18-20th June. birthday birding!

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 With apologies for a bit of poetic licensing on this post!!

To celebrate Tim’s birthday we made use of a voucher I had been given on retirement for afternoon tea at the Grand hotel. We arrived a little early so started with some alcohol...


We were pleased to note we were not going to completely miss out on birdwatching opportunities with the appearance of a bearded tit and Reed bunting at our table...


The food was excellent, with some dainty savouries, posh sandwiches with no crusts, cream tea and an assortment of cakes





Suddenly a Kingfisher came into view...


And finally, birthday cake!


The following day we headed up to London to see Tim’s daughter Nicola, where we visited Kew Gardens and Richmond Park and this time managed to see some real birds - the infamous Ring-necked Parakeets were noisy and abundant at both locations and a new annual tick. Jay’s were also present in good numbers. At Richmond Park a pair of Red-crested Pochard flew in and were also new to the list and a Treecreeper was also of note here, as well as the many Red Deer throughout the park. Unfortunately Tim had not brought his camera (or binoculars!)

So a very enjoyable birthday weekend for Tim - food and birds!!!






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