A nice little bird took a fancy to me... sorry Liz!!!

After reading a great post on Brian Rafferty's blog regarding Otters on Waterhead Pier in Ambleside, I asked my boss if it would be possible to take Tuesday off to head off early and hopefully get some shots of these amazing animals.  Luckily I have a good boss who instantly said yes get yourself off there and after a quick call to Liz to see if she and Briony wanted to join me, the plan was set in motion.

Past two days of SUN and horny wildlife.

Well it may only just be Spring but after the past two days (Wednesday and Thursday) anyone would have believed we were in Summer.  Yes it may of only been 14-15 Celsius but for the people that don't know me that's the perfect temperature for me before I start to bake!!  So on both days I decided to make a little time in going just a short distance from home and from work and got some nice little sightings.

A night on the Newt

After a failed attempt last week at my first experience of a local newt and amphibian count due to the horrendous weather conditions, I was contacted by Mr DM who asked if I was free to join him on Wednesday evening for the count at my local Wetland site and seeing that the weather was clear I jumped at the oppurtunity.

Walk into the unknown or the final frontier!!

Not really much of a wildlife related post, possibly 2 mentions of that but headed out on 2nd and 3rd March to attempt a long exposure shot of the International Space Station (ISS) heading over in the clear night sky.  Seeing that the past few nights have brought incredibly clear skies I decided to head to Marton Mere and try my first shot of the ISS.

Bitterly cold and embarrassing amount of lifers!!!

Post is a week late due to not having the chance to even turn the ole PC on in the past few days as work, home life and baby were top of the order.

Anyway, after exchanging a few emails with Mr DM regarding what had been going in the local area, I was informed that it would be an impressive high tide up at Warton Bank.  So after a brief think and realising that Liz and Briony would be away for the weekend; I decided that it would be worth meeting up with D to be shown the ropes of Warton Bank.

My wife the comedian bought me a gift!!!

Well this is what happens when my wife decides she is going to be a comedian for the day. She has obviously got used to the fact that alot of my life has been dedicated to a huge interest in wildlife, with birds being top of the list.  The days of me saying "I saw a Great Tit today" and Liz then pointing out that I must of been looking at myself in the mirror are gone and she now no longer sniggers at the mere mention of the any bird called Tit.

Linnet, Twite, Linnet, Twite...what will it be.

Well after a slow week at work (it's still slow even though it's now Thursday) and not much going on around the Preston area, the local wildlife had decided to come to me.  So much so that even walking out into the works car part at 4pm to get in my car and drive home to see my 2 girls, I caught sight of a flock of  finch sized birds.  Problem now is identifying them, you see with a bird of such size maybe Robin sized or slightly smaller it's not particularly easy to ID when the light is fading.  So with camera and binoculars in hand I creeped over to the trees were they had settled in.

Baby Briony's first watch with her Dad... and what a good watch!!!

After my first 3 days back at work since my paternity leave and Christmas, I decided that I must head out over the weekend and do a bit of wildlife watching but this time with my new baby daughter.  Seeing that Liz had asked my Mum if she wanted to go to a card making demonstration (my wife is very creative!!!) it was down to me to have Briony on my own for a few hours.  Therefore I decided to get her all wrapped up warm in her car seat, get the pram and all changing facilities into the car and head off around the Fylde Coast.

Was it a Goldcrest!?

Well seeing as since my beautiful baby has been born I have not had much chance to get out and about with a bit of spotting, watching or whatever you call it.  Therefore garden watching has been the order of the past 4 weeks.

Therefore one morning while once again making a mass of tea and coffee for family and friends visiting, I was peering out of the kitchen window checking to see what was on the feeders when I saw something tiny flitting around on the small blossom tree we have in the garden.  Was it a Blue Tit? nope not colourful enough or any blue tinge to the feathers, was it a Wren? nope as not that brown to look at.  It definitely had a slight green tinge to the feathers, quickly I ran upstairs to grab my binoculars, while everyone waited for a piping hot brew and panic set in as I couldn't find them!!!!  Therefore next to find was my camera, surely the 300mm lens would be able to assist in identifying what I was seeing.