My first post for a few months.
Sadly Miriam lost her brave fight against cancer and passed away on Boxing Day after contracting Pneumonia and being in an already weakened state, was unable to win her battle this time.
Things had been tough for the last few months and we both knew that this would be the probable outcome one day, but the pain is still real and will take time to come to terms with.
But life, as it always will, goes on and I now have to look forward and plan for a future without her.
Opportunities for me to do things have been slim for the past few years, being a full time carer, but this weekend I was lucky enough to be able to sail the Solent with my Daughter, her Fiance and their friend John.
Tom has access to his fathers yacht and so on Friday evening we converged on Gosport for a weekends sailing. I had left earlier in the day and had first called at Rhinefield Arboretum in the New Forest for the Hawfinch Roost. It was a cold afternoon and there were a few other hardy souls about waiting, but in a hour or so I only managed to see one bird, and that was in the first 5 mins.
I then completed the journey to Gosport, arriving around 6pm. I had about an hour to wait before the others arrived so I found a pub, The Star ( A Wetherspoons) and had a couple of beers.
Although there were around 6 Ales on most of the people there were drinking Lager, Guinness or even worse John Smiths Keg. Very disappointing.
Around 7pm I made my way to the Marina and parked the car and then waited in the bar of 'Harveys' restaurant where we had a table booked. Tom arrived soon after, closely followed by Lydia. John was arriving the next morning.
We had a nice meal and then headed off to find the boat.
I was the first one awake the next morning and I took the opportunity to walk across the road from the marina to Walpole Park and see if I could locate the long staying Ring-Billed Gull. I checked the boating lake with no luck and then tried the estuary. I could see a likely candidate with my 'bins but I'd left my scope in the car. A quick walk back to the car and soon I had the 'Yank' in my scope.
When I got back to the boat the others were up and about to have breakfast and soon after the rest of our crew arrived with tom & Lydia's friend John.
It was now time to 'cast off' and head out into the Solent. The plan was to sail to Beaulieu and have lunch and then head for Cowes.
There were no passengers on this trip and everybody was required to 'crew' in some form or another. I took a turn at the helm and was doing fine until I managed to steer us into the wind and bring us about, a lesson learnt there.
I also caused a bit of panic when I yelled out "Diver" ,forgetting that I was on lookout and John was at the helm thinking he was going to run someone over ! . It was of course a Red-Throated Diver flying past.
We arrived at Beaulieu around midday, just in time for lunch and a G&T.
It was a good spot for me as I could 'bird' the shoreline, with Dark-Bellied Brent, Greylag and Canada geese as well as a large group of roosting Oystercatchers.
After lunch it was time to head for Cowes which was around a 2-3 hour sail as we were sailing against the tide.
On the way I spotted a Great Northern Diver and a couple of Slavonian Grebes. We arrived at Cowes and Sheppard's Marina around 5pm and after a quick change and wash headed into the town.
I had been given the 'heads up' about a good place for a beer and as luck would have it it was only a 2 minute walk away.
The Cowes Ale House is a great little hostelry serving real ale straight from the cask. I had an Adnams 'Old Ale' before we 'nipped' over the road to get a meal before making another trip back to the Ale House. This time I had first a Young's 'Winter Warmer' and then a Caledonian 'Gold'.
We then headed back to the boat and a few more from the bottles we had on board before turning in for the night.
The next morning I was again the first to rise and after having a shower in the marina facilities left the others to sleep off their hangovers, and walked around Cowes for an hour.
When I got back the others were stirring and I got on with the fry up !
Around 11am we made ready to sail back to Gosport, but the wind was slight and we needed to use power as well as sail to get there.
We moored back at Gosport around 1pm, and after a tidy up on board, John and I headed off home, leaving Lydia & Tom to leave around an hour later.
I left early because I wanted to go to Blashford Lakes near Fordingbridge on the way home. I arrived around 2pm and took a walk out to the woodland hide where I added Lesser Redpoll & Siskin to my yearlist. I then drove over to Ibsley water and the Tern Hide to see if the Long-Tailed Duck was showing.
The hide was 'rammed' with two noisy RSPB groups so I didn't stay long and also didn't manage to see the duck, but I did add Goldeneye to my yearlist.
I was then really ready to head home tired but happy after a great weekend away.
