M is due home in a couple of hourse (K and Mr K are coming on Sunday, and my sis on Tuesday), so I very much have a it's-nearly-Christmas feeling, which translates in internet terms to not a lot of time on line. I will be around a bit - hoping to watch the Doctor Who Christmas special on Christmas Day (the first time in years I've actually been looking forward to it) and then say something about it on LJ, and between now and then, we're off to see the final Hobbit movie, so I'll probably want to come online and have a good moan about that. ;)
But anyway, the long and the short of it is that I probably won't be around that much (though hopefully not as absent as I was between March and September).
Have some final birdy (and other) pics for the year.

First of all, there's that rather photogenic kestrel again.

And again, this time pursued by a fan. "Ple-ase can I have your autograph!"

Brougham Castle in Cumbria, taken on a day in the Lakes when it wouldn't stop raining so S and I decided not to be insane like our friends from London ("we've driven all this way and we will walk every day, no matter the weather, damnit!") and do something a bit more sedate.
Looks very nice and peaceful, doesn't it? Unfortunately, just the other side of the river is the M6.

A goldcrest (UK smallest bird).

A rather dark long-tailed tit (UK's cutest bird).

A male stonechat (UK's posiest bird, except for robins).

Uh-oh, the scrounging foreigners are back. No wonder it takes hours longer to get anywhere in a hawthorn bush these days.
And finally, a very bad picture of a genuine, bona fide merlin that no one (who knows anything about birds of prey) could mistake for a kestrel.

Hoorah!

Some pink-footed geese fly by singing (to the tune of For He is An Englishman from Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore), "For despite of all tempta-ation, to be a kestre-elll, he (or rather she) is a mer-er-linn!)
Just in case there was still any doubt about the matter.
But anyway, the long and the short of it is that I probably won't be around that much (though hopefully not as absent as I was between March and September).
Have some final birdy (and other) pics for the year.

First of all, there's that rather photogenic kestrel again.

And again, this time pursued by a fan. "Ple-ase can I have your autograph!"

Brougham Castle in Cumbria, taken on a day in the Lakes when it wouldn't stop raining so S and I decided not to be insane like our friends from London ("we've driven all this way and we will walk every day, no matter the weather, damnit!") and do something a bit more sedate.
Looks very nice and peaceful, doesn't it? Unfortunately, just the other side of the river is the M6.

A goldcrest (UK smallest bird).

A rather dark long-tailed tit (UK's cutest bird).

A male stonechat (UK's posiest bird, except for robins).

Uh-oh, the scrounging foreigners are back. No wonder it takes hours longer to get anywhere in a hawthorn bush these days.
And finally, a very bad picture of a genuine, bona fide merlin that no one (who knows anything about birds of prey) could mistake for a kestrel.

Hoorah!

Some pink-footed geese fly by singing (to the tune of For He is An Englishman from Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore), "For despite of all tempta-ation, to be a kestre-elll, he (or rather she) is a mer-er-linn!)
Just in case there was still any doubt about the matter.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-19 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-20 12:24 am (UTC)The Goldcrest is Denmark's smallest bird too. We call it King of Birds (due to the yellow "crown" which is cute and ironic, I think.
A long-tailed tit is very cute indeed. Wonder what ours is? Hmm.... The "stupidest" is definitely the pheasant.
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Date: 2014-12-20 12:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-20 05:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-20 01:13 pm (UTC)Lovely photos as usual.
Have a lovely family time!
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Date: 2014-12-20 04:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-20 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-20 11:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 05:20 pm (UTC)That's very cute, yes. And I definitely agree that pheasants are the stupidest birds.
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Date: 2015-01-05 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 05:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 05:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 05:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 05:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 07:30 pm (UTC)Also a blue snow goose.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-05 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-07 07:00 pm (UTC)