LIKE A LOTTERY WIN (10/02/10)

Why I bother planning anything I often wonder. Managed to access the internet briefly yesterday. Sorted a new access code this morning and surprise surprise it refused to work. The site manager couldn’t have been more accommodating but as he has no idea what a computer even looks like he wasn’t too much help. Several calls to the provider later we now seem to be up and running.

I fully intended going back to the owls and will do so but we had to content ourselves with a wander around the woods shore and fields. The place is awash with birds but pride of place goes to this chap………Felt like I’d won the Pools!

                      A Great Spotted Woodpecker the result of three hours trailing through trees over the past two days. I can hear them but can I find them. I have found it an extremely hazardous business. One ideally needs eyes like a lizard one looking up the other looking down. Avoiding rabbit holes, tree roots and even the trees themselves proved nigh on impossible.

     Still the weather holds fair, actually could have done with a quick shower to wash off the muck collected on my forays to the forest floor. This is another view of Ravenglass or as the Romans called it ITVNOCELVM. The tide was in so little in the way of waders or ducks.

       These are the same Wigeon as yesterday and so are these Oyster Catchers but they were miles away.

     Back to yesterdays owls, I only hope that I have them titled correctly. I suspect that for once there is little chance of contradiction but one must try and I must not presume that you are as ignorant as I am.

A Spectacled Owl he hails from Central America.

Southern White Faced Owl, I neglected to note his nationality.

Pearl Spotted Owlet it comes from Africa.

A Striped Owl it flits about from Southern Mexico down to Argentina. It was fascinated by Molly and no matter what I did it would not look at me. Suppose I could have poked it with a stick.

A Borrowing Owl he digs his hole from Canada to Argentina. It’s puffed itself up because Molly was at it’s level and only a few feet away.

  A Pharaohs Eagle Owl from North Africa.

Verreaux’s Eagle Owl Africa south of the Sahara. There’s a better than evens chance I have spelt this incorrectly.

A Greyish Eagle Owl, my sort of name for a bird, it lives across Africa from Somalia to Guinea. There are roughly the same number of birds again but the cages, branches or nest boxes prevented pictures. Well worth a visit if you are up this way. Even worth coming specially for a visit.

A Red Kite. No idea why this is in an owl centre or for that matter why it is locked up at all as there are plenty living free in Wales and even just north of Leeds in England. Big impressive bird and though it would take a young lamb they tend to favour carrion.

Overkill with Owls, nice though, a bit like Death by Chocolate.

Will think of something different for tomorrow.