Milford-on-Sea......

Monday 28th April 2008

We were busy on Saturday morning, but we did manage to get down to Milford-on-Sea, for an afternoon walk. To tell the truth, we weren't expecting to see too many birds today.....except maybe there would be a Common Tern on Sturt Pond, this time of year.

On the walk down to the pond, lots of songbirds could be heard. A Sedge warbler was singing from the reedbed, and twenty or so Turnstones were.....you got it...turning stones! Then we came across a Mute swan calling to it's mate!! Poor thing, the mate was in no hurry at all... He turned up about ten minutes later and their little love ritual began...

love heart.....

Next thing you know, a pair of Terns flew in.... They weren't Common Terns as we had expected, but the much rarer Little Tern...


Little tern

We carried on up the cliff path, and here we noticed some Sand martins gathering nesting materials. That prompted us to take a detour down the steps to the beach, to watch them flying in and out of their nesting holes. It was a lovely warm afternoon, so we ended up sitting on the rocks, listening to the sea and watching the birds..... It sure was a novelty to be out without a coat on!



sand martin

Eventually we managed to drag ourselves away, and walked down through the village for some fish and chips for tea.........

123. little tern
124. sand martin

Sunday 27th April 2008

125. house martin

New Forest.....

Tuesday 22nd April 2008

To get to my local shops I have to walk through a park, which always looks so nice this time of year. There are lots of pink and white tulips, the trees are out in blossom and the shrubs are just bursting into life again. I find myself going shopping for things I don't need, just to see the flowers and of course the birds are singing in the trees.


apple blossom

Love is definitely in the air... as far as the birds are concerned.......They've been busy finding mates and building nests. I saw the Blackcap on the apple tree this morning, I hadn't seen him for a week or two..



On Sunday we went to the New Forest and parked in the Barrow Moor car park. We spent a couple of hours walking through the woods and saw most of the usual woodland birds. The best finds were two Firecrests on the Barrow Moor side and a pair of Tree Pipits in the pine area on the opposite side of the road.............

121. tree pipit
122. firecrest

Happy Birthday to my sister for today and to my friend Jean, tomorrow......

Birds, Butterflies and Wild Flowers........

Thursday 17th April 2008

Ian had a Birthday yesterday, so we spent the day at Durlston Country Park, near Swanage in Dorset. I love it there, not only for the seabirds, but the wild flowers and butterflies too.


yellow primroses

Although there were blues skies and sunshine, there was also a cold wind, especially along the coastal path. But that didn't bother us....as there were lots of lovely birds......... Guillemots, Razorbills, Shags and Fulmars............birds we don't get to see very often. It was just wonderful. I only wish I had a camera with a huge lens, as the Fulmars seemed happy to perform for us, and at times one pair were resting on the cliff edge
.



fulmars

Wild flowers included, Bluebells, Whitebells, Forget-me-nots, Greater Periwinkle, Primroses, Cowslips and Adders Tongue fern.


whitebells and bluebells

Red Admiral, Peacock and Speckled Wood Butterflies were all on the wing.


speckled wood

There were lots of other birds too, I think we counted thirty species in all, with four birds for the year list...

117. guillemot
118. razorbill
119. fulmar
120. shag

Swallow.......

Tuesday 15th April 2008


mallard

We didn't get out birding at the weekend so nothing much to report... Except I did see my first swallow of the year, when driving through Blackfield, last Saturday morning. Ian had already seen sixty swallows, earlier in the week, while working in Basingstoke...... he saw a couple of Red Kites up there too....

116. swallow

April Snow......

Sunday 6th April 2008

I opened the curtains this morning, to find our garden lightly covered in snow....




one lone Goldfinch braves the elements......



Bye for now

Eve

Song-birder.......

Saturday 5th April 2008

We went to Blashford this morning, straight to the woodland hide, hoping to see a Lesser Redpoll.

I must admit, I'm not the best birdwatcher in Hampshire. I have a habit of breaking out into song - which doesn't go down too well in the bird hides!! If anyone's interested, today's song was..........ain't no sunshine when she's gone.... One of the male birders must have enjoyed it, as he left his friends and came and sat next to me!!

There were lots of nice birds to see, including...

great spotted woodpecker
greenfinches
siskins
blackbird
chaffinches
brambling
great tits
blue tits
long tailed tits

great spotted woodpecker

and then a Lesser Redpoll appeared, our target bird for today, and a lifer for me......


lesser redpoll

The woodland hide at Blashford, is also a good place to see Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. We saw two this morning, one male and one female. I was always led to believe that Lesser spotted are seen high up in the trees...... well don't believe everything you read in the books. The female we saw today, was on a tree trunk about six feet up from the ground.


you can just make out a female lesser spotted woodpecker

That was it......the morning was gone, and we were heading down to Hythe. On the way, we stopped at the Shatterford car park and noticed a pile of tyres which someone has decided to dump there....


a blot on the landscape....

Later this afternoon we saw two Red-legged Partridges in Hoe Lane......

114. lesser redpoll
115. red-legged partridge

Identity Crisis.....

Friday 4th April 2008

I’m going through a bit of an identity crisis......

It all began last month, when I decided to apply to the DVLA in Swansea, for a photographic driving licence. I was dragged kicking and screaming (ok, a slight exaggeration), to the photo booth at our local Sainsburys. To have a photo taken, to send with the application form. Believe me, I cringe at having to do things like that!

Photo ordeal over, I filled in the form and sent it off, with my old driving licence, birth certificate and marriage certificate. I did not enclose a fee, as my postcode has changed, and if any of your address details have changed, you don’t need to pay.......at least that’s how I read it. In fact there’s a box on the form to fill in any change of address details.... which I did.

Yesterday an envelope from Swansea, came through my letterbox. I expected it to be a nice, new, photographic driving licence......but no, it wasn’t. It was a letter, returning an application form, and asking me for £17.50. Enclosed with the letter was a birth and a marriage certificate........problem was, they weren’t mine!!!!

So I found myself standing in the kitchen, with a face I’ve never seen before, looking up at me, from an application form, which wasn't mine.... and birth and marriage certificates belonging to someone called Mandy......

I then began to wonder where my documents have ended up??? Has this Mandy been sent my birth and marriage certificates?????

I immediately phoned the DVLA, and all they seemed interested in, was me sending the documents back (at my own expense), they didn’t seem too concerned as to what has happened to my stuff.

So there you have it, unless I hear any different, I have no driving licence, no birth certificate and no marriage certificate - and as yet - no apology from the DVLA, even though they have my phone number and email address..........

And my friends wonder why I prefer birds to humans......

Bye for now,

Mandy........I mean Eve!!!