Day 19.278: Bradgate Park

I joined three walks with the dogs at Bradgate Park - on Monday morning and afternoon and on Tuesday morning before we left. Here are a few pictures.

Such a beautiful place. 

Day 19.277: Birds in the UK

A non-complete record of birds seen during our trip. * indicates first record of the year, ** indicates first life record.

Days 19.270-272 (Oxfordshire)

No photos, but list includes these (many already reported here):

• Feral pigeon
• Common starling
• Common magpie
• Red kite*
• Jackdaw
• Common wood pigeon
• Eurasian blue tit
• Great tit*
• Long-tailed tit (heard)
• Rook*
• Carrion crow

Days 19.273-276 (Leicestershire)

Eurasian chaffinch

Eurasian sparrowhawk*

Eurasian skylark**

Some photos of a red kite

Harassed by a corvid 

Common wood pigeons

European goldfinches

European greenfinch

Common magpie

Eurasian sparrowhawk

Black-headed gull

Common buzzard

Eurasian jay**

Eurasian jay

European robin

Ring-necked parakeet** (populations have become established in much of the UK - much to our surprise). More surprising was the sight of three of them visiting my sister's feeders. I missed that, but was glad to see this one when we returned from walking with the dogs.

Also recorded:

Eurasian wren (heard)*

Eurasian coot*

Common kestrel

Those last two records and a fun repeat came from our last hours in the UK. As we stopped for fuel near Heathrow Terminal 5 we saw the coots in a strip of water by the road and a kestrel hovering nearby. Inside the large terminal building we saw another sparrowhawk patrolling from perch to perch - presumably on the search for something like I saw in Newark airport a week or two ago. 

Day 19.276: Morning owl, night owl

This morning we were eating breakfast at my sister’s house and pouring tea from this teapot with an adorable tea cozy:

We just got home - before midnight local time but around 4 am by UK clocks. Time for bed I think.

Day 19.275: Final gathering

A couple more substitutes for our final gathering - dinner in the pub.

We have a few more hours here before our return journey. It's been a lovely trip with a total of 18 family members caught up with (all too briefly) in a very short time.

Day 19.274: Gathered anew

After saying goodbye to Exile #2’s mum this morning we drove into the middle of the country to join a family gathering at my sister’s house.

The same number of us will get together again tomorrow with a couple of substitutions. 

Day 19.273: Family gathered

Exile #2's brother and family joined us for another day of birthday celebrations today. It was great to spend most of the day together.

Day 19.272: Birthday

The main reason for our trip was to help Exile #2's mum celebrate a landmark birthday, and that is what we did today: