I had been told by at least three people that the bittern had been booming in the reed bed at Splatt Bridge. I made a few visits to try and listen  with now success. Finally yesterday I heard it from my house on three occasions.

Maybe he was celebrating the Mighty Hatters last gasp victory on Saturday. The roof nearly came off the ground with the explosion of joy when the goal was scored! Now have a nervy Saturday ahead but at least it is in our hands! Having said that I am sure I won’t have any fingernails left!  A win and we are safe!

I was also delighted to see both siskins and a chiffchaff in our garden yesterday. Previously we have only seen siskins in the garden on a couple of occasions. Pictures below are from Dorset last week- a stonechat, guillemots on the sea, a razorbill and ironically a siskin on the feeder at Arne!

Below is a selection of photos from Thursday’s gig in Marlborough and one from last month’s gig at South Cerney. Both gigs were in schools with building sites close by,  E.G. Carters Construction Company employed me to do stories looking with a safety theme.

Picture by Clint Randall 

Once more -where has he been? Well Wednesday was my usual volunteering day at Wick Court taking young people bird watching. A great day and all the groups of children got good views of a kestrel hovering. One group got a female blackcap while another had the male!

Thursday we were up with the larks so to speak because I was storytelling near Marlborough. Clare came with me and we popped in on an old friend who has been ill. We then went on down to Dorset visiting Arne and Durlston Country Park, both favourite haunts of ours.

Tomorrow is an another start as I travel with trepidation to watch the Mighty Hatters in yet another must win game.

Below are a few bird pictures from the last couple of days more to follow! I have loads of story telling pictures from yesterday to add but need time to edit the downloads!

The title refers to the Mighty Hatters relegation battle that at least will go to the last game! An excellent performance yesterday saw us win back to back games for the first time since September. The only downside is our fellow relegation candidates won as well!!! Just hope we can win on Saturday which with the way the fixtures are we could get out of the bottom three. Everything (fingers and toes) will be firmly crossed!!!!!!

We had a lovely weekend with our grandsons. The whole family stayed the night as well which was a bonus. The boys loved their visit to Slimbridge and Robin was delighted looking at the flamingos. They also enjoyed the otters!

I went bird watching this afternoon. Didn’t see  much but snapped some photos of our garden and a thrush- see below plus an otter the boys were watching.

The end of yesterday’s game at Derby where the Mighty Hatters gave us hope again. I had given up the week before but now………Just hope we can follow this up with a win on Monday.

Today was a special day we went with our two grandsons to Slimbridge WWT enjoying the birds and seeing the otters.

Back to Story Telling this week in deepest Wiltshire. 

The last couple of days have zoomed by! I had my last cricket net on Tuesday and was pleasantly surprised with my batting- of course when it comes to the real thing on early season pitches it is likely to be different !

I hosted Book Club last night and we all had to bring a poem that meant something to us. Certainly we ended up with a real diverse offering. It was a great evening!

Today my time has been split between the garden and cycling to appointments. I am off again soon on my bike to watch the quiz final. Tomorrow I travel with trepidation to Derby to watch the Not So Mighty Hatters. Got a feeling it could end up being a wake! I will have everything firmly crossed!

As the weather is about to change thought I would mention the recent lovely signs of spring. I cycled to Gloucester today to meet a friend I was delighted to see plenty of cowslips, lovely fresh leaves on the trees (our quince is looking fantastic) and plenty of blossom. Yesterday I watched two marsh harriers not quite dancing but circling over the reed bed together. Today the lake was full of sand martins. I saw my first whitethroat of the spring.

The picture below is a marsh harrier from a couple of years ago from Splatt Bridge.

Today’s title doesn’t refer to my football team who certainly didn’t have much of a boom yesterday (now resigned to successive relegations!)

No the title refers to a bittern – we have had some activity here in Frampton. I went today hoping to hear one booming. I didn’t!!! I will try again this week. I did see to marsh harriers flying together which is encouraging! The bittern picture isn’t mine!

Had a wonderful day yesterday taking my old friend Dave to Lords for his Birthday and Christmas present. We were doing the tour and what a great day we both had! We sat in both changing rooms, walked through the Long Room, sat in the Compton Stand at the top and also the Grandstand. A few photos at the bottom.

I have clocked up a good few miles on the bike this week including today where I had a delightful ride into Nailsworth for storytelling. I was making my fourth visit since just before Christmas to the care home there. I do a real mix of stories to accommodate  all the residents.

Thought the Mighty Hatters did well on Tuesday and so fingers crossed for another big game tomorrow.