New Surroundings

It's been in the pipeline for several months now, but with the go ahead, the family home is moving from the Wildlife haven of Apsley Estate - 4.2 miles down the road to the small hamlet of Forton, near Longparish. Now having lived in the same house in the middle nowhere surrounded by rolling fields and plenty of woodland, moving to a Hamlet with other inhabitants may not seem the most attractive of offers.

So my excitement was pretty noticeable, when Dad mentioned he was taking on the River Keepers role on the River Test and therefore discovering the River runs through the bottom of the new garden. "Generally regarded as the birthplace of modern fly fishing, and the best chalk stream fishing in the world..." with plenty of water meadows and small patches of woodland beyond. So with a résumé like that, one would imagine its wildlife would be pretty special too. 

With plenty of work to do before we can move 25 years of living down the road, Sunday was spent in the garden, ripping out the rough ground ready for the veg patch. And general tidying up of the over grown mess. I must however admit I was distracted most of the day by the new "Garden Wildlife" 5 Red Kites, performed acrobatics above the house near enough all day, with the sunlight catching them it was a pretty special sight! The below pictures were taken mid morning.

Red Kite

Red Kites

Red Kites

Heading home for a spot of lunch, I made sure to pick up the smaller 55mm Lens to see if I could get all 5 in shot. So by 3pm we headed back down armed with Camera and Bushwacker. 45 mins later Im back skiving with the camera as 4 Kites circled directly over top of the house for a good 15 mins, joined by a Buzzard, for most of the day they called too, which I've never experienced at such frequent intervals. Below are a couple of shots from yesterday afternoon.

4 at Once!

Red Kite

Once I'd finished my gardening duties I did get 10-15mins to sit down on the River Bank quietly around 4.30pm, surprising how many species made there way on to the new garden list in that short period. Mute Swan, Little Grebe, Mallard, Water Rail, Greylag Goose, Little Egret, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Blackbird, Greenfinch, Chaffinch & Moorhen. 

Bring on many hours wasted away by the river!

Mute Swans

Mute Swan