Hornsea

A lovely sunny day at Hornsea today, venue chosen by Harry because he wanted to dig holes in the sand. Also found a pink footed goose at Hornsea Mere taking the years total to 78.

Hard man

The following story appeared in today's Hull Daily Mail:

Man assaulted and hit by car
Friday, March 27, 2009, 18:20
A Hull man was allegedly assaulted and hit by a 4x4 in Holderness Road, east Hull.
The 36-year-old Hull man was near the Boyes store yesterday at 3.16pm when a Mitsubishi 4x4 pulled up beside him and a man got out of the car and assaulted him.
The victim tried to run off but the car was driven into him.
He suffered a broken ankle and cuts to the head, but did not need medical treatment.

The last line intrigued me, a broken ankle, but did not need medical treatment, that's impressive.

Wheeldale Moor

Popped up to Wheeldale Moor at the weekend, very cold, but the journey yielded 2 new birds. A Red Kite (magnificent) and a Curlew taking the yearly total to 78. Cancel that I've already had a Curlew, make that 77.

Future Star?

Harry has started football training, he enjoys it and I hope he continues to do so. I am not particularly competitive, so will never be one of the Dad's on the sidelines screaming at their kids. What surprised me at Harry's first training session was 5 year olds feigning injury as well as the over elaborate goal celebrations!

2 more

A much better view of a Barn Owl than last week and an orangey hued Greater Spotted Woodpecker (maybe we should call it a Ginger Woodpecker!), I also saw a couple of Common Buzzards taking the yearly total to 76.

Not just any old Sparrow

End of the rainbow?

Spotted in the local park today.

Tophill Low

Visited Tophill Low today with Katie & Harry and were treated to several good views of a Barn Owl (actually saw at least 2 different ones). New birds for the year included Gadwall, Red Legged Partridge and Great Black Backed Gull taking the total to 74. Could've been more, but unfortunately Katie and Harry get restless after 10 minutes or so in a hide (bless 'em).

Turnstones

A pair of fighting Turnstones or are they just getting frisky? I saw bird number 71 today, a Common Sandpiper on the mud banks of the River Hull

Bridlington

Whilst at Brid on Sunday we spotted this Herring Gull and Turnstones helping themselves to a free meal of Red Sea Bream. If you look closely you will see that all the fish have been filletted, hence no angry fisherman chasing them off!

Bempton

Today we went to Bempton were we saw Gannets (Pictured) Razorbills (pictured) and Fulmars taking our total for the year to 70.

I've probably mentioned this before, but if you click on the pictures they go big!, I recommend it for the Gannets.

York

We went to York today, I'm always drawn to the Minster, it's one of those buildings you never tire of looking at.

and on the evening a Tawny Owl landed on our neighbours roof, taking the yearly total to 67.

Privileged

Some birds I feel privileged to see, they're a little bit special and today was one of those days. I've never seen a Barn Owl close up, or during the day. Today I saw 2 within the space of a mile and both sat on hedgerow less than 10 foot from the car, giving us all fantastic views. Sadly the camera was in the boot, so you get to see a Treecreeper which I took later. New birds for the year where, Barn Owl, Sanderling, Oystercatcher, Dunlin, Redshank, Nuthatch, Marsh Tit and Yellowhammer, taking the years total to 66. Our original plan today was to go to Dalby Forest, but the forest road was closed, so we did Forge Valley and Filey instead.

It took me until Thursday to recover from last weekend (aching limbs!) and what with the snow, I haven't been getting up to much. The picture above is of Beverley Westwood, I haven't been there for a while, I must fit it in sometime. This weekend may involve a day trip on Sunday, but today it's the turn of my Mother, who is visiting for lunch. Philip Larkin wrote a poem about parents, probably a bit harsh in the case of mine and wifey's, but they do muck up your social life at times.

Nightmare!

I have been to Hell, it is a semi detached bungalow in Leeds, specifically the front room. It belongs to the in laws and it is were wifey volunteered our services to lay a laminate floor. We arrived at 10 am on Saturday morning, expecting it to take about 4 or 5 hours. However when we arrived we found that we had to rip out a concrete fireplace before we could start which took an hour, and then we discovered that none of the bits of laminate flooring fitted together. In the end we had to go back again on Sunday to finish off, thus losing the full weekend. Still, look on the bright side, at least I can go back to work tomorrow for a rest.

That time of year

We've just planted our first set of tomato seeds, hoping to emulate last years efforts above!

The power of the press

Some of you will know I work in complaints, some of you won't. One of the most common things complainants say to me is "if this doesn't get sorted I'm going to the press", and yet this has never happened. I've often wondered if it's an idle threat or whether they do and the press tells them to bugger off!

The best laid plans

The plan was to go to Filey Brigg and spot a few Oystercatchers and Turnstones and maybe a few others if we were lucky. However it was cold and wet so we changed our minds and ended up secondary glazing our bedroom (what exciting lives we lead!) So the Oystercatcher you see above was taken at Filey Brigg it just wasn't taken today.

Hull City v Millwall

Well we won, 2-0 and probably deserved it. Reasonable performances throughout the team, with the exception of Garcia and Halmosi, who were both shocking. Harry enjoyed it immensely, refusing to leave early to avoid the crowds, and didn't even notice the crowd trouble.