Birds

I'm trying to catch up so have loaded yesterday's blip as well as this.
Today's blip is a not very good collection of images (why don't birds come and pose nicely well within range?) which will act as a reminder for me.
The osprey is one of a pair which visit Drew & Lisa's garden at Newport. Their cry is unmistakable. I was astounded when they said they had ospreys on their garden.
The red bird is a red cardinal. I'm hoping to get a better shot later.
We set off from Newport today to Middletown Connecticut, about a two hour drive. Our first stage though was only as far as Wickford, still on Rhode Island and just half an hour's drive. We stopped to have lunch and to hand us over to Duffy and Izzy who drove to meet us . It was a lovely small town on the river and filled with shops I could have spent hours - and dollars - in. But it was not to be. We had lunch in a lovely restaurant called Wickford on the Water. I do enjoy being able to sit outside every day to eat all of our meals. We arrived early which was just as well, the tables filled up very quickly. There was a lovely cooling breeze and boats and kayaks to watch on the river.
It was lovely to see Izzy and Duffy again, we saw them just before lockdown in Edinburgh and a couple of years before that spent a week in Paris with them. The food was delicious, I was amused when the people next to us were served up the tankards in the extra - they said it was an alcoholic salad in a glass - a bloody Mary I think, including an enormous prawn and a rasher of crispy bacon.
After lunch we set off for Middletown through slightly heavy Saturday afternoon traffic.
The final birds in the main blip are in Izzy's garden, a bluejay who spent about 10 minutes having a good wash in the bird bath and a female American Robin who enjoyed the resulting showers.
Another magnificent house, both of our friends have guest suites with everything we could possibly need and have made us feel so welcome. It's a world away from the very basic, student 'out of town' accommodation we all rented in and around St Andrews in the early 70s. Little cottages and flats with no central heating, and coal fires only in the living room. Some of the farm cottages people rented then would be classed as barely fit for habitation these days. Still everyone survived and there are good stories and memories.
We settled in and then headed out after dinner, downtown, to a small music venue and a very 'interesting' improvisation session with a guitar and double bass with various electronic pedals - I think interesting is the most suitable description. Still Colin and Duffy enjoyed it.
We were back home in time for a nightcap then a fairly early night.
As an ex-pat Izzy was very appreciative of the Crunchie bars, Chocolate flakes and Cadbury's finger biscuits we brought her, at her request. We will have a lot of space in our luggage when we got home again. Drew and Lisa had similar quantities of oatcakes and home made shortbread. They all arrived intact much to our delight as did with the whisky from duty free!