Sofa, so good

It is said that whilst on holiday there's the chance to do things differently, maybe staying up late and sleeping all morning, or skydiving, or eating and drinking oneself into an absolute stupor. We may have had the odd lie-in, and the occasional meal out, but the one thing we had less of on holiday was sky. No, we didn't go caving or exploring a nuclear bunker, our 'different' is habitat, rather than habit. At home, there are not, as yet, any trees in our garden, so the views are quite unrestricted, less for buildings and neighbours' planting. Consequently, the birds we see in, or from, our garden are not the usual garden birds. In fact, as I've been typing this paragraph, a Great Skua flew by, pursued by an irate Curlew. So our holiday indulgence is trees, and if possible a river.

The cottage we were staying in is very much in the category of 'can't see the wood for the trees', mainly Scots Pine and Birch, and the birdage is so very different from home. Indeed, the whole soundscape was far from what we are used to, with an avian orchestra of Chaffinch, Willow Warbler, Wren, Coal Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Blackbird, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, Siskin, Robin, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Treecreeper. And the occasional Red Squirrel, scolding the birds for hogging the peanut feeder.

To be honest, we could have spent the whole week just bird-watching and listening from the lounge.

Treecreeper

Siskin

Siskin and Chaffinch

My camera trap wasn't working, so I had to improvise with a compact camera WiFi'd to my phone and operated from indoors. A bit labour intensive, but good enough to snap a Robin on the doorstep

And for good measure, here's some Bullfinch footage:

Next time: a walk in the woods