Feels Like Heaven - Fiction Factory

This link from my dear friend Andy Lindsay
suggests I may have taken the wrong cruise?
Cruise to the Edge

Anyway, yesterday had been set for returning to my beloved Dorset and what better place to start than

A warm welcome awaited at
HARBINS FARMHOUSE

where the whole family had mustered to share one of those wonderful

Roast Dinners usually associated with Sunday's.

Apart from mine hosts Hugh and Janet (either side of the table) there were a further 9 family members and Moi. I could smell the roasting Lamb before getting out of the car and add to that such treats as mint 'jelly', roast parsnips, steamed pudding and 'home made' custard the application for an extension of stay has already been submitted.

Still a little heady from the Ducru Beaucaillou and only a short time here, the plan was to spend the whole day on the property which as far as I'm concerned means a day in Heaven.

Presumed last year's pair of KESTREL are back at the nest site

in the garden and already feeding young. Other species either nesting or prospecting there include Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Goldcrest, House Sparrow, Swallow, Moorhen, Dunnock, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Pied Wagtail and Wren to name but a few.The day was blessed with a cacophony of bird-song not least

SONG THRUSH
which seemed to be all over the place

but outnumbered 10 to 1 by
BLACKBIRD.

If all that singing results in breeding then it looks set to be a bumper year for both of these Thrushes.

PIED WAGTAIL

A resident pair of
COMMON BUZZARD,

and at last a Year Tick

WHEATEAR
taking advantage of the dung-heap.
 
One of the newly sown Barley fields

where at least c8 LAPWING have continued residence and have been noted displaying. Hugh is certain to keep an eye out here for signs of breeding.

MAYFLY

There are more images from today's fairly long walk which will be published at a later date, but for now I'll leave you with one of what was a large 'hatch' of these nifty but short-lived insects.