Little Owls

I never went out with the boys on their trip to see the Eagle Owl today.
They find the Eagle as soon as they get to where it is reported and get great views of it.
Now they go on to Dungeness which is no surprise as the boys seem to get here often.
I think it is a good trip for them, nothing new in the way of birds, but that doesn't take away from seeing loads of stuff on  the day list.

As for myself I am sitting watching the Olympics on TV, when a neighbour rings my door bell to tell me he has got  baby Owls sitting on his fence.
I get my bins and go up his stairs to look out of  the bedroom window, sure enough there are 2 Little Owls no more than 20 yrds away from us sitting on his fence.


Little Owl

 Then I spot one in the top of the tree. I know they are not rare around here but it is still nice to get to see them up close, and it's great that a neighbour takes the trouble to come and tell me that they are there.

Little Owl

Roing Valley Lake.

Being a really hot day, and being a bit fed up of sitting in my garden,  I think it's about time I walked over to my local lake and meadow, it is only about 200 yds from my house.
There is not much about on the lake, only the Swans with their babies, also Coots, Canada Goose, Mallard, Tuffed Duck. A really nice scene with the sun glowing across the lake.

I now walk over the bridge which goes over the river Roding to the nature reserve meadow, it is full of colour at the moment. I start to look for any Butterflies that might be about.
The first one I see is a Gatekeeper, I get myself  a photo of it. There are a lot of Large White flying around,they don't seem to land anywhere so I give up trying to get a photo.next up I see a Comma, then a Red Admiral, I now walk about in the long grass and I see a flash of Red & Blue in front of me, I  only get one quick photo of it before it's gone. I need to identify it when I get home.
It turns out I think to be a Six-Spot Burnet Moth,I have never seen one of these before so it was worth the trip over here
On the way back a quick look over the lake and I see a few Common Tern, a photo shot for me.

Six- Spot Burnet Moth

Now home for a nice cold drink.



Common Tern



White Admiral at Copperas Wood

 No new birds reported on Bird guides within our travelling scope,so we set off to find a White Admiral .Butterfly. Brian had done the homework as to where to find them, We drive 58 miles to the Stour Estuary, and pull into the car park at Copperas Wood.

As we walk along the paths it is not quite warm enough just yet for the Butterflies to be flying about for us to see, we head on up the path and see a sign telling us we have 2 miles to walk to reach the hides,we make the decision to not go that far as we don't think there is much to see at the moment bird wise.  We turn left and follow the RSPB signs for a short while and we look out over the mud flats, all that is visible without the telescopes was Curlew everywhere. It's getting warm now so we start to search for Butterflies, it's not long before Brian spots a Purple Hair streak,as I have only just got into looking for Butterflies it is the first time for me to see one. Going down the path I see plenty of little Wren's flitting in and out of bushes, I have never seen this many in one place before. Also a lot of Whitethroat.We have never been here before, I am glad we have found another nice place to visit and add it to our long list of nice places.                                                                               



Purple Hair streak



                                                                            Now for the target of the day, and of course it's Brian who spots one, it's high up at the top of the trees when we see it at first,we follow it as it flies, and it comes and lands down on the ferns in front of us. Out come the cameras and it's another first for me.


White Admiral

 We are now in full flow, and go looking for some more Butterflies to take photos off.
We spread out a bit and I see a nice orange one and get a photo of it, I do not know what it is, so I head back to find Jimmy & Brian so they can identify it for me, they tell me I had just missed one I had not seen before, that made me a bit sick to think I had missed it, but I show them my photo and what do you know it's what they had just seen.
It turns out to be a Silver-Washed Fritillary another first for me, I think it is the nicest
Butterfly of the day for me.


Silver Washed Fritillary

 Time to head home now, on the way Jimmy asks if we can pop into Canvey Island so he can get the Marbled White, as he is the only one of the three of us still to see one.
As I said in my last post you are almost sure to see one here, and within a minute we see plenty of them flying about.We spend a couple of hours here and see a number of other Butterflies such as Small Heath, Meadow Brown, plenty of Skippers, Large White, Small White,  gatekeeper,  Ringlets.

No bird watching  today as it is very quite at the moment, but this feels the gap,I never knew it was so much fun.

Marbled White Butterfly

After being told where to see this lovely Butterfly, I decide to go to Canvey Island as it is a warmer day and I think they will be a lot easier to see with the sun out.
It takes about 40 minutes to get to the football club on the island which is where I need to be to see them.
I park easy on the side of the road and walk the few yards up to the beach wall, the slope down from the wall is covered in small flowers and I walk through them in the hope of pushing the target up to see.
After just a few minutes I catch sight of just one flying about, it lands in front of me and I get a photo before it is off. I spend the next hour walking about without seeing anymore.

Marbled White

A couple walking their dog stop to ask what I am looking for, I tell them, and show them the photo I had just taken, they tell me they walk the dog along here every day and had never taken any notice of what was flying about them, but they say maybe it will add to their walk in the future. 

I am a little bit disappointed at not seeing anything more by the sea wall, so I head for Canvey Marsh to spend a couple of hours. as I park in the car park a couple are standing in the rough grass and taking photos of something, as I get near to them I can see it is alive with Butterflies all the way along the the side of the car park for about 1/2 mile.
If I had known I would have come here first, I see dozens of Marbled White Butterflies, in fact they are everywhere you look.
Also Small White, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Red Admiral, Essex Skipper and Comma.
I spent so long looking at all the activity of the Butterflies I had no time left to go and do any Birding.

If anybody is reading this and wants to see a lot of Butterflies and bugs, I would absolutely recommend you try this spot. I must say as I talked to people who where also into watching the Butterflies, we all agreed we had seen more Butterflies today than all year, maybe I just got lucky and picked the right day or as soon as the sun shines this is the place to come.



Small White



Red Admiral

 


Marbled White





 


Essex Skipper

 

Gatekepper



Marbled White

                                                                                               

Add caption

         

 





Curlew Sandpiper. At Cley Norfolk.

Up and at the meeting point at 5am, we are going to Norfolk, as we have a good chance of getting something new dropping in at Cley, Brian is really hoping to get his 250 year tick, it will be the first time he has got this number.Jimmy & I are on about 230 which is over last years total already.
It is a 2 hour drive for us, this is now a normal thing for us most weekends. After seeing the Red-Back Shrike yesterday, we are full of hope of seeing something new today and getting Brian over the line.

We park up, there are some cars already parked there it is now 7 am and the weather is better than it has been for most of this summer, the sun is out and for the first  time this summer it feels like it is going to be a nice day without us getting wet.


Avocet

 We walk the short distance down to the North Scrape Hide.On the way we see some new contraptions that have been put up on the beach, why I don't really know.

In the hide we can see that the scrape is full of activity, the most visible being loads of Avocets,a Marsh Harrier had just flown past us and unfortunately it had picked up  a baby Avocet and was off to have breakfast, I know it's nature's way, but it is still upsetting to see.

The binoculars & scopes are out & we scan the scrape & pick out a Spotted Red Shank, some B T God wits, loads of Black Headed Gulls, Common Terns & Sandwich Terns,some Shell ducks, Red shanks,


 a big flock of Dunlin fly in, at the back of the scrape we can see 4 Spoonbill just sitting in the sun.
We see 2 more fly down not to far away from us and they keep the cows company who are standing in the water drinking it makes a really nice peaceful scene.

Brian thinks he has seen the target bird, but it turns out not to be, but a short time later he is still trying to spot new stuff, and he See's a Whimbrel, and as he tells us to get on it he picks out the target bird as it walks right in front of the Whimbrel into the view of  the scope.

A couple of birders were just going out of the hide having been there a long time before us and were about to give up, when the call goes up from Brian there it is a Curlew Sandpiper, they quickly sit back down and thank  Brian for the info, we are all onto the bird now and as it is now amongst the Dunlin you can see it is a little bit bigger than them, and this helps us to pick it out, this Curlew Sandpiper is very light in colour and for someone like me it helped me to spot the difference.I really liked watching this little bird for a good while.
Brian then calls a Green Sandpiper, I able to get onto this and watch it fly round the Scrape and land down



Cley Windmill at sunset





The view from North Scrape



behind a cow and it it is now out of sight, a short view but my first of the year, great as the boys already

had this as a tick, I was with then  when they got it but as usual I was to slow to pick it up.

BINGO

Brian's 250th bird of the year. He has really put a lot of effort and hours into reaching he's target.

He works hard all week and this is how he is able to relax away from all the rubbish that he has to deal with there. Also Jimmy and I would not be able to see half of what we do see if it was not for Brian taking us here there and everywere and when possible he will take us back to see something he has already seen himself so we don't miss out, so we have a lot to thank him for,and we are very happy for him to have reached the target he set himself at the start of the year.

We leave the hide now and have a quick scan out to sea as we set off back to the car,nothing about so off we go in search of a Montagus Harrrier, we have tried 3 or 4 times at the place we are told they are seen , but once again out of luck. We set off again this time we hope to spot a Honey Buzzzard , no luck once again so off home. On the way Brian breaks the journey by stopping off at Devils Dyke over looking Newmarket racecourse to look for Butterflies.

All three of us soon see the Chalkhill Blue, that is in abundance here, further down I spot a Gatekeeper Butterfly, I scramble down the bank at some risk to myself and get some sort of a photo of it.

Now if I had a hard time getting down the bank, it was twice the challenge going up, how stupid am I.

Back at the top,I am soon onto a Meadow Brown, it  fly's down the bank to the flowers down at the  bottom, this time it's on it's own. I now get lucky as I see another one right in front of me and sitting up.

Small heath

My next aim is for a Small Heath Butterfly, I do see one on the grass in front of me, the photo I got was not a good one, but still I did get a shot of it..




Chalkhill Blue



Gatekepper





 Brian and Jimmy were off doing their own thing and as yet I don't know what they have seen.

Jimmy has just brought himself a bigger and  better lens for his camera, and I won't know how happy he his with it until we get home and see what he has got on it.

Home now, but as we get near home we pull into a pub at High Beech in Epping Forest and have a nice pint of the amber necter to celebrate with Brian for him hitting his target. Another great day doing what we like to do together, I feel very lucky to be able to spend so much time with my boys doing what we all like as our hobby.

Back on form. Red-Backed Shrike (Hayes)

It's just gone 10 o'clock on Friday night and I have had no word from Brian to meet up in the morning, so I think he's checked the weather for tomorrow and thought it's not going to be worth to much effort.



So off to bed about 12 o'clock thinking I would get a good night's sleep as I struggle to sleep properly if I have to get up early these days, now I have retired and don't need to get up for anything  like work it's not the norm , so it plays on my mind, funny really as I have never had a problem getting out of bed in the morning as my work time started before 4 o'clock each day, so it was early to bed early to rise, now it has turned around it's late to bed late to rise.



Anyway  at 3 am my dog decides she wants to go out and play with the fox's, so down I go leaving my wife sound asleep or so she said  when I told her in the morning. So there I am wide awake after standing  out in the rain making sure the dog  doesn't wake the neighbours when she bombs after the Foxes , she  never gets close to them before they are back over the fence but she See's them off, so I  dry off and back to bed I can't get back to sleep for ages, I must have just dropped off when I get a tap on the door, it's Jimmy do I want to go and get the Red-Back shrike at Hayes as Brian has just text him  telling him he can't sleep and  do we want to go.


Brian & Jimmy looking for the Shrike. 

So in no time at all we meet up with Brian, and drive about 45 minute's to Hayes, that is in Middlesex
We find it easy enough , as Brian saw the bird yesterday it was really nice of him to to bring us to see it today.
This bird was Brian's 249th for the year, he set himself a target of 250 so only one to go for him, he will sail past that target now, but still a big thing for him as he has never done that many  before.
I thought he would have gone to a place so he could reach his target , but he knew Jimmy & I needed the Shrike for a life tick so he thought of us first really nice of him.





 There are a few birders here already and although they had not seen it yet, they had been told it was about, so we start looking and inside 10 minute's the Red- Back Shrike was sitting on the side of a tree in full view.
I only have a small lens on my camera compared to most of the other guys there, but I get a sort of record shot of it as you can see,  although the view I had through the scope was fantastic.
I am really happy to get  a tick again as I have dipped out for the last 3 trips , and it is nice to get the list  on the move again.

Red-Back Shrike.
A bit blurry as I tried to crop it to get it a bit bigger.

Minsmere 7/7/2012

Jimmy & I are up at 4 o'clock, we pack a flask and some Ham Rolls and set off to meet up with Brian at our meeting place.
Our destination is Minsmere, it is a fairly long drive, we never seem to be local anymore, the more we see the further we have to travel to get something new.
As soon as we get there we see Bearded Tit's in abundance as we walk up to the beach.
We head for the East hide, and look out over the water, it is full of about 50 Avocets, and lots of Waders.
We spot Redshank, Common Sandpiper, Bar Tailed Godwits, Little Egret, Little Tern, Dunlin, Spotted Redshank and Barnacle Goose.
A Hobby is showing really well flying around the hide, also 2 Marsh Harriers  are up and getting close to us.
We leave the hide and walk down to the Sluice, here we get Reed Warbler, Stonechat, Wren.
It is nice to see all these birds it makes a nice morning.
Having given up on seeing any new ticks, it off to the fields to see if any Butterflies are about.
It is quite productive , and a nice Red Admiral soon shows, then a Small Skipper flew up and that leads us to follow to try to get a picture, when Brian calls out that he has a Snake, and he gets a picture of it, it turns out to be an Adder, it shoots off and Jimmy & I miss it.
Next to fly about we see a Large Skipper, then as we go a bit deeper in to the foilage and get a good sighting of a Comma, I get a nice photo of it as it sits on the bush for sometime lovely colours on it and the shape of the wings are worth seeing it.
Next we turn our attention to looking for some Bugs & Dragonfly's,   I take a picture of a wasp like bug but do not have a clue  as to what it is, I will try to find out what it is later back at home.
 As I head back I spot the Adder Snake coiled up in front of me, I get my camera out, but it moves to quick for me to get a photo of it,still really nice to see one.
Now I see a massive Dragon fly land in front of me, I get a good photo of it.
It turns out to be a Ruddy Darter.
No new ticks but a nice day anyway.

Comma

Cinnabar Moth

 

Ruddy Darter

GateKeeper




Ringlet

Speckled Wood

Essex Skipper



No Swallowtail.

Off with the boys to Strumshaw Fen hoping to see the lovely large Butterfly, the Swallowtail.
Not great weather wise, but we will give it a try.
It takes us 2 hours to get there, Brian stops at the Black bean cafe for coffee on the way as he rushed out of home a bit quick as he got up a bit late and he didn't want to keep us waiting for him.

When we get there we spend 2 hours looking around the places where it has been seen the day before, but no sign of it, and it had not been reported on the sightings board.
So we decide to go on to Winterton as Brian & Jimmy need to see Little Tern for a year tick, I already have one from my trip to Pagham Harbour .

We go straight to the beach and find the roped off area and see about 300 breeding pairs, we stay for about 1hour just watching the activity.

A long drive for not a lot, but  nobody said it was easy.  And it makes us appreciate all the more when we do get a result.


Red Admiral









Ringlet



Night watch for Nightjars.

Jimmy gets home from work and has his dinner, as we settle down to watch the worst programme that has ever been on our television, Eastenders I know I don't have to watch it , but my wife has it on and you sort of watch it rather than going out of the room. I sit there and read. Jimmy gets a call from Brian at about 7 o'clock to ask us if we want to go to the Brecks to try for Nightjars, well we are out of the door in 10 minutes and meet up with him for the hours drive to get there.

As we turn off the main road to head down to the Brecks Brian spots a Little Owl sitting on a haystack, this is a year tick for me.
I know where Little Owls can be seen near my home at Lea Valley but each time I think of going to see them the weather turns nasty and they won't be sitting out for me to see them, so this is a good sighting for me.

We pull up and get the scopes out to see what we can see as it is to early for the target bird.
Not to long before a nice Barn Owl is seen flying low across the fields hunting for it's tea.
A great long sighting of one of our favourite birds.

Then we hear a Tawny Owl calling from the woods, next up we see a Hobby, followed by 2 more,one flies down and sits on a post not to far away, Brian gets a good picture of it.
Jimmy scans the sandy heath and the clearing in front of the forest and spots a couple of Woodlark sitting up in good view, also Stonechat are seen. Scanning the other side of the heath a few Stone Curlews are spotted, this is a good night so far but we need to find the target bird now.

Brian gets in his car and leaves us behind, to see if he can find anything down the road,while he is gone Jimmy & I are getting a noise from the other side of the field, we listen and we think we hear the purring trill of a Nightjar, we wait for Brian to come back and tell him what we heard and we stand very quite and listen for a good hour, not a peep so not being sure what we heard it has to be a dip.
A Cuckoo had been calling nearly all evening, and it was still at it when we packed up to go home.

A really nice evening birding we dipped out on the target bird but what we did see was worth the trip and we will try again on another night for the Nightjar.

Dipped out 3 times on the trot.

Off early o,clock again to get to Dungeness to try to see Roseate Tern. 

On the way we stop off at Crayford marsh as we hear there is a Quail to be seen, we get there and locate the spot where it has been seen, we hang about for about an hour with no luck and we think time to go. We think maybe we are in the wrong spot, when Kevin Jarvis turns up and tells us it is the right spot, he is the fellow who found it first as it is his patch.
We hang about talking to Kevin for sometime but the bird  never showed, so we say goodbye and set off on to the very bleak desolate Dungeness. 

When we get there it is wet & windy and as usual cold, we go straight up onto the beach and get behind the locked hide that is on the beach to try and get some shelter from the weather, we don't give up easily but this is not to pleasant, we give it a good go, but have to admit defeat.



Next week Brian & Jimmy go to Rickmansworth for the Little Bittern that is reported there, I could not join them as I had family commitments.
When they got home they had great joy in telling me they got great views of it, I was really pleased for them, NO really I was.

So next day being Monday and me being retired, I have all the time in the world, so I set off on my own to try to get it for myself. When I get to Stockers lake where the bird has been seen there are a lot of birders already there, but it had not been seen today.
I have a good talk to a lot of the other people there as we wait for the bird to show.
I give it 3 hours but still no show, so I have to suffer the third dip in a week.

June visit to Rainham, Marsh Warbler.

Rainham Marshes  is only 12 miles from home, but I don't visit there very much, it's a nice place, but it always seems to be freezing cold with the wind blowing across the Thames even on a nice day.
Also the opening hours are not to my liking.

A Marsh Warbler is reported here on bird guides so I get up early and set off with Brian & Jimmy.
When we get to the mound where it has been reported, a single birder is already set up, he gives us the thumps up that he has seen  it a little while ago and also heard it just a minute or so ago, we walk about a bit and it's not to long before we hear it's song again and get a target area to scan.
As I have said it's really cold and it seems longer than it probably was, when up pops the target bird to give us all a great little view, so glad we took time to come here now. This is a lifer for me and the boys so Bingo.

Before we leave we have been told  by Neville, who is a lad we see at different site's over the year that as he came up to the mound he heard a Grasshopper Warbler, as we all need it for a year tick we spend some time walking up & down the path, we have spread out now to give our self a better chance of getting it , This time Jimmy & I get to find it first and call out for Brian to come back to see it, another tick, great.

It's still early and not being far from home, we all think we should get home, and get warm and get some bacon butties inside us.
This sounds a really great idea until Brian's car decides to go on strike, it just shows you even a new Merc can stop working just like that.
So our 20 minute trip turns into a 3 hour wait, and a ride in the pick up truck back to Loughton.

Dark-Eyed Junco + Glossy Ibis +Spanish Sparrow

Just to bring the blog up to date as I only started it a few weeks ago, these are some birds & the places where I saw them earlier in the year.


Oare marsh.      Merlin, Sparrowhawk, Rough-Legged Buzzard, Hen Harrier. Marsh Harrier.

Rye Harbour  Snipe, Garganey, House Martin.

Spanish Sparrow At Closholt.

                                                                                     



  Stodmarsh Kent.      Glossy Ibis. Water Rail.

Southampton.             Dark Eyed Junco. Crossbill. Raven, Rose-Coloured Starling.

Closholt                     Spanish Sparrow.

Slough Reservoir.        Black-necked Grebe. Great Northern Diver. Scaup.

Solcot                        Great-Grey Shrike.

 Hayling Island.           Shorelark, Red-Breasted Merganser, Slavonian Grebe, knot (600)

BlackDown Forest.      Crossbills.

Titchwell.  Over one hundred birds seen the highlight for me my first Velvet Scoter.  Arctic Redpoll.
                   Lesser Redpoll.

Minnsmere.  Highlights.  Beaded Tits. Barnacle Geese, Great White Egret, Glossy Ibis, Mediterranean Gull. Smew.  Dunwich Heath: Dartford Warbler. Woodcock.  Stonechat.

Lynford. Arboretun.    Coal Tit, Marsh Tit. Nuthatch, Treecreeper. ( Dipped on Hawfinch ) 

Lowerstoft.   Iceland Gull


Dunwich heath

 Chorsly.  Yellowhammer. Corn Bunting.   
     

Alton Water  Red-Neck Grebe.



Iceland Gull



                                                                               

 



                                                                                               



Yellowhammer  At  Chorsly.

 



Turnstone & Knot At Salthouse.




Dark Eyed Junco





Ring Billed Gull

 

Rose- Coloured Starling-

 

Salthouse: Snow Buntings

Back to Dungeness for Purple Heron.

Once again we set off to do the 99miles to Dungeness, we get there just as it's getting light and head to Dengemarsh rd and walk down to Springfield Bridge.

We are looking for a Purple Heron, we have seen it here for the last 3 year's, we are joined by a couple of more birders, after an hour or so  there is no sign.  Brian wants to try his luck up on the beach, so Jim & I go as well, it is really cold & the wind is biting, not to much about, a few common Terns, some Swifts, then Little Gulls drop onto the beach, so Brian sets off with his camera and gets some nice pictures, He keeps snapping but forgets to watch for the waves rolling in and a big one gets him a beauty,dripping wet he heads back to the car.
With wet socks hanging out of the car window, back to see any sign of target bird, the fellows we left there are just going, I say the usual words and they say it showed about 20 Min's after we left but has gone down behind the reeds on this side of lake and is not been seen for a while.

So we scan around for a couple of hours but no show.

We head off and go looking for a Turtle Dove down by the  military camp as it was here that we got one last year, it was worth a try but to no avail, it is not looking like a good trip, we drive on instead of going back and come out back at Dengemarsh rd a little bit further along the road and Brian says lets give it one more try from here, about 15mins of sitting here I feel myself nodding off when  up goes the cry there it is,  up I jump thinking the boys were just having a laugh at my expense as usual, but not this time the Purple Heron pops up and gives us a great view. To far away to get the camera out, but another year tick, I think this is the best view I have had of this bird so not a bad day after all.

Yearly trip for Golden Oriole Lakenheath.

Jimmy & I are up early to meet up with Brian at the usual meeting point to go and try to get the Golden Oriole at Lakenheath which is in Suffolk about one hour away from home.

We have seen the oriole here for the last 4 yrs so we feel lucky.

We decide to take the high route over-looking the lakes to the right & the populars & reeds to the left; as soon as we set off on the walk we get Sedge, Reed and Cetti's Warblers.

A nice Marsh Harrier is flying around and giving good views, then we pick up a Barn Owl flying all around us this is probably all of our's favorite bird. We walk on when we see some Greylag greese in the grass behind the reeds, Jimmy & I don't take to much notice of them but Brian gives it a scan and tells Jim  to get his scope on them, sure enough he's come up trumps again when Jim picks out 3 Common cranes walking about, this is a great start as we have only been here about 1/2 hour or so.

As we walk on we hear the call of the target bird the oriole but as yet no sign, when we get down to the barn the boys spot a Hobby sitting on the top of the barn, it stays put and the cameras come out.
Setting off round the other side now, we start to see lots of birders looking for the Oriole, it had been seen by some of them but only a quick view in flight, but at least we know its about.
We hang about for some time still no sign, then Bearded Tits are poping up & down the reeds to keep us happy, a Bittern boom's out but no sign off it.

Starting to drag a bit now, when one of the blokes shouts its off over to the other plantation, we all run over but we miss it , so more waiting, but all of a sudden the Bittern flys up right over our heads a really nice view. While we are all looking at the Bittern Jimmy calls that he has the Golden oriole in he's scope, Brian & I jump on to Jim's scope and it sit's there for us to get a nice sight of it, a chap asks can he have a look as he has never seen one before, of cause Jim is only to happy to let him and he is over the moon when he gets a great view, that's what birding is all about for us, it's nice when everyone get's a good view and can go home happy

Bittern

A nice day's birding 2 more year tick's and met some more nice people..

Stackpole Estate Wales

Back from Scotland with the boys. Going on holiday with my wife Jean to Pembrokeshire now, it will not be a birding one, but if the opportunity comes along we will do some birding and nature watching.

While out on a drive we come across Stackpole lake estate, it is run by the National trust now, we drive down to the car park to find out what is there,when we find out there are all kinds of different trails to take and we can take our dog Holly on a lead with us we set off on the trail to Stackpole head.

We set off over some grassy hills it is about a mile when it starts to get a bit rocky, but still a path so alright to walk along. we have to cross over  Barafundle beach said to be the most beautiful beach in Wales. Not a big beach but really nice,  now the cliffs come into view, on reaching the edge I look over and see the sea awash with Kittiwait, Guillemot, and on the cliffs were loads of Razobill.  Jean has never seen a Razorbill so great for her to see. I Think we have done well and am pleased we came, it is really lovely scenery. We sit about for a while when I spot 5 Puffins flying towards us this is fantastic as I really wanted Jean to see them, I talk about Puffins when I come back from Skomer Island, and now she know's why we make such a fuss about this wonderful bird.

We have to go now so we set off feeling that we have had a really nice 5 hours or so, as we go back over the hills we get another first for Jean when a nice Red Kite flies over our heads.
We are well pleased as we head back to the car,when Jean says what is that sitting on that post over there, it is really near to us and it turns out to be a common Buzzard, not a bad day as it was not a planned birding trip.

As we get near to the car we smell bacon cooking and head towards the smell, we find the boathouse cafe. we sit in the cafe garden with the dog who is in need of a drink of water as we had run out on the walk. Two big bacon rolls are eaten and a mug of tea for me & a cup for Jean, and I buy us a massive slice of carrot cake and a cream scone, now this scone is so big I have enough to feed the dog a little treat as well, and if you knew me I don't give cream scone away easily . If you ever vist here this is a must.

Next day we decide to go back and do the lake walk.

This is a lilly pond walk and it is claimed to be the home of the Lady of the lake from where King Arthur claimed his sword Excalibur. .

We walk down one side of the lake, we see 2 Kingfishers fishing, always a great sight to see.


Holly

 Also a few Dragonflys I don't know what they are but nice to see, we carry on and get to the end and find Broadhaven beach nice but we have come to see the Otters and have not seen them at all, we stay a while to rest up as our old legs are tired, we have brought a picnic with us today so this is a good time to eat. Refreshed Jean thinks we should try to go back the other side round the lake, I am not sure about it because I tend to get lost easy, but we do it and we only go 50 yds or so and I see some thing in the middle of the lake, I at first think it is just a big log, but then 2 OTTERS start to jump out of the water and start to play and swim about we get great views. I call out to a group of people we had passed to tell them we had found the Otters, when they see them they tell me that they had been 4 times and never seen them and they could not thank me enough for telling them, I feel good as I am never the one to spot anything, when I am out with Brian & Jimmy they are too quick to see everything  I don't get a chance to be first, they call me lazy, but it is not really true it is they are much better  than me.

Now we need to get back to the car, I said I was not sure about going another way and we end up lost.
It takes us 2 hours to go through a forest with not a soul in sight, but we do see 3 Goldcrest and a male Bullfinch, we are glad when we see the car park in front of us and my dog looked at me as if to say thank god for that, I knew how that felt myself although she has got four legs to my two.

Another really nice day that we both enjoyed a lot, I think the rest of the break will be sight seeing and a bit of shopping looking for craft shops for Jean to spend some time in, you have to give and take a little bit.