A quick visit to Amwell - it was cold!

After a very slow journey between 2 junctions of the M25 today... I called in at Amwell Nature Reserve.

Very quiet but by the feeders, the birds were entertaining.  Not that much about so fairly quiet this afternoon!

'I know if I reach I'll get the nut!!'

Double Trouble

New species... a Tufted Reed Bunting ;)

and a couple of Lapwings!

Another year gone... ;)

Today - is my birthday and yesterday my daughter and grandson took me out to a concert at the Dome in Brighton.  On the grounds of , it seems, that I never want to grow up :D  lets do something really different to celebrate.  We did and it was great! My daughter has great imagination for getting presents well matched to the recipient!

On the way, some street entertainment

It was Wallace & Grommit Musical Marvels.  We'd planned to have some lunch before, but the traffic going into Brighton was horrendous.  We found a great little shop selling Wraps etc and stopped there.  We then discovered there was a food market on selling loads of different types of cooked food!!  And a couple of colourful buildings too

Given we'd had a 'light' lunch and discovering a cup cake stall... well how could we pass by?

This was my choice :)

And then to the Dome:

 Not very good picture of the interior during the interval.

(I didn't have a camera with me - so all pics were with my phone camera... had to work out how to change the settings!!)

Music was provided by the Aurora Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Collon.

The first half was various pieces of music..

Fanfare for the Common Man - Copland
Danse Macabre - Saint-Saens
Czardas - Monti
The Infernal Dance of King Kastchei (from the Firebird) - Stravinsky
Clair de Lune, Debussy
The Magic Flute. Overture, Mozart
'Storm' from Four Sea Interludes - Birtten
My Concerto in Ee Lad - by Wallace ( an new piece of music :D  )
and then the Interval

The film of 'A Matter of Loaf and Death' was then shown and the orchestra played (Julian Nott) the musical accompaniment throughout the 35 minutes of the film - impressive.

Quite a youthful orchestra in the main and they played really well.

There were, obviously, many children in the audience and some quite young.  I was surprised that they were so very quiet during the first half and seemed to enjoy the music - albeit accompanied now and then by snippets of miscellaneous bits of Wallace & Grommit films.

The 2nd half, surprisingly, they were more restless.

It was a great day out and a wonderful surprise celebration of my birthday.  Thank you so much Sharon and J.... :D  Lovely memories!

One good Sandwich Tern equals about 70+

I was on my way to my daughter's today (more about that in another post tomorrow), but had a detour to Goring Gap along the Sussex coast.  I'd heard that about 12 Sandwich Terns were seen there in the last couple of days.

Well, they were there - about 70 of them.  Another birder who was watching them claimed to have counted 77!  There were also about 3 Med Gulls as well...

The birds were all some distance away and I hadn't got the dSLR with me.  So these shots (heavily cropped) were taken with the Panasonic G5 and 45-175 lens!  I'm really impressed with what it can do... not goo good on moving subjects but as the Terns in the main, were just preening...

At one point they all took off and wheeled out over the sea before returning to settle once again.  It really was the most awesome sight!

(click to enlarge this first picture)

Is this a Med Gull taking off?  awful picture but best I could do..

Good Friday? Could have been better in terms of weather

I was awake early.. the sun was shining so I headed off to RSPB Pulborough Brooks.

First sighting was of a pair of Linnets.  Later on I saw huge flocks of them ducking and diving down onto the fields.  Dreadful light and no pictures.  A Green Woodie bounded away in front of me.  There were a few Garganey out on the water - and thanks to a kind birder with a scope who gave me a view of these.  A Male Bullfinch was ahead..

And in one place 5 Snipe and another there were 3.

These are purely record shots today - the sun went in not long after I got there and that, as they sat, was that!

From there I went onto Petworth House... posted pictures before from this house but nonetheless, a few more.

The Daffodils gave a welcome bit of colour to the day!

All the daffodils were miniature!

This woody woodie, was something to do with a trail organised for the children visiting today!

 Wood Anemone (I think)

Mistletoe!

A few Greylags, with Canada Geese, Mallards, Tufted Ducks and about 3 Pied Wagtails.

and around the house

A real log fire!

This picture was difficult to take and I'm surprised I got it!  The speaking image of the woman was projected onto a piece of glass of the same shape as the woman.  Very clever!

And that was that.  Needless to say as I do this, the sun is now shining... ;)