Leicester Peregrines

 I thought I would do a quick post on the Leicester Peregrines. Every month  a few of us from Leicestershire & Rutland Ornitholigical Society (LROS) meet up at Leicester Cathedral where Peregrines have been breeding since 2016. LROS have been instrumental in promoting the success of the Peregrines within Leicester and Leicestershire.

Juvenile Peregrine X7F

 

                                                               Juvenile Peregrine X7F

LROS volenteers talk to the public who stop by about the peregrines, and answer many of the questions they may ask. We get people from all over the world stopping by asking questions, as we set our scopes up very close the King Richard III visitors centre

                                                                               X7F

It is always pleasing to see so many people intersted in the Leicester Peregrines, and I would like to think that LROS has made a lot more people aware of the birds that breed on the cathedral.

                                                                          X7F

The juveniles are ringed every year under licence, and this year, 3 birds were ringed X4F, X6F and X7F, the latter in the images above.

I will try to do other posts about whats LROS are doing within Leicestershire &Rutland. As always thanks for stopping by.

Garden Predator

 Just a quick post that I forgot to do before our holiday back in March. We had been getting a feral pigeon in the garden for a few weeks feeding under the bird feeders.  That was until a female Sparrowhawk took a fancy to it. Below are a few images of the Sparrowhawk it eating its quarry. She did return the following day and after having a feed on the pigeon took the rest of the carcass away. 

Female Sparrowhawk

Like I've said just a quick post, but hopefully will posting again soon. Thanks for stopping by.

The Atlantic Isles

 After our cruise around the Baltic, 3 weeks later we were on another cruise with Ambassador, but on their other ship the MV Ambition. Again, not a birding trip - just the good lady and myself going for a bit of early sunshine............ but you know birders, have binochulars will travel, and occasionally I did take the camera ashore.

Our route was from Tilbury down to Leixoes and Lisbon [Portugal] then to Cadiz [Spain] over to Morroco for Cassablanca (very dissapointing); it was then over to the Canary Islands, from here to Funchal [Maderia] then to the  Ponta Delgarda [Azores]. From here it was back over to Vigo [Spain] and because we could not make Horta in the Azores, they subsistuted it with a stop in Zeebrugge [Belgium] before heading back to Tibury, all together 21 nights. 

Immature Black Redsart than was hitching a ride in the Bay of Biscay, but sadly we were going the wrong way.

Going across the Bay of Biscay was  a bit dissapointing Cetacean wise, though we saw loads of common Dolphin but only a few Fin Whales and one probable Humpback Whale. Cory's Shearwater were plentiful throughout the cruise, but the only Manx Shearwater I saw were around the Western Approaches when heading South.

                                                                                  Fin Whale Blow

                                                                          Common Dolphin

When the good lady and myself go ashore, we love visiting the cities botanical gardens if they have one. Below are images I took whilst walking around a few of the cities on our cruise

                                                               Berthelot's Pipit

Black Redstart

Black Redstart

Atlantic Canary

Canary Isle Chiffchaff

Cory's Shearwater

                                                                  Atlantic Canary.

 Little Egret

Azorean Wanderer Crab Grapsus adscensionis in the harbour at Ponta Delgarda

Whimbrel

Turnstone

Spannish Sparrow

Sanderling

Rose-ringed Parakeet

Ringed Plover

Monk Parakeet

Monarch Butterfly

Mediterranean Gull

Kestrel

Jungle Fowl

House Sparrow, this species was abundant in all the places we visited. I wish was so abundant where i lived

Gannet

Perez's Frog Pelophylax perzi in the Parque Garcia Sanabria Tenerife

Grey Wagtail

Common Tern

Bar-tailed Godwit

                                                                     Common Sandpiper

All in all, it was a really great cruise!

I have got some images of stuff that I have taken locally, which once I have sorted out, I will do another post.

As alaways, thanks for stopping by.

Baltic Cruise

 Just a quick post about a cruise around the Baltic Sea the good lady and myself went on in Febuary this year. Ports of call were Skagen in Denmark, Stockholm in Sweden, Riga in Latvia, Klaipeda in Lithuania and back to Sweden for our last port, Copenhagen. We were on board Ambassador Ambience, a ship we have been on several times.

I didn't do any birding as such, but I did take the camera ashore in Stockholm and took a few images of the local bird life in the city.

House Sparrow, lots of this species in all the cities we visited

Hooded Crow

Great Tit

Goldeneye

Fieldfare

Fieldfare

Feildfare in a snow flurry.

Female Goldeneye

Feeding time on the river Norrstrom, one of the shortest rivers in Europe

Common Scoter, taken as we wre leaving the port of Riga in Latvia

Blue Tit

Blackbird

Approach into Stockholm, and what an approach it is; the scenery is absolutely stunning, made more spectacular by the snow fall.

Approach into Stockholm

Approach into Stockholm

Female Common Eider, again taken as we were leaving the port of Riga in Latvia.

Like I've said, it wasn't a birding trip and as for cetaceans- I hardly spent any time out on deck, as the tempertures ranged from -2 feeling like -6 to -5 feeling like -10,  pretty cold in my eyes-but still a great cruise.

As always thanks for stopping by.