February Foray

 ATTENBOROUGH ANTICS - THE RETURN

February 23rd 2015

 

 

This months outing sees the Babes returning to Attenborough - our birding skills are going to be tested to see if we have made the required levels of progress over the year. Unfortunately Maggie hasn't been able to join us this time so she will have to be tested next time.

Despite the dire weather forecast the outlook was quite good when we gathered at the visitor centre for coffee. We had plenty of time for a good gossip whilst we waited for Pam to arrive - the folly of following the satnav and ignoring the road signs!

 

These ones come to meet us!

 

Egyptian Goose - enjoying the sun 

 

 

These ones were  bit harder to spot!
 

Lynn has built in binocular vision

no artificial aids for her!

 

The wind was extremely cold so we were very grateful for the shelter of the hides, thankfully there was nothing untoward happening in them just other mad birders. The oystercatchers were a highlight although I think they were probably a little bit disappointed by the lack of oysters.

 

Spot the Goldeneye

 

Now you see it.......

Now you don't!

 

Such a pro!

 

Jo had to leave us at this point to go to work - I think she probably knew what the weather had in store for us later. We walked on along the river, still in he sunshine and thankfully out of the worst of the wind.

 



 Come on girls - time for lunch!

 

We headed back to the café at the visitor centre for lunch - it was extremely busy - why aren't all these people at work? But we finally got served and found a sheltered spot on the veranda outside to sit. The food was very good - broccoli soup was very tasty - and warming!

And if we weren't feeling chilly enough Helen J taunted us with tales of Tobago!

 

Scarlet Ibis - a very rare site at Attenborough

 

After lunch we gathered in the visitor centre to plan the afternoon activity but the weather took a very dramatic turn with rain, snow, sleet and hail blowing in.

The weather!

 

It was decided that coffee and cake was called for as none of us intended venturing outside - even Helen J wasn't tempted by talk of the elusive bittern!

 

The cake!

 

Bird  List for the day:

 

Black-headed gull

Blue tit

Buzzard*

Canada geese*

Chaffinch

Cormorant (‘spotting’ the one in full breeding plumage; also renamed a ‘Liver bird’ and confusing all non-GBs in the hide!!)

Crow*

Dunnock

Egyptian goose (escapee)

Feral pigeon

Great crested grebe (flirting a bit)

Great tit

Grey heron

Goldeneye (duck of the day; a dipping and a diving and being somewhat elusive )

Goosander*

House sparrow

Little grebe*

Long tailed tit*

Magpie

Mallard (scrapping quite a lot)

Moorhen*

Mute swan

Oystercatcher* (noisy bird of the day)

Pied wagtail

Red crested Pochard (escapee)

Robin

Shoveler*

Teal

Tufted ducks

Whooper swan (GB first)

Wood pigeon

Wren*

(32 birds in total for the day (including a feral pigeon which doesn’t appear on our spreadsheet)

45 for the year and it is only February!

Those marked * are new this year. 

 

This one gets my vote for duck of the decade!

 

All in all a lovely day and we all seem to be achieving our targets!  

 

 

 

 

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).

 

 

 

 

 

 

December Diva-ation

December Diva-ation

to Derby Cathedral

Wednesday 17th December

 

The December gathering proved to be rather problematic as everyone is so very busy, even Helen J's organisational skills were tested to breaking point! However an email from Jo about the Dale Diva performance at Derby Cathedral did bring three of us together to join in the Carol singing.

 

The two Helens met at the Brewery Tap for a light bite of very delicious mushrooms on toast and a good gossip before making our way to the Cathedral in what we thought was plenty of time. We spotted Gina waiting for us at the head of the queue and quickly joined her only to be told that the Cathedral was full! Not o be defeated we held our ground and when it was announced that there were three more seats we quickly made our move with elbows at he ready to deter any other claimants!

 

After thinking that we were going to end up standing at the back we were soon escorted to seats very near the front. We had a jolly good sing and thoroughly enjoyed the event - especially the Diva's two performances.

 

The very sparkly Dale Diva

.

 

 

There was also a very moving and lovely performance by The Open Road called "An Old Solider's Dream of Home" written by Phil Baguley (pictured far right with guitar). Inspired by Phil's Great Uncle Alfred who was killed during WW1.

 

And even a surprise performance from Russell Watson! All in all a very lovely evening and the concert can be heard on BBC Radio Derby on Christmas Eve and Christmas day ( the person you will hear singing out of tune will be me!

 







. 



December Ditty

Six Gelly Babes in search of December

Composed by Gelly Helen J

(sing to the tune of 10 Green Bottles, with occasional repetition of a line in order to make it work)  Happy singing!

There were six Gelly Babies planning what to do

Six Gelly Babies planning what to do

December trips not easy, daylight hours are short

There were six Gelly Babies planning in the dark.

 

There were six Gelly Babies suggesting what to do

Six Gelly Babies suggesting what to do

Possible jaunts in south Derbyshire, Notts or Derby too,

There were six Gelly Babies confused as to what to do.

 

There were six Gelly Babies deciding what to do

Six Gelly Babies deciding what to do

A nature walk in Elvaston, then drinking in a pub

There were six Gelly Babies agreeing what to do

 

There were six Gelly Babies excited about meeting up

Six Gelly Babies excited about meeting up

Then one Lynn baby found something else to do

Grandparenting duties  too hard to refuse

Leaving five Gelly Babies still keen on meeting up.

 

There were five Gelly Babies re-jigging all the plans

Five Gelly Babies re-jigging all the plans

Then one Pam baby had now run out of time

Marking seemed more preferable to watching all the coots

Leaving four Gelly Babies querying what to do

 

There were four Gelly Babies struggling now what to do

Four Gelly Babies struggling now what to do

With Maggie’s back now painful, walking hard to do

A trip round the nature park a silly thing to do

Leaving three Gelly Babies questioning what to do

 

There were three Gelly Babies slightly now bemused

Three Gelly Babies slightly now bemused

Then Helen M baby had lots of stuff do,

Selling her Art on ebay; money to accrue

Leaving two Gelly babies not sure what to do

 

 

 

There were two Gelly Babies wondering  what to do

Two Gelly Babies wondering what to do

Then Jo made a decision, to give this one a miss

Leaving one Gelly Baby thinking ‘what a to-do’.

 

There was Helen J baby with time now on her hands

Helen J baby with time now on her hands

To write this silly ditty, maybe bringing smiles all around

Trying to be creative and hoping you all agree

 

So Helen J baby is planning now for Jan

Helen J baby is planning now for Jan

Agreeable dates most welcome, ideas for our next jaunt

Wishing you all Merry Christmas and Happy New Year too!

 

Gelly Babes November Nocturne

17th November 2014

The Day (and night) of Reckoning

or

five go mad in a camping barn!

 

In celebration of Pam's milestone birthday this months gathering involves a sleepover! The venue - The Reckoning House camping barn at Mandale Campsite, Haddon Grove.

Www. mandalecampsite.co.uk

Those of us with lots of time on our hands arrived at about 3pm to prepare things for Pam's arrival. Sadly Lynn wasn't able to join us - perhaps next time. The barn is in a most idyllic spot and although quite basic was perfect for our requirements (once one of our number had accepted that you don't get five star facilities in a camping barn!)

Pam didn't quite manage to arrive before dark but with the help of a the rest of us flashing our torches she eventually joined us and the first cork was popped.

 

Ready, steady, cook!

 

Your starters for five

 

Srummy!

 

After the delicious starters (starter of the evening: spicy gourd) we had Pam's present opening.

 

The Wash Green warbler

A cushy number - what not handmade!!

A perfect match

A musical note

 

and one for Helen J!

 

Cheers!

 

and again!

 

The food was delicious, vegetable curry (with compulsory cauliflower) and dhal from Maggie's kitchen, chicken curry carefully created by Jo, fish curry made by my own fair hand and rice and naan bread provided by Lynn all sprinkled with ample scatterings of coriander all washed down with lashings of Prosecco.

 

Eat my face!

Yes Jo this one really does have carrots in it!

 

Day 2

Who on earth brings a silk kimono to a camping barn in November?

Morning all

 

After tea and coffee in bed courtesy of Jo and discussions of who snored the loudest we all joined the queue for the shower and gathered ourselves for breakfast. Sadly Jo had to leave us as she had to go to work but we ate her share of the mushrooms and scrambled eggs and did her share of the clearing up!

 

Early morning rainbow

 

Onwards and upwards

 

The four surviving babes headed for Lathkill Dale for a walk and a spot of bird watching, with Pam proudly flaunting her new binoculars!

 

What a lovely pair of bins1

 

You were very clearly told not to go down that hole!

 

Spot the dipper

 

 

What - no risk assessment!

Bateman's House

 

Spot the buzzard

 

Made it - recovering from a muddy scramble up from the Dale

 

Our bird list for the two days:

Blackbird
Black-headed gull

 Buzzard
  Collared Dove
Coot
 Crow

Dipper (GB first!)

 Jackdaw
 Mallards (bit frisky)

 Moorhen
Robin
 Tawny owl (for those of us softly sleeping)

Wood Pigeon

 Wren

plus, of course, that extremely  rare porcelain Wash Green Warbler!!!!!!!!!! 

 

Lovely Lathkill

 

What a lovely two days we had - when can we do it again?