Steppe family

Posted by Graeme Lyons , Sunday 6 November 2011 19:30

I've just got back from a great weekend in Staffordshire with the family indulging in all things Staffordshire. We kicked the weekend off with a double bill of Shane Meadows and Paddy Considine movies (they're both from within 10 miles of where I grew up) being Dead Man's Shoes and A Room for Romeo Brass. Both great films and in my opinion superior to This Is England. This has been the soundtrack of the weekend, thanks Jess! I know these guys are a bit mainstream now but you know, I quite like them. So there.
I managed to get some natural history in too. In fact, I even managed to convince my sister and niece to come twitching with me. Just down the road (well 29 miles) in Shropshire there has been a Steppe Grey Shrike for the last week or so and I was glad to see it was still there. A nice bird, it seemed to spend a lot of time low down on the ground and even landed in a stubble field on one occasion. You can see the pale bill and lores, huge white wing panel and slightly sandy underparts. From this photo though, I don't think Max and Jess were finding standing in a field with a bunch of strangers staring at a bird quite as exciting as I was.
Back to Staffordshire and I find Mum picking Liberty Caps on the lawn. She didn't intend to eat them, I think more to stop my little one year old nephew Rowan eating them and tripping his nuts off. On Mum's front lawn I also saw these Snowy Waxcaps which were pretty cool. I even saw Peregrine, Red Kite and Barn Owl on the journey back to Sussex. 

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