And up goes the bird count once more

An early morning CURLEW calling in flight over the garden made it 112 for the list! Nice one....

Two garden ticks in a day

Two new species for the garden toeday - one of them a very sad corpse courtesy of one of our evil cats, we're afraid....

The posthumous species was a Water Shrew (Neomys fodiens)- ironically we saw one in July in the Wye Valley (a lifer for Julia), and this was only the third Simon had ever seen. Do they use our pond?

On a brighter point, this superb Wasp Spider (Argiope bruennichi) was alive and well in our long grass in the afternoon. A fairly recent colonist in the south of England, the speices has spread well inland, and has been recorded at Blashford before, but we've never seen one. Great to add to the garden list!

Nelson's

Our 111th bird species this morning - heard only, but they all count! At least two Crossbills flew over at 0700, calling insistently - hardly unexpected, but it's taken three years for us to record one!

110 up! The flying cat has landed...

Yes! Appropriately enough, as we watched the opening scenes of "The Big Year", a BARN OWL flew right past the window and landed on Tony's derelict bird-box next door. Result! 110 species for the garden list, and a Blashford tick for Julia.

Long-standing local rarity on our list!

Been waiting for this one for ages, and largely suspecting we'd never see it - but at 1338 today, the long-staying local Great White Egret (species 109) finally flapped overhead and onto our garden list! Yippee!