In a Sussex garden

I've been carer for my Mum this week and it's lovely to see all the birds that come to her garden.

Gold and Greenfinches.. Robins, Wood Pigeons, Dunnocks, Blue Tits, Chaffinchest, and several Blackbirds.  I heard an owl calling in the wee small hours the other night.. don't know which owl it was but lovely to hear.  This morning I was listening to a Great Spotted Woodie at about 4.30 a.m.  lovely :)

Yesterday I was being watched by a rather haughty Wood Pigeon..

and Mr. Blackbird was gathering food for his family - think they've been nesting in the garden..

Green and Goldfinches on one of the feeders..

Then this morning. at about 6.00 a.m., this young blackbird was perched on the washing line... pic not that good as it was taken through a window and the sun hadn't really got round yet..

But today... sunshine again.. lovely (just be good to get out in it for a walk and some birdies though).  So some pics from Mum's garden.  There were about 6 swifts darting about overhead as I took these pics..

and here is the youngster again.. this time perched in the sunshine... wasn't at all bothered having me around taking pics...

and there is a second youngster.. who seemed to take exception to the original one..

Wigela in full bloom outside the window..

First of these poppies...

Mum and her neighbours front gardens have no division (i.e. fence etc.) and they've planted the gardens to look like one.. which is great :D ..

Hopefully tomorow I might get out for a few minutes :D ...

Summer in March?? Sun and colour in a Sussex garden.

Wow - is it summer??

I'm on 'looking after Mum' duties for a few days.. and Mum has a great garden...

Started off by seeing 4 Tortoiseshell butterflies (all together) and a Brimstone - the Tortoiseshells are still flitting about the garden a few hours later.  The weather is very warm and sunny.. which was very welcome after very thick fog this morning when I was on an airport run on the motorway.

A Robin was heralding the day with his wonderful song..

Just some spring flowers and colour around Mum's garden..

Sussex and Surrey... just a few birds

I was down with Mum during the week and we drove to a local lake.. this is private property but there's a service road where we can park and look out along the lake.

A very proud Mallard Mum with her 5 children

There have been 2 runner ducks on the lake for some years; and they came up to us as soon as we arrived.

There's a family of Great Crested Grebes who now have 3 young. They are a few weeks old and getting bigger so it looks promising for their future.



Today I managed to get to Painshill Park for a couple of hours. It was the afternoon so mostly everything was quiet.

A Black-tailed Skimmer... (originally got it wrong and posted as Broad-bodied chaser... that'll teach me to do things in a rush)
First dragon pic of the year!!

A Canada Goose had a lazy preen in the afternoon heat

and one of the two Goslings was eating grass

And the stars of the park - the two young Great Crested Grebes... still both doing well and really growing up now. You can hear their constant calling before you see them..

Mum and Dad indulging in a little synchronised drinking

In the main, there seems to be 1 adult with 1 youngster..

A Canada Goose arrived!!

And the lilies are starting to flower... they don't last for long but are lovely to see

And that was it! There's road works around the Painshill area in Cobham (new Gas mains)... so it was a slow journey!! But it won't last forever thank goodnes