New kids on the block.

A quiet day on the western moors today with only a few bird about and most of these were juveniles. When we got home we were greeted by another juvenile squeaking in the back garden, this time it was one of our resident Hedgehog kids wandering around the garden!!

 Kestrels

Curlew

 Siskin

Wren

Hogglet

A 'Tern' up Day.

First stop on Saturday was a quick visit to Saltholme to see the Roseate Tern which was on Paddy's Pool.

Next we had a walk along the beach at Crimdon to see the Little Tern and there seemed to be quite a few. But not as many as the orchids in the dunes, we have never seen so many.

On the way back a stop off at Newburn and there was the Med Gull on his favourite post.

To end the day we watched the Barn Owl hunting near the River Tees and came across a Little Owl with one of its young.

Little Terns

Roseate Tern

The Stunning Med Gull

Barn Owl

Little Owl

A weekend of contrasts

Saturday saw us pay a visit to Saltholme to see the Temmink's Stint which was view-able at distance from the Saltholme hide. Then on to Sutton Bank to check out the 3 Turtle Doves in the area.

Sunday we had a run over to Smardale, not much doing on the 'Birding' front but managed to see several Northern Brown Argus butterflies and a nice array of Orchids, the highlight for us is always finding Common Lizards in the area.

 Temmink's Stint

Turtle Dove

View to the south of the White Horse at Kilburn.

 Common Blue

 Common Lizard

Northern Brown Argus

Butterflies to Turtle Doves - nice weekend.

Managed to see a few butterflies on Saturday while the birds were in short supply. Sunday improved on the birding front when we located two Turtle Doves in North Yorkshire.

 Turtle Dove

2! Turtle Doves 

 Bee Orchid

 Cinnabar Moth

 Corn Bunting

 G C Grebe

 Green Tiger Beetle

 Red Admiral

Ringlet

Superb views of Nightjars.

Not been out much of late due to work commitments but we did pay a visit last Friday evening to Wykeham. We had not intended going but as it was a nice evening we decided to have a run out and ended up there. So glad we did as we had a distant view of a Turtle Dove and superb close views of at least five Nightjars without even moving far from the car.  I was amazed when one landed in the tree behind us.  Shame it was getting dark.

Crested Lark and Red-rumped Swallow

While we were enjoying Scotland, David and Becca were on the island of Kos, looks a lovely place. They managed to photograph a few of the local birds etc. for us to drool over.

Return to Nethey Bridge.

We have just returned from another short break to one of our favourite parts of the UK - Nethey Bridge and the Aviemore area.

Highlight of our trip being watching a pair of short eared owls hunting voles and returning them to at least one youngster which we could see through the scope.  Ptarmigan were easily spotted on the slopes but sadly no Dotterel, from what we can understand we were looking too far away and they were actually right close to the top station, typical.  The Crested Tits were seen but not so easily as normal, we think the Winter is best for them.  The Black Throated Diver was present as normal but sadly only the one Slavonian Grebe was spotted at considerable distance on Loch Ruthven.

Would so love to be a wildlife guide up there.  Can't wait for our next visit.

Taking home dinner.

And here is dinner trying to escape down the road.

A couple of views of the Cairngorms, still with some snow.

Roe Deer

Red Deer

Never seen and heard so many Cuckoos.

Common Sandpiper

Above our bedroom window at the cottage.

Red Squirrel

 Spotted Fly Catchers everywhere.

I think the Black Headed Gulls were picking off most of these wee ones!

Some ducklings but not sure if Goldeneye?

 Mountain Hares

Nest building

Loch Garten