Rabbits

Friday
Today, we were meeting up with my brother Peter and his wife Judy. We had decided to meet at their favorite bird-watching place - the RSPB site at Dearne Valley near Barnsley. They had arrived just shortly before we did, so we started with a coffee/hot chocolate in their cafe, before going out on the trails. Whilst the place was teeming with the more common birds - especially black-headed gulls with their young, and Canada geese, sightings of the somewhat less common birds were relatively few today, but we did see a lovely sight of a great- crested grebe carrying a baby on its back, and a couple of oyster catchers, unfortunately both too far away for me to get a decent photograph. After a bite to eat in the cafe, we went out on the other trail, and the highlight of the afternoon was seeing some lapwings up fairly close. There were also many wild flowers, including many gorgeous wild orchids. However, my favorite photo of the day was this one, taken as we were about to leave the reserve, of these two little rabbits which posed so nicely for me. We had been watching one of them, which had come out into the open from under a hedge, and then this second one came out for a little while, but seemed more timid than the other, so soon retreated back under the hedge. It was a little after 4pm when we left, so Peter and Judy took us on a very circuitous route across Sheffield back to their house to avoid the city centre! After a pleasant late afternoon/ evening of conversation and catching up, accompanied by tea and cake and later an enjoyable roast dinner, we finally left around 9pm, to head back across the Pennines back to Roger's sister Janet.