Amber

As I said in Monday's back blip there was the odd surprise at Nidd Hall.

This was one of the best ones.

The maintenance manager had hand reared an Indian Eagle Owl chick, and she was kept at Nidd Hall in an aviary. He decided to let the guest who stayed the week she first brought to the hotel to get a chance to name her. Amber came out on top, simply because of her amazing eyes.

I must admit, I used to wander down to the aviary every day and have a chat with her. You could chat to her, if you hooted gently at her, she would hoot back! Quite impressive. Not entirely sure what the other guests made of me, but there you go!

As I have also said the grounds were mighty impressive. There was plenty of bird watching to be done. Over the course of the five days we clocked up quite a nice list.

Indian Eagle Owls not included. We heard Barn Owls in the woods, there were spotted flycatchers in the trees near the hotel itself. They had put a lot of effort in attracting wildlife down by the lake, and the lake itself was well stocked with fish, which attracted passing herons. The usual woodland birds were around, long tailed tits, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, a handful of bullfinches, greenfinches, blackbirds, song thrushes, a couple told us they saw nuthatches, we didn't, but no doubt they would have been around. We saw a pheasant, the lake also had mallards, coots and moorhens present.

The sky was constantly full of swooping swallows and house martins, surely getting the migration itch now, and fattening up.

We saw what may have been Red Kites in the distance, but may have been buzzards. There was a Red Kite hotspot not far from us.

It was quite an enjoyable hour or so birding, followed by a wine tasting session, which left us seeing the odd flying pink elephant ... can I count them as a year tick?