Chichester Marina

Wednesday, on a whim, we decided to pop in and visit Chichester Marina (just spotted the sign as we were out for a drive looking for somewhere for lunch) -

- and it was actually quite a good find, apart from the incredible sight of so many horrendously expensive yachts -

- the first thing you notice (as I assembled the Bugaboo from the back of the car and Flyingpops got Thomas out of his Maxi-cosi) is this strange noise generated by all the ropes and cables resonating in the wind, it's really quite a spooky sound, like an army of metallic warriors setting up a baleful moan...all the boats complaining that it's windy and here they are all roped up...Anyway, we walked around the edge, being overtaken by lots of cyclists (making me suspect it's part of the Salterns way cycle route)...

After a while, I spotted a hide off to one side of the path -

- so we popped in to see what we could see -


- found a position away from too many cobwebs (obviously fairly rarely patronised then) and were lucky enough to spot a Little Egret (or possibly a Heron) almost straight away (you'll have to click the picture if you want a good view, that was the absolute limit of the zoom on my camera)!

Which was a bit of luck, as when it sloped off we didn't see a single other sign of life for about ten minutes...We concluded our walk when we stumbled into an industrial area, designed to lift boats out of the water to facilitate repair, and reversed course (empty tummies driving us toward food rather than boats), stopping to take a picture of this amusingly name launch on our way...

Perhaps we'll return another day when we attempt the Salterns way as a relaxing walk (or gentle cycle)...

Bird Table - Thrush

Well, having a 10x zoom certainly makes taking pictures of the wildlife a bit easier! Even shot this one through the patio doors (they get a bit scared if you open the door)... ;)

Really funny thing I have noticed about the birds just lately is that they seem to have specific times (like humans eating breakfast, lunch and dinner) when they all seem to turn up, not a minute goes by without at least one of them grabbing a cheeky mouthful, and then the bird table is empty for hours on end...

I guess they eat until their little bellies are full and then just muck around for a while, not much else for them to do at this time of year! Oh and something I did forget, even though I now remember I noticed them doing last year, they are using the water garden as a bird bath *and* for drinking water...no wonder I'm having to top it up so often!

Still, there's absolutely nothing I can do about it short of putting it under chicken wire (which would rather ruin it's appearance imho)...