day we have found ourselves to be the neighbours of a newly installed Long Eared Owl which has caused mayhem amongst the local Blackbirds and Wrens. They've gone off and left us to a quiet "oooing" type of noise.

Fun eh?😂

For the last two weeks, since we came back from holiday, we have been watching the bluetits in and out of the nest box every couple of minutes. (I have my scope trained on it). Yesterday I saw a rather sad event. 

The nest box hole is the prescribed 25mm dia which is just big enough for the adults to get through so it was an impossible task that they were trying yesterday. One of the chicks, which must be close to fledging now, has died and the parents were trying to get the body out through the entrance hole. Unfortunately they didn't succeed so the remaining chicks have to live with a dead sibling. The parents are still in and out so, evidently, there is still at least one chick remaining alive .