Carsington Carry On

15^th  January 2015

January Japes in Maggie’s kitchen and Carsington

WHAT A ‘CARRY-ON’ AT CARSINGTON

When shall we three meet again

In snowstorm, hailstones or in rain?

When the Nordic walking’s conquered

And the birdies are all numbered.

 

Oh no! Our resident blogger is all blogged out and has to leave it to an amateur!  No Helen M!  Also, sadly Jo and Lynn are otherwise occupied.  So, the true tale of today is left up to Maggie, Pam and Helen J.

With concerns about wintry weather, the three ‘not-so-old’ biddies met at Maggie’s for brunch.  Mouth-watering toasted cheesy bread with garlicky hummous and seeded bread with marmalade all washed down with lashings of coffee, tea and home squished red-berry smoothie.  De-lish!

 A quick catch –up on some particularly interesting news (it’s all a go-go-go), before the serious settling down to birding through the kitchen window.  We kick-started our annual bird list with the following:   

Birds at breakfast in Maggie’s Garden

Blackbird (male, female and young impersonating a thrush)

(one demented head-banging) blue tit

chaffinch

collared dove

dunnock

(more than a pair of) great tits

goldfinch

greater spotted woodpecker(not spotted by M and P.. too busy chatting!)

jackdaw

robin

sparrow

wood pigeon

plus one grey squirrel

 

A stunning start.

 

 

‘through the kitchen window’

 Pam desperately wanted to try out one of her birthday presents, so started pole-dancing around the kitchen table.

 

Bag-of-the-year!

 So, with the sun shining, we negotiated the pop-up-roadworks from outside Maggie’s drive and headed up to Carsington. 

Plan A went into action.  Helen J and Pam got ready for Pam’s first proper lesson with her Nordic walking poles.  Getting them on the correct hand being the first obstacle.
                            

L for the left hand, R for the right.

 

And, she’s ready

 

With expert tuition from Helen J, and Maggie following behind with great amusement, Pam managed one circuit of the carpark before we got battered  by huge hailstones.   So, we beat a hasty retreat to the car for shelter and to catch our breath …Nordic walking done properly is tiring.  Having missed the opportunity to get snowed in around Wirksworth over all those years, Helen J was not going to start now!  Offers for a room for the night were soon ‘put to bed’ as a watery sun sneaked a peak under the clouds in the distance

‘through the car window’

 

Plan B:  We ditched the poles and headed off down to the nearest bird-hide; a discovery for Pam; well intrepid explorers are always finding something new.

‘Look… a gull with yellow legs… what’s that called then? ‘

 

Initially we had the place to ourselves then three men cloaked in green holding high their camouflaged telescopes arrived.  Methinks has Birnham Wood to Carsington come hither?  Alas no!  Just, classic twitcher behaviour – ignoring the regular birds, going straight for the yellow-legged gull (which stood up especially for them, just to prove that it really did have yellow legs)… an admiring ‘tick’ for Helen J. 

Feeling humbled, and not wishing anything untoward to happen, we headed off to the next hide, complete with recently upholstered seats, and thoroughly enjoyed this all to ourselves.

With growing confidence, Pam discovers a new species: Pigeon wigeon

Once we had satisfied ourselves that no new birds, or indeed, no new species would be arriving, we reported our findings in the bird log book and headed off back to the car for practice number two!

Maggie being thoughtful, closing the gate after her

 

Pam quickly got into the swing of things, making fabulous progress with each step.  Once she had disappeared into the distance, Maggie too had a go and realised it wasn’t quite so easy as Pam had made it out to be.  But with encouragement from Helen J both made superb progress.

Come on Maggie, it goes something like this. 

A quick stop by another bird hide, thoughtfully laid out with premium bird food,  brought us some more woodland birds.

 

Carsington bird list

Black-headed gull

Bullfinch

Coal tit

Coot

Cormorant

Goldeneye

Lapwing

Kestrel

Magpie

Mallard

Nuthatch (GB first)

Pheasant

Pied wagtail

Pochard (GB first)

Teal

Tufted duck

Wigeon (re-named by Pam as Pigeon wigeon and became duck-of-the-day)

Yellow-legged gull (GB first)

 

Total for the day and year so far is 30 with a few GB firsts as well! 

A sign that spring is on its way

 So, back to Maggie’s to finish off with more cheesy bread and beetroot sarnies, (with guest appearance from Lizzie, an expert at chopping beetroot without staining her hands; marvellous what they teach them at uni these days) cups of tea and biscuits before the light started to fade and it was time to go wend our way from Wirksworth (well for one of us anyway).