Quintus

Here's a perky skylark from yesterday's walk at Dunwich. There was a lot of excited twitcher action by the marshes - one group was watching a greater yellowlegs, and another an eastern yellow wagtail, both of which are apparently quite rare sights. I was hoping the yellowlegs would be more Malvolio-like than it proved, but the wagtail was a pretty little thing. I got grainy pics of both, which will go into my business case for getting a longer lens...

I wish we had red squirrels round here. I expect this female kestrel from Covehithe the other day wishes so too..

Adding to the list of cat deterrents - you can actually buy lion poo from local zoos (and in dry pellet form online), which is supposed to keep moggies at bay. I've never tried it, so don't know whether it works or just attracts lions instead!

Another person I had a chat and a selfie with at Birmingham was Krystina Mladenovitch, who won the doubles today. Now I don't want to claim that my words of wisdom to Iga and Kiki at the time were entirely responsible for their RG victories, but I think you'll agree it must be more than a coincidence....

Anyone watch the French Open? We were delighted to see Iga Swiatek win, after an amazing run where she didn't drop a set and simply destroyed Halep, Vondrousova and Kenin. We met her when she played the qualifiers at Birmingham last year, and found her a super polite, nice young lady. She's developed phenomenally since then and I doubt this will be her last Grand Slam title.

While shaving this morning I was able to watch a pair of Great Tits from the window. Coincidentally the US presidential debate highlights were playing on the TV. No connection....

I've been listening to the podcasts while chainsawing down a tree, and have emerged respectively entertained and unscathed. It definitely rounds out the ballet-spectator experience getting all this insight - do keep it going!

The version where Odette just elopes with another swan..

Egrets are very plentiful round our neck of the woods. Or to put it another way...... ‘Egrets, I have a few.....’

my birdy walk was this afternoon at a local creek; saw a lone and very distant greenshank and spent a while watching a nice little grebe dining and preening (pic below, along with a bedraggled wagtail and an egret). Lots of lapwings, goldfinches, oystercatchers but all drowned out by the wretched gulls. More dramatically, I was working on our patio this morning and a massive buzzard appeared from behind me flying just above the house - can only have been about thirty feet up - those things are really big close up..

Firmly in Room 101 - the ubiquitous little black plastic bags of dog poo that infest every country walk we to go on, no matter how remote. I really don't get this phenomenon; someone once told me that they'd put such a bag down on a circular walk so as to pick it up on their return rather than carrying it round, but there are thousands of the disgusting objects that have clearly been laying around for weeks. It's worse than not picking up the mess in the first place, as it just adds plastic to the environment. Grrr.

Done, thought-provoking.

Battle of the Brits is proving good entertainment. We just watched Salisbury and Raducanu beat Andy M and Burrage in the mixed doubles. Emma Raducanu looks like a bright hope for the future - only 17 and plays a great attacking game; she beat Katie Boulter yesterday.

I’ll never let taxonomy stand in the way of a pun!

"Cricket's back on!" Pleased that the wrens in the holly bush outside our window appear to be breeding.

There's live tennis back on now with the British Progress tournament for up and coming female players - it's accessible on smart TVs via the BBC sport app or Facebook. It's been OK, if naturally lacking in atmosphere. I'm curious to know why Eden Silva dropped out at the last minute, as we enjoyed watching her get to the mixed doubles quarter finals at Wimbledon last year and were looking forward to her matches.

There's a nice circular walk along that beach all the way to Dunwich village then back through the woods and heath to the coastguard cottages, though that long shingle stretch is a real slog. About half a mile down the beach at present the sand martins are nesting - there are lots of holes in the cliff stuffed with little faces demanding food.

Those pics were in the two Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserves at Carlton Colville, just behind Lowestoft - Carlton Marshes and Oulton Marshes. We go to Dunwich Heath and Dunwich village's Dingle Marsh quite a lot too - right next to Minsmere but without the risk of crashing around and upsetting the serious birders there! We were blessed yesterday, as having seen the seal in the morning, once we got home there was a Little Owl sitting on our fence - absolutely beautiful plumage. I hope it stays around, we're not short of voles..

We went canoeing locally this morning and had this charming companion. My son named it the seal of approval.

We saw the ultimate ballet bird today on some nearby marshes in Suffolk - a black swan! Odile seemed more interested however in nibbling her wingpits than in knocking out fouettés.

We've discovered a couple of marshland nature reserves about 30 miles away in north Suffolk which are chock full of birds. Yesterday this beautiful marsh harrier popped up and zoomed over us (albeit followed shortly thereafter by a fully armed Apache helicopter), and the sedge warbler and reed warbler below that were very obliging posers..

No cuckoo, but respectively below a meadow pipit, reed bunting, skylark and marsh harrier from our walk by the Alde river yesterday. Also saw an adder, but it slithered off while I was fumbling with my phone....

I popped back to see the avocets this morning; couldn't get close as some birders had beaten us to the good spots, but we were able to watch their wonderful courtship ritual.

Yes, before my time, though by coincidence, one of my early girlfriends lived in Jupiter Road. I was at Ipswich School, which was then 99% boys - the girl's school was still across the park in the 70s and its occupants were the focus of most of our attention. It moved out to Woolverstone in the early 90s and the houses were converted back; we were a few doors up on the corner with Gainsborough Road.

Small world - we lived for ten years in a house facing that park in Westerfield Road. Never saw a red squirrel there, though there was a resident tawny owl who lived in a very exposed tree hole by a main path and became quite a local celebrity.