My weekend…

I didn’t get to see many birds over the weekend – apart from the hundreds in my brother’s garden, which I didn’t photograph, but I did get to see more of York and a little of Whitby.  The weather was wonderful – crisp, clear and sunny, although really cold, but no wind.  It was a nice change from the grey, cloudy, windy North West.

I loved these paintings, discovered underneath the paint in a little old church.  I imagine it was a way to avoid Henry VIII’s wanton destruction of all things sacred, but amazingly, they’ve been preserved.

 

This is Whitby and the abbey used for target practice by the Germans, during World War II.

 

There are lots of lovely houses built into the cliffs and LOTS of steps to climb.

The waves were wonderful and huge.

There were little turnstones on the pier and I’d never seen them before, but they were incredibly difficult to photograph because they just don’t stay still and the bright sun made it all the more difficult.

I went to see the Festival of Angels – lots of ice sculptures on display in the street, but sadly, it started to rain and they were melting by the time I got to take any photos.

 

We ended up in The House of the Trembling Madness, for a welcome beer! There are some gruesome animal heads on the wall, though.

Finally, a late afternoon sky.

 

Treat

Yesterday’s offerings.

Long time no see…

Haven’t shared any photos for a while but that’s not cos I didn’t have any – just because I didn’t have the time.

Managed to get out for a couple of hours on Friday and saw some great sights at Pennington Flash. There was a huge flock of lapwings, providing a spectacular display for us, both on the ground and in the air.

Sadly, the sun was almost setting, so the light wasn’t good, despite the sunshine, because it was shining on the front of the birds, which masked the gorgeous colours.  I would so love my camera lens to have the same clarity as my bins, but sadly, it doesn’t!

In one hide, we were treated to a really close view of a gorgeous kingfisher on his perch but only for a few seconds, unfortunately.  John spotted him in a tree to the side and got some good photos but I was sitting at the wrong angle and couldn’t even see it – drat!

On the way to the Bunting Hide, I did find these and fell in love with them.

Forgot to mention that I did manage to snap a couple of ok shots of a long tailed tit, which I’m chuffed with because they’re rarely still long enough to get a reasonable photo.

I was also fascinated by these gorgeous leaves and desperately hoping a lovely bird would land on them because they would have made such a fab frame.

At the Bunting Hide, we saw all the usual suspects.

Bullfinches

and a lovely little greenfinch.  We often used to have greenfinches in the garden, especially last thing, feeding off all the seeds dropped by the other birds.  They were usually pretty friendly, too, but since the finch disease reduced their numbers so drastically, we rarely see any now. This was a real treat.

LOVE the fact that I can see his lovely beak and the half crushed sunflower seed. Amazing, given the failing light at this time.

I’d like to go again today but I suspect I’m going to be a bike widow again in a short while – still, time to stamp :-)

Before I go, I spotted this in the wind the other day, as I was hanging out some washing (bit too hopeful, I think – had to bring it in damp!). I thought it was a falling leaf because it was blowing all over the place but no, it was a gorgeous little flutterby – such a delight on a cold, late October day. I quickly ran in for my camera and this is what I managed to snap.

 

You can even see the damage on his wings, if you look closely.

Till next time – just hope it isn’t quite as long!

Wedding Birds

It isn’t often you get to indulge your hobbies/interests during a wedding, but my son and daughter-in-law were good enough to arrange a Birds of Prey display at their wedding on 26 June and what a treat!  Here are a few of the photos I took.

And of course I can’t NOT include one of the happy couple, so here they are!  My baby and his wife.

And here’s one of the castle from the back – showing how the fire of the weekend before destroyed one whole wing!

From the front