Chiff Chaff

Headed off this morning to Lakeside Country Park to go on a guided bird walk with a Warden and a 'local bird watcher'. Now who could the mystery 'local bird watcher' be? My friend Simon is THE expert on the birds of Lakeside. Must be him I thought and I was so glad it was. Unfortunately I was the only memeber of the public to turn up for the walk. Unfortunately for the organisers that is but I loved it. Listening to the Warden and Simon chatting about birds, butterflies, flowers etc. Seems that the warden and her helpers are doing a lot of work around the site at the moment. Hopefully it all goes well in a few years time their hard work will pay off and we'll have an even better Country Park to visit.

On to the birds. Highlight was a Kestrel (Simon spotted that one, good job as all birds of prey look the same to me).

Simon could identify loads of birds from their song alone. A talant I wish I had. I must get my bird song CD out! Loads of Chiffchaffs around and Simon pointed out thier distinctive call. Quite how I've managed to not log one until now is beyond be, but another Hampshire tick goes into the book. Together with a couple more means my Hampshire List now stands at 84. For me, that's good, as I only saw 79 for the whole of 2007. So thanks to Simon for this mornings walk. Great to see a true birder in action.

Got home via Homebase (buying Compost, Spuds and Onions for the Garden) and what do I hear singing in one of the trees in the garden. A chiffchaff! (A first for the garden). Hey perhaps some of Simons birder knowledge has rubbed off on me! Thanks goes to him.