I got up in the small hours of the morning in an attempt to miss the rain, and headed off to Mere Sands Wood in Rufford. This is rapidly becoming one of my favourite places - aesthetically pleasing and teeming with wildlife.

Thanks to previous posts by Bassist, I took a detour of about a mile behind the reserve, in search of a big pile of.....well, you know...I followed my nose

I was instantly rewarded by several Yellow Wagtails feeding on the pile. There appeared...

Thought I'd spend a leisurely 5 hours or so this afternoon strolling around Leighton Moss - British Rail had other ideas. A simple 1hr 20min journey turned into 4hrs. I had to whizz round in 2 hours before my train home

Oh well, never mind. The reserve was as beautiful as ever. It was a lovely sunny afternoon, but very windy.

There were lots of Great Tits, Blue Tits, Chaffinches, Blackbirds, Greenfinches and the occasional Goldfinch along the paths and walkways....

I paid a visit to this man-made lagoon in Cumbria near the town of Millom today, in sweltering, humid weather.

I don't often travel further north than Lancaster and have decided that I'm an idiot.

I was entranced looking through the window of the train, as green rolling hills turned into mountain peaks the further north I went. Natural stone villages and isolated cottages, dry stone walls, babbling brooks and expansive estuaries. Isolated huge oaks and dense woodlands...

I'd been planning an early morning trip to Mere sands Wood to try and track down a Kingfisher for a few weeks now, and today was to be the day.

I arrived at 7.30am and had the place to myself. As soon as I'd walked into the first hide and stooped down to look out of the window, I saw one flying away, like a blue bullet, It was my first ever sighting and was very promising.

For the next half hour I walked around the woods and visited the hides on my route. There were...

What a weekend it turned out to be.

I originally went home for a family party to celebrate my Dad's 80th birthday. My Sister and her husband have a pub in Bedworth, so we all gathered there to give Dad a knee's up.

My middle Brother and his wife are expecting a baby in 2 months time, however, she went into labour on the morning of the party, and had a baby boy that evening

Although he's 2 months premature, he's doing really well and came in at 6lb 13oz....