WALKING AND BIRD WATCHING

We were up early this morning so decided to go to Hengistbury Head and walk along to Mudeford Spit. It was a beautiful morning, the sun was shining with wall-to-wall blue skies and there weren't that many people about.

We didn't see that many birds, but this group of Redshanks was across the pond near the beach huts. It was taken on a very long zoom, so the picture quality may not be all it should be, but Mr. HCB is happy with it, and of course, I can "blip" beach huts at any time.

As its name suggests, Redshanks' most distinctive features are their bright orange-red legs. They have a medium-length bill with an orange base to match, brown speckled back and wings and paler belly. They breed in damp places like salt marshes, flood meadows and around lakes, but during winter lots more of them can be seen on estuaries and coastal lagoons – as many as half of these birds may be from Iceland. Redshanks hunt for insects, earthworms, molluscs and crustaceans by probing their bills into soil and mud.

We were out for far longer than we thought, so just popped into the Visitor Centre at Hengistbury to have a quick look - we will go back and have a closer look another time.

Today's challenge in "40Acts - Do Lent Generously" was to have an Attitude of Gratitude - I thanked Mr. HCB for taking me and he thanked me for going with him - lots of attitude there then!!