My Favourite month

May is definitely my favourite month, everywhere is fresh and green, all the migrants are back, and the woods and hedgerows are full of birdsong. the last few days I have been out and its been great listening to willow warblers, chiffchaffs, whitethroats , wood warblers . also saw buzzard, peregrine .

I haven't been birding specifically just out for long walks with Kyfer & Misty the later spending much energy chasing insects of various types.

If I am going out to do some serious birding then unfortunately the westies have to stay at home , but as you can see Kyfer was really enjoying the walk today, but little short legs (Misty) was feeling a bit tired. Also picture above is a Ribwort Plantain with a bug on it.

We are hoping for another good day out tomorrow and as my wife has a day off work she will be coming with us.

All for now, good birding.

In work today.

In work today , that makes a change as there is not much doing because of the recession. I work with two other guys doing chainsaw carvings, we use to work over at Derwent bay near Keswick, and we were called Derwent Bay bears due to the fact that the lads use to carve mainly bears. We now work from what use to be an old farm at Flusco not far from Penrith, and go by the name of Cumbrian Carvings. One of the partners Symon is at the Devon county show at the moment, where two of our carving have been presented to Sophie and prince Edward. see picture.

A lot of my work is done in the old barn, and a pair of swallows have built a nest in there almost above my head, and they don't seem to mind the sound of radio 2 blasting out . There was also two male pheasants about and a female. We also hear from time to time Curlew calling in the next field, possibly one of my favourite bird sounds, they came up from the coast last month back to their breeding grounds. Also close by is a large Rookery which gives out constant chatter all day. We put up a nest box on the side of a large larch tree as I very often hear a Pied Flycatcher about, but as yet no takers.

I live right in the centre of Penrith so don't get a great variety on our bird table , but this evening we have had male & female blackbird, and collared doves, blue tit, and a feral pigeon which we are discouraging as we would sooner the true wild birds have the food. And as I write have a dozen house sparrows.

Well I think that is it for today, Hope I can find something more interesting tomorrow.

The Westies

I have been following a few blog sites for a while , mainly birding sites and I thought I would give it a try. I suppose I am rapidly approaching the silver surfer stage in life so bear with me.

The thing that started me thinking it would be a good idea (or not depending on my mood at the time ) was the recent purchase of our second westie , and thought there just might be someone out there that may be interested in the progress of the 3 year old male (Kyfer ) and the new arrival and general nuisance ( Misty) 18 week old female, see photo, above, and anything we might see on our travels. The local Collared Doves haven't quite got use to the new arrival as they don't stay quite as long on the feeding table. Funny really as they don't seam to take much notice of the older dog, well He has been around for a while.

Anyway we shall see how it goes, and I'll try and keep you posted , All for now ,Willybob