Tuesday 31 July 2012

Down At the Bottom Of the Garden

Amongst the Bird and the Bees,

There live a lot of little people...

They're called the Poddington Peas.


Or they would be, but they're frogs and tadpoles that live in the small pond in the garden of our new Whitchurch bungalow. Luckily for me our new place is near Forest Farm! We'll have to keep an eye on our garden pals though I think, I'm not sure how the tadpoles are going to get out when they mature. Either that or we'll be swamped with frogs!


Thursday 19 July 2012

These Aren't The Droids You're Looking For.. - Tunisia - 8/07/2012

For our Summer holidays Jess and I were generously taken to by her family for a week. Although not in anyway a wildlife holiday, I still managed to spot some of the local wildlife! Even the hotel avian occupants were impressive, with Spanish Sparrow, Spotless Starlings and Laughing Dove all checking in at the Riviera Hotel.






















 There were also many Swifts, House Martins and the odd Swallow hawking around the hotel level with our balcony on the 4th floor-





On one of our excursions to the Bardo Museum and Carthage we saw White Storks nesting on pylons along the roadside. I managed these shots from the speeding bus windows -











We also saw these Flamingo and further storks in the foreground -   








There were also Gull-billed Terms flying up and down the Salt Lakes too. Not bad for birding on a bus!!

One thing I wasn't too happy about was the captive animals being used for rustling up Denar..







However this Stick insect came for free at a roadside cafe...


We also took a two day trip called Simply Saharah and I managed to see many types of birds I couldn't identify or get photo's of. We did manage to see this little House Bunting in the small ravine at -








Then after powering round the stunning area I also think I glimpsed a blue bird, potential Rock Thrush!! and this White Crowned Wheatear! Annoyingly I had left the 300mm in the Land Cruiser we were travelling in at that point.







At the beach, Jess managed to run afowl of these guys a couple of times unfortunately!


Taming a resident mammal!