The Day Started With News From The Girls,

they arrived at the airport for a early breakfast, 

Kai, Wilma and Diana, 

all on the aircraft, 

over the channel,

to a very wet Berlin, before Diana left thinking of Fawlty Towers I mentioned, 'do not mention the war' but with seeing Henning Wehn, who is a frequent German comedian guest on Have I Got News For You doing one of his countries German jokes, I need not have worried, 

"my grandfather died in a concentration camp... he fell out of his watchtower. Only joking!! (He just broke his leg)". 

moving on,

I was out passing the bluebells in the verge, 

when on the other side of the tree I saw some pinkbells, 

past the snail mail box, I suddenly realised it was not there! I will look where it was later, 

past the green and on to the Chinese roundabout, 

I was going to the shops here, to the delicatessen shop/café there to help Andrew remove the clubs photographs, I arrived early so I had my breakfast/lunch there, but, the owner asked if we wanted to leave them for another 3 weeks, a nice result for the club, so we arraigned to meet back here in 3 weeks time, Andrew kindly dropped me off at Marks & Spencer's, as Diana is not here I had to pick up a few meals I can heat up, 

into the park, 

I had a look at where the snail mail box was, but not anymore,

not that I post many letters, but now when I do a long walk into town, hopefully the Post Office will bring it back, some hope, (well there are 2 hopes there, Bob Hope and no hope), I have since found out it was run over by a car! and taken away by the Post Office, in the evening after my meal I watched a PBS from America about the failed attempt to invade the UK with the Spanish Armada, followed by another 1 hour long documentary about the UK's failed attempt to wage war in the Dardanelles, both programs so interesting, well they were for me! just before a Midsomer Murder Diana sent me these:

apparently it was raining, so the girls hopped from one café/restaurant/bier keller to another, I will not comment on each photograph as they are self explanatory, 

I have to say it looks like non of them had eaten for the previous week! after the Midsomer Murder I watched this weeks Have I Got News For You, before I was off to bed.

First Thing,

we were out, 

driving to Bickley railway station where a coach was waiting for us, we were out with the Bromley branch of the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds),

and here we are at RSPB Minsmere, 

we started on the coastal walk,

in front the sea, behind reed and rush covered wetlands,

all set, we took all of these on Diana's mobile telephone,

and here she is, we stopped off at hides along out walk, everyone was looking at birds from the front of the hide, so far away, not Diana she looked out at the side of the hide, 

and there was a lovely cock pheasant, not 20 feet away! naturally a dig in my ribs to attract my attention, and I too was taking a couple of photographs of it, 

we continued our walk, 

through the reed beds,

and into another hide, finishing our coastal walk we went back to the visitor centre, 

where I had a look around, 

it was then time for a huge slice of delicious apple pie and a latte coffee, 

as we relaxed on the terrace, as it happens just before we sat down there was a flurry of excitement, a bittern, (Botaurus stellaris), was flying nearby, I was too late to see it but a couple of seasoned visitors remarked in all of their years of coming here, they had never seen a bittern in this spot, 

all to soon our day was over, Diana and myself enjoyed the day so much we mentioned that we would both like to go on another coach trip, but alas, on the next coach trip in June we will be in Morocco, the one after that in November and I will be in Thailand, Diana in the Philippines, so 2027 it is then!

on to my day photographing the birds, in truth even with the new 500mm lens and 1.4 tele-converter, (crikey it sound like I know what I am talking about!), the birds were so small even on the medium format sensor that they did not enlarge very well, my fault I am sure, not the set up I am using, I have only been out with the camera a few times, so I am still at the twisting knobs and pushing buttons with not a lot a lot of success in-between, so first something easy on the horizon that is not moving, I do not know what it is,   

another easy one, a boat,

the cock pheasant next to the hide that Diana spotted,

for all of the following, 

I do not have a clue what they are called, 

but in the distance, 

there were lots of them,

in the water,

and on land, 

these looked cute, 

as they searched for food, 

I enlarged the photograph above this one a tad, I will print it off on a A3 matte paper in the next few days,

and here she is,

Diana with her binoculars,

into another hide, 

a slight change of terrain, 

as birds searched the shore line,

back on to the water, 

this duck was preforming some sort of courtship I guess, like the Mandarins in Kelsey Park, he kept stretching his neck to impress the female, 

and then he looked my way, what a great time we had, all of the ones out of my camera with one exception is how they came out of the camera, with no enlarger or correctios, for Diana it was a none stop day, on our way home we picked up Wilma a Filipino friend, and I dropped them both off at Kai's home, the girls are having 4 days in Berlin, first thing tomorrow morning they will be at Gatwick and boarding their plane,

shortly after my evening meal, Diana sent me this, Kia had prepared their evening meal, chicken feet, my favorite Thai meal, not, in over 30 years of living in Thailand, 10 of them with Diana, I have never been a fan of this dish, but there it is, for myself a quick snack as I settled down to watch a Midsomer Murder before I was off to bed.