Risley Woodies

After a long lie in, I decided that the wind had died down enough for me to go out for a while and sit in a hide. I've not been to Risley for a little while, and although I knew it was very unlikely that I would get a new bird for my list, I quite fancied going to Risley. 
It was a good decision as I had a lovely couple of hours at the woodland hide watching the goings on. There were a couple of Jays, a Treecreeper, a large flock of Long tailed tits who kept popping by, nuthatches, plenty of festive robins and at least 3 woodpeckers who showed really well today. The lack of leaves on the trees made it so much easier to spot the birds and it was hard to concentrate on one area as so many birds were around. At one point a Sparrowhawk came within feet of the hide, swooped in, but did not linger. I was so shocked, and of course it was far too quick and close for a shot. Now that would have added to my list....
I had a lovely long chat with the young couple who sat in the hide with me for at least an hour - they were thrilled to see the Jays, treecreeper and especially the sparrowhawk. It's so nice to see younger people interested in birds as I find it tends to be mainly the older generation that are happy to sit and watch birds for longer than 2 minutes. 

I then had to pop into town to pick up a click and collect parcel for Debenhams - big mistake. It was PACKED(I know, I know - it's nearly Christmas!!) I should have done it midweek instead. I have another one to pick up from M&S Gemini, but that will definitely be done midweek. 

Hubby is still hobbling around, but gradually getting better so hopefully he will be back to driving sometime this week. 

A nice week at home now before my final short hop to Germany. It's a good job really as I still have a ton of stuff to do for Christmas - not very organised this year for some reason....

Hope everyone has had a good weekend.