Warning - not for the faint hearted

Sometimes a blip arrives very early in the day. I was up bright and early to drive to Stanhope for the start of a walk "In Temperley's Tread" organised by Sunderland University. The idea is to walk 45 miles over 5 walks, following a route suggested many years ago by George Temperley, the original author of "The Birds of Durham".

En route to Stanhope I passed this young man, returning home after a successful session rabbiting. He agreed to have his photo taken and told me how he has trained his dog to go rabbiting with him. I was impressed by his pride in his dog and the fact he was out so early to take home a rabbit for the pot.

The walk was 10 miles long over a beautiful route from Edmundbyers to Stanhope. We saw curlew, oyster catchers, short eared owl, lapwing and starlings (in large flocks), meadow pipit, skylarks, wheatears, red kites, buzzards, kestrels and many more. I saw my first cuckoo today.

I returned home rather tired and have to be up earlier in the morning for our walk in the Borders......

Hope you have time to see yesterday's celebratory blip.