Saturday 28 February 2009

The Time had Come!

0 locks, 11 miles, 1 swing bridge. Now moored at Sutton Stop, Oxford Canal.

With the weather slowly improving it was time to cast off and start heading north. Yesterday we just did a casual run up to Brinklow and today we have had a good cruise up to Sutton Stop (Hawkesbury Junction). We are moored on the Oxford canal side of the stop lock and will remain here until Monday.

It was an interesting day a far as wild life was concerned. First up was a fox which sadly was quite recently deceased . The next was a Green Woodpecker with it’s bright green plumage and red head. The last sighting was just on the south side of the M6 of what I had thought to be a Buzzard soaring over the canal and open fields. The most noticeable feature was white patches on the under side of the wings near the wing tip. However after perusing our guide book of birds it looks as if we may have made a sighting of a rare Red Kite. A shame we were unable to photograph it to verify it.

On the domestic scene we passed a farm with 4 Donkey’s, 3 Shetland ponies and a couple of dozen goats all of which looked to be extremely well fed and in need of losing some weight.

1587 locks, 3355 miles, 57 Tunnels, 44 swing bridges and 39 lift bridges since Nov 2006

2 comments:

Brian and Diana on NB Harnser said...

There are lots of Red Kites over Oxford way, you see them a lot when driving down the M40 so it is poosible I has found its way over here. There are Buzzards in the area as well.

We should see you Monday as we are on the Coventry Canal and heading for Napton.
Brian and Diana on Harnser.
http://nbharnser.blogspot.com/

Derek and Dot said...

Hi Brian and Diana
Thanks for that we are sure it was a Red Kite. Hope we dont miss you as we are heading for Coventry once Gosty Hill has been with diesel.
Take care Dot