Since I have got back from New Guinea, I’ve only been birding a few times as there has been plenty to keep me busy at home and there are not that many birds about.
On the 29th July Margaret and I visited Normandy lagoon near Lymington, which is just east of the better known Pennington marshes. Our target was a Pectoral Sandpiper, a scarce but regular migrant from arctic Canada and eastern Siberia, we also saw a Little Stint making it two-year birds on the same lagoon. we later visited Margaret’s friend Jenny who lives in Lymington.
A probable White-rumped Sandpiper was found on Brownsea Island on the late afternoon of the 29th, views were distant and the ID was not, as far as I know, confirmed. Along with a few other local birders I scoured the lagoon on the morning of 30th for this vagrant from America, but in spite of a false alarm, we had no luck. One birder saw a small wader on the outside of the lagoon wall as he approached on the ferry and we were given special permission from the warden to walk along the wall to check it out. We only found Sanderling, but it was most interesting to see the lagoon from a new perspective.
Brownsea Island lagoon seen from the sea wall.
On 4th August we held a Braai (South African style barbecue) and six friends and ex-colleagues and their partners attended along with Janis, Andy and the girls. We all had a great time and Margaret cooked some wonderful food.
L-R John Hitchcoe, Chris Bunn, Ken Pearce, Mike and Janet Boyle, Jessica Pietrangelo, Sheila Pearce, Gio and Paul Pietrangelo and Tim Kellaway.
You always find them in the kitchen at parties. Ann Hitchcoe, Anne Bunn and Margaret.
Kara and Amber play with sparklers in the garden.
On a much more serious note, Monday 6th was the 8th anniversary of my first wife, Janet’s death, a date that still has a major impact on me in spite of the passing of time.
The first picture to be taken of Janet when she was one day old in 1947.
Janet and my wedding in September 1976
The last photo ever taken of Janet, at friends in Nottingham, May bank holiday 2004.
Back at home, a tree surgeon came to cut back some of next door’s giant eucalyptus, apparently that job has to wait for a few more weeks, but he offered to cut back one of our trees. Now we are certainly getting more light on our lawn. In the afternoon Amber and I did a few butterfly transects nearby for the national butterfly survey.
The garden before tree surgery.
The garden after tree surgery, the huge eucalyptus that overhangs our garden on the left will be cut back later in the summer, then we will really be able to see the sky.
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