Mother Shipton's Shawl

A lovely day time flying moth on the Trent bank at Alkborough this morning, also 5 Hairy Dragonflies and 6 Four-Spotted Chasers.  On the birding front very quite other than 4 Little Gulls, 1 Common Tern and a Spoonbill.

Bombus Hypnorum back in the garden

Otherwise known as Tree Bumblebee a small group of these brilliant little creatures were feeding on the Heucheras in the front garden yesterday.  I remember the first time I saw one of these in the garden last year and got very excited so to have a small colony yesterday was unbelievable as they have only been in the UK was a relatively short space of time and are making their way north.

London to Paris on a bike in three and a half days!

Well that’s what Wayne and my brother Mark have just done. The sensible ones ie me, Denise (my brother’s wife) and Charlotte (my niece) did it in a few hours courtesy of Eurostar! 

Monday 26th May 04.30

So from the beginning Wayne and Mark drove down from Lincolnshire with their bikes to Charlottes house in London where they left the car and started on their journey…

The first leg on paper was straight forward, to get to Newhaven to catch the ferry early the next morning to Dieppe - unfortunately it was torrential rain the whole 75 miles and took them the entire day arriving at the Travel Lodge in Newhaven around 9pm. 

A rest on top of the North Downs in a brief respite from the rain

Tuesday 27th May 10.00

Leaving Newhaven harbour on the ferry to Dieppe, still raining…

A view of a typical french chateaux on the Avenue Verte - the Avenue being a long distance cycle route from Dieppe to Paris which follows a disused railway line for part of its route. On the first leg in France they covered 34 miles after leaving Dieppe.

Wednesday 28th May

Our second day in France passed through picturesque rural villages including St Germerde-fly  which was dominated by this large Benedictine Abbey - 50 miles were covered on this day.

 

Thursday 28th May - final leg to Paris covering a further 50 miles and our first view of the River Seine.

Cycle route through forest close to out skirt of Paris

Finally our first view of the Eifel Tower..

Cycling up to the Eifel Tower

So approximately 200 miles later and the journey end at the Eifel Tower, then after a quick photo stop it was back on the bikes heading to the Gare Du Nord station to put the bikes on the Eurostar to be picked up two days later back at Kings Cross in London.  Which coincided with our arrival on the Eurostar for a couple of days in Paris..

The next two days involved a lot of eating and drinking of your typical french fayre….

and interspersed with a little sightseeing…

The Sacre Coeur

The Louvre

A very rare photo of the two of us on the banks of the River Seine

Had to end on a Patisserie Shop, they were everywhere…..

If you are inspired to do the same we recommend getting a copy of Avenue Verte, London to Paris by Bike an invaluable guide.

On your bike

Did Wayne see the Black Stork yesterday? Well no instead he cycled 75 miles in torrential rain more on this at the weekend!

Alkborough Osprey

Got caught in torrential rain this morning but did see an Osprey go over the tower hide and then drift over the church ....

Honey Buzzard

Not often I'm in the right place at the right time but whilst stood on the Trent bank at Alkborough this morning I had a call to say that the warden at Blacktoft was watching a Honey Buzzard drifting over Reedness out to the estuary and yes there it was! Excellent scope views were had of this migratory rapture circling over the reserve for 3-4 minutes before drifting off out of view.  Other than that it was a very quiet morning at Alkborough but did have 3 Hairy Dragonflies on the pond at the fresh water reed bed end.
Back at home the pond is hotting up with lots of egg laying newts and Common and Large Red Damsels on the wing this afternoon.

Red-Necked Phalarope at North Cave, E Yorks

 

Owen Paterson strikes again!

First Badgers, then Ancient Woodland now this, is there no end to this mans talents!

dhttp://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2013/dec/06/andrew-sells-natural-england

Another chance to spot the Broad-Billed Sandpiper

Back early at Alkborough this morning to see if we could find the Broad-Billed Sandpiper but it wasn’t to be so here is another little video taken last night.  Interestingly despite this being a scarce vagrant only Neil, Graham, Adrian and one other birder came. 

 

Broad-Billed Sandpiper, videoed at Alkborough Flats

 

Broad-Billed Sandpiper on Alkborough Flats

Another Broad-Billed Sandpiper at Alkborough, the second record since the bank was breached.  Showed with a small group of Dunlin and Ringed Plover for around half an hour before flying off high East.  As always at Alkborough viewing was immensely difficult and these digishots were the best of a bad bunch - video to follow.

Alkborough Flats Bird Race

That time of year again when we do our annual bird race against the clock - 24 hours to see as many species as you can.  Wayne decided to go green this year and completed the whole thing on his bike - I didn't, far too energetic for me and anyway do I really want to get up at 2am in a word no! So what was the total and what were the highlights ok the total was the highest we have reached on a bird race for a very long time a very respectable 98 and the highlights would have to be a pair of Common Cranes which drifted over the flats and went down into the Blacktoft reed bed at 7.30am, a Green Winged Teal and the final bird of the day a Glaucous Gull. An enjoyable day but a hard 18 hour slog for Wayne!