Hectic Social Whirl…

It’s all go, up here on the Lancaster Canal. On Saturday we were collected and delivered to Ingleton where we had an excellent dinner and very enjoyable afternoon with friends Val and John, and Mike and Yen.

Then on Sunday Mag's grand-daughter Melanie came over to Hest Bank for lunch. Another good afternoon.

Melanie feeding the swans.

A party from the North West Swan Study was out and about, ringing the juveniles who’ve arrived this year.

The last of the brood, a young male, being done.

The code on the large ring is visible from a distance, and this enables identification of individuals without having to capture them.

The Study is part of a national scheme to track swan population and movement patterns, and each region has a different coloured tag.

He’s a heavy chap, just over 12kg.

The public (us!) can help with the study. If you manage to get the tag ID of any swans, you can notify the collator so the information can be entered on the database. Where seen, when, condition of the bird and any companions should be provided. Information on local birds (with the blue and white ring as in the photos) can be notified to charles@northwestswanstudy.org.uk, birds elsewhere via the British Trust for Ornithology website.

All done, ready for release….

Reunited with the family.

“What’s this ‘ere, then?”

Today dawned bright and sunny, and Meg and I took our morning walk along the foreshore. I particularly like this shot…..

“I see no ships…”

Washed up tree trunk at the high water mark.

There are several of these, the result of tidal erosion.

We decided to have another whack at finding a mooring in busy Carnforth, so headed to the winding ‘ole just before Bridge 114, turned around and headed back north.

Leaving Hest Bank moorings

We came past in the opposite direction 35 minutes later.

On those shallow moorings in Bolton-Le-Sands, a new slant on the term “Water Garden”

We arrived at Carnforth as several boats were leaving or had just left, excellent timing.

NB The Owl and The Pussycat moving off.

That space will do nicely, thankyou.

Meg and I took our afternoon meander up onto the rising ground to the east of the canal. There’re some good views looking over the north end of the bay and the Kent estuary from up here.

Looking NW from above Mount Pleasant.

We’ve got more visitors coming tomorrow. Joan and Bob, NB Caroline, are coming over to see us for lunch. We met earlier in the year on the Weaver.

Just as a reminder, and for those that read the blogs with a feed reader, I’m going to stick a link on the bottom of posts for the next 4 weeks. Yes, 4 weeks to The Great North Run. The link will take you to my sponsorship web page. I’m raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support this year. So please help out if you can.

Thanks in anticipation.

Locks 0, miles 4

I’m running The Great North Run to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.