HERE ENDETH THE FIRST CHAPTER

THAT'S ALL FROM THE POD'S WORLD BLOG FOLKS...

MY NEW BLOG ENTITLED POD'S WORLD 2 CAN BE FOUND AT...

www.patchbirder2.blogspot.com

A BIG THANK YOU TO THOSE THAT CHOSE TO FOLLOW, I HOPE I CAN ENTICE YOU FURTHER WITH POD'S WORLD 2.

TTFN  POD

ALL ABOARD

Have just spent a few days up in bonny Scotland sailing back and forth to Islay and beyond as part of my ESAS training. (European Seabirds at Sea). What a great course, you really feel you've earned that certificate...if you pass that is, which thankfully I did the boss will be pleased to know.
Some photos of the action aboard the Calmac ferry 'Hebridean Isles'...

Heading to Islay

 Two of Islay's/Jura's resident White-tailed Eagles

 Port Askaig, Islay

 Rhuvaal Lighthouse

 Approaching the island of Colonsay

One of the local Golden Eagles

Approaching Oban via The Sound of Kerrera


the end is nigh...I've run out of space according to google so cannot upload any more photos. Anybody got any ideas how to over come this???

RVP

Money well spent

COMMON TERN

Down on the Patch our Common Terns have done really well and one cute little juvenile is coming along nicely..

A fantastic first breeding record and one we hope will continue next year. Only the 3rd breeding site this year in Cheshire no less and rather late as well. Keep those fish coming mum and dad.

NORFOLK CAMPING

At long last the family (wife + pooch) and I have managed to get away to that wonderful part of the UK namely the North Norfolk coast. Once the best kept secret now plagued by rich southerners buying up all the property for use once a year holiday homes. Even the pubs have suffered with our favourite The Pale Bovine Liquor  Dispensary (The Dun Cow) at Salthouse gutted, repainted and tarted up for the hordes. Cheapest meal now well over a tenner...ahhh! The chippy(s) at Wells were doing a roaring trade, I wonder why?
On arriving at our campsite at Stukey my not happened for ages gout decided this was the day to flare up and I spent the rest of the week sun bathing hence nowt was added to the year list...bugger!
One brief trip out to Ticwell to meet up with Lou Cross and family was the best I could muster. Also met up with  one of my other old school (birding that is) pals Pete (Mr Bird guide done well for himself what!) Morris who was also at Ticwell with family in tow.

Goose fest at Ticwell

4 Ruff and a Knot

dude Buff-breast

The Cross's and The Antrobus's

As luck had it I actually managed a butterfly tick whilst not actually butterflying with that most mysterious thing called Wall or to give it its old name Hedge Brown.

and nearby a stunning Red Admiral

this little fellow though was not a welcome find, I think its a Wood Mouse

back to work tomorrow...roll on October!

TOP O'THE LEAGUE

After GW1 look who's doing the business....

Foulshaw Moss

I managed to nip into Foulshaw Moss whilst on route up the Cumbrian coast this week...more Bat surveys to do. Timing was epic as that big round golden ball in the sky had decided to come out and play. Others had the same idea and the car park was almost full with 5 cars! as people were out with their cameras trying to capture the wildlife on show.
With the sun hot and temperatures reaching 22'c there were Dragonflies everywhere with Black Darters being the commonest.

male Black Darter and female below

On the rather frail boardwalk I found 4 basking Common Lizards, the reptile course I'd recently been on paying dividends already.

fantastic critters

There was one reptile mat and underneath a very nice surprise my first Slow Worm find...

I just wish birds were a bit more approachable.

Off to Norfolk soon camping at Stiffkey so fingers crossed for some East winds.

tara 4 now

HARRY AND HARVEY.2

OLYMPICS LONDON 2012

Anyone else bored of all the 24/7 athletics!!...since when was synchronised swimming a sport or dressage ( posh dancing horses) a sport. Isn't the motto of the Olympics strongest and fastest. If they can have such useless so called 'sports' such as team diving then surely we can have darts, surely a gold medal in the bag for Mr Taylor. Anyway enough of my drivel the Premier League starts soon...thank heavens!

To get away from all the wall to wall BBC nonsense here's a great place to be away from it all....

The North West's (just) answer to Scillies...Bardsey Island a place that's certainly hit the birding headlines this year. Makes you wonder what the previous warden was up to for the past god knows how many years?

Pod will try anything for a year tick...there's a Greenish Warbler over there I just know it?

Birding now there's a sport I could get into...competitive listing oh yeah! bring it on, the Olympic committee would be very busy dope testing all those stringers, dudes and IQ40 club members what?

tara 4 now

BUFFY WATCH

Made a couple of sorties over to the once world famous (well in the UK birding world anyway) Frodsham Marsh this weekend to hopefully get a glimpse of the Buff Breasted Sandpiper that's been showing on and off. Unfortunately every time I visited it had just done one back to the Mersey mud or wherever it was sneaking off to. I did though see the vast flock of Blackwits that recently hit the news with a potential mega grip back in the shape of a Hudsonian Godwit that thankfully for us old timers proved to be a moulting (of sorts) common Blackwit...phew!

The huge flock of Blackwits a 1000+ roosting out on No.6 tank.

flushed by a passing Peregrine

out on the lovely soup of freshly pumped in mud a pair of Ruddy Shelduck were recent arrivals from ?

They'll do for a year tick me thinks.

With no sign of Buffy here's a piccy from way back in the early days when there was no such thing as digiscoping...a shot of a Buff breasted Sandpiper that I found on the ICI Tank 3rd October 1983.

I'll just have to find another down in Cornwall this Autumn...