A drive past Raggalds Flood at lunch time found it looking good water wise but no sign of bird life other than several Common and Blackheaded gulls in nearby fields.
The local joiner/undertaker next to the garage put up his hand made nest box, after a re furbish over the winter, and within 2 days a pair of Blue Tits are visiting it and checking it over inside and out. This box has been successful now for several seasons.
You may have noticed that my blog was not up dated last night, the first time in 3 years, but the reason being I was up and down to the hospital from 0700 to 2145hrs getting pre op checks done on my wife Lynda.
Lynda was found to have advanced mouth cancer in November which has affected her jaw bone, lower mouth and tongue and after having fitted a stomach feeding tube yesterday faces a 16 hr major mouth operation this coming Monday.
If all goes to plan she will then spend 2 days in intensive care, 3 days in recovery and around 4 weeks in hospital followed by a course of radiation and chemo at Leeds after which it is down to speech therapy etc so we have a long rocky road ahead.
I have only put this out as several people that know Lynda have been enquiring and others may wonder why the blog is not up to scratch.
My first thought was to scrap the blog and forget the birding but a rousting from Lynda saying she wanted things kept as near normal as possible and it would be a switch off from the trauma we,re going through so I,ll keep updating the best I can , although it will be later on an evening after hospital visiting and birding will be restricted to Sunday mornings plus to and from work.
I,ll try to keep it as interesting as possible and of course keep you updated on Lyndas progress.
Many thanks to you all for sticking to this blog, its amazing how many people visit it nightly.
BS