Early morning and Cuckoo

On Friday, I took the bike up to Redmires reservoirs early in the morning to give it a go on finding the cuckoo and to get some pictures. The weather wasn't to bad either which helped :)
I arrived around 5:30 and the cuckoo was nowhere to find. Usually if its active you hear it straight away. Gladly, just half hour later I could hear it calling, which just means now I had to find where it is. It flies around lots, but by mimicking its calling you can get it to at least check out what you are. Lucky No other people were there :)) And the mimicking worked! I managed to get it curious so it flew past me many times during the morning.
The cuckoo is a bit special, as you might already know. It doesn't build its own nests at all, it lays an egg in a nest that already have eggs and preferably of small birds. It can adapt the color of its egg to the hosts! Then the female cuckoo takes away most of the hosts eggs from the nest, and leave its own egg to its fate. The female looking then for next nest and does this about 9 times. Amazing..... 
The birds that end up with a cuckoo's egg take care of it as its own, incubate it and feeds it when it hatch. I wonder what they think when the cuckoo chick grows into a much bigger chicks than they thought their would be :)
Now I'm off to Croatia for 2 weeks, to do some refurbishment on our summer house. Obviously the camera will be going with me!

See you in couple of weeks, Enjoy the summer!
                                                                       

 

 

Curlew

 

Cuckoo

 

Cuckoo

 

Cuckoo

 

Goldfinch

More pics from London

So to the second day in London. By now we had done the touristy parts and it was time to explore the calmer and "luxurious" neighbourhoods. It felt like it anyway because of the gorgeous houses, the fancy shops and the posh sports cars cruising around. Rather close to all of this are the two huge and gorgeously green oases; Hyde Park and Regent Park which should not be forgotten when visiting London.
The area that felt that extra posh was Belgravia, where famous Harrods is and all the nice museums.  We actually never went into the Harrods, it was anyway just another expensive shop ;)
We did though visited both the 'Victoria and Albert' and the 'Natural History' museum that are well worth the walk, even if its just to stand outside and look at the grand façade. 
Going back I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the train station St Pancras which is 'just another' amazing building :))

Today the heavy clouds are covering Sheffield and the rain is flooding the streets, which just means, out and test how waterproof the cloths are :))

Until next time, enjoy!
                                                                      

Buckingham Palace

St Margaret's Church

Belgravia

Belgravia

Harrods

Natural history museum

Natural history museum

Natural history museum

Natural history museum, Stone and mineral collection

 Hyde Park

I liked the tiling on this Underground ststion

St Pancras

Inside St Pancras

                                                                 

London weekend

Not long after coming back from the Northern Ireland, it was time to visit London. As I have never been to a really big city like that, I was actually looking forward to it.
Got there Saturday around lunch time and the plan was just to walk around and see as many touristic attractions as possible, which most are located along the Thames.
Of course I was impressed by the architecture of the bridges, churches and everything else. That day we probably walked well above 20km, which meant that the feet were a bit sore that evening :)
I was planning to do lots of evening pictures, but since we already had walked a lot the only places that I got to were the Palace of Westminster, London Eye and Big Ben.
The second day we moved away from the tourist attractions but lets talk about that in the next blog :)

St Paul's cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral

Millennium bridge

Hms Belfast

Hms Belfast

Tower Bridge

Tower bridge

Tower of London on the right

Skyscraper

Leadenhall market

Toilets

London eye

Palace of Westminster and Big Ben

Piccadilly circus

London eye in evening sun

Night time

Big Ben

Big Ben

                                                                      

The rest of Northern Ireland

Back to Northern Ireland
Causeway coastal route is said to be one of top 5 road trips in the world and I can only agree. The road follows the coast all the way from Belfast to Londonderry. 200km along an dramatic coast with possibility for short detours inland.
One of the detours took us to a place called 'The Dark Hedges'. A place also known from the tv series Game of Thrones. First picture below.
Next stop along the coast was the Carrick- A-Rede rope bridge that we unfortunately didn't actually cross but we just didn't have time for everything. It's a rope bridge hanging 30m above sea level and goes over to an island that has been used by salmon fishermen long time ago. Still we took a short walk down by the water to stretch our legs and admire the views.
THEN on to Northern Ireland's biggest tourist attraction; Giant 's Causeway. Northern Ireland's only World Heritage Site but what cool place. There are about 40 000 six sided basalt columns formed by violent volcanic eruptions. Fantastic place to visit! Cannot be put in words, you just need to go and see it.
From here we were off to Londonderry, where we spent the night and in the morning walked the city's famous Wall. A small big city worth visiting.
The rest of the trip was spent inlands, along the lakes and the beautiful countryside. One of the days was saved for hiking in the Mourne mountains, and to climb its highest peak at 850m. Sadly the weather put a stop to that, the low clouds and rain. Still we managed with a short walk through the Silent Valley.
Last day was spent in Belfast and the pictures from there you have already seen :)
                                                                           

The Dark Hedges

Coast near Carrick-a-rede

Giant's causeway

Giant's causeway

Giant's causeway

Giant's causeway

Giant's causeway

Giant's causeway from the top of the mountain

Londonderry

Londonderry and peace bridge

Silent valley

One of  many lighthouses