The Safari is living it up on the moors above the Yorkshire city of Sheffield, never been to this part of the world
On the way a Red Grouse (190) flew right over the bonnet of the car while we negotiated a steep bend on the noorland road. Not a bad start to our little break.
Apologies for the abnormal formatting etc and poor pics Wifey's puter and the WiFi here are conspiring against us. Well the poor pics are straight off the camera so we can't really blame the technology for those!
Yesterday we just about lost a day due to some of the most atrocious weather we've witnessed in our 53 1/2 years, if it hadn't have been for Frank needing to go out six times fro a total of no more than a total of 12 minuutes we wouldn't have set foot outside, Frank wasn't too keen either; his ears were nearly torn from his head!
This morning the sun came out and the wind had dropped significantly but so had the temperature. A bit of a cook-a-thon for our anniversary dinner and to get some of tomorrow's lunch prepped up was followed by a short drive up a couple of hills and down a couple of dales saw us looking at Larch trees at the edge of a reservoir for a species we've never seen before but has been in the area for a couple of months. As we were parking up another birder walked past and gave us news they'd been seen about an hour earlier.
We joined him, two pairs of bins are better than one, but rounding the corner on the lane two more birders were in situ with scopes and cameras pointing skyward at the tree tops.
Game on Two Barred Crossbill (191) in the bag and very nice birds they are too. So that's an amazing three lifers this year, not often that happens these days, it's normally three every five years, or less.
Now we're only one behind Monika in our annual year list challenge - gonna be very very close, see her latest missive here http://www.orcawatcher.com/2013/12/whale-waiters.html personally we'd rather wait ten years on those rocks than pay Seaworld a few measly dollars to see them 'perform' in captivity. Maybe we will get out there one day.
Enjoy the festivities
Where to next? Might be back tomorrow with tales of mad Mallards
In the meantime let us know who's getting close to what in your outback.
4 comments:
Had to miss a visit myself on Monday Davyman, that was quite a storm !
Have a good Christmas mate :-)
Nice one with the 2-barreds, Dave. There`s been Parrot Crossbill frequenting the Sheffield/Barnsley moors.
All the best for christmas & the new year, mate.
Cheers guys, all the best for 2014 hope it's a good one for you both.
Well done getting the Crossbills Dave. I've never seen any species of Crossbill, they're an ace looking bird.
I hope you & yours all have a great Christmas Dave!
Post a Comment