Rare visitor

Hi folks, I'm back from a successful, if somewhat damp, bird-watching trip. I'll post a couple of photographs once they are all downloaded. Meanwhile, we had a visitor to our own bird table at home this morning. Apologies for the slight blurring, but I was taking these with the big lens hand-held and I'm not as steady as I once was. You'll note how different the colour seems depending on the magnification and angle of the shot - it is the same animal each time.

Home - Wild Life 2

Yesterday was a first. The first Red Squirrel to visit the garden - well the first one we've actually seen!

It was busy hoovering up the bird seed on the table and munching on the hanging fat balls. We watched it through the kitchen window (explains the slight distortion on some of the photos) for about 10 mins without worrying it in the least.

Increasingly rare

Apologies for not posting yesterday - we went to a dinner last night and didn't get back till early this morning - straight to bed!

We're up North again and stopped in at the RSPB site at Boat of Garten to view the ospreys - very good they were too!

However we also managed to see an increasingly rare animal and even get a picture. Red squirrels (our native species) are increasingly being ousted by grey squirrels (the imported species) and many areas of Scotland no longer have any red squirrels left. There are considerable arguments going on as to the best way to ensure the red squirrel survival.

As an added bonus we also saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker eating peanuts from a feeder - most peculiar sight!