It's good to be "back"

Have been venturing out in the last ten days or so for the first time in nearly a month previously due to chronic back problems. Missed some nice birds and weather in that time ,so no last hurrah on the Dragon front sadly. Did see 5 Common Hawkers at Holywell Pond and a single Migrant Hawker last Saturday with a few butterflies, mainly Speckled Woods, putting in an appearance.
Saturday brought me my first Redpoll at St. Marys along with Yellow-broweds and Firecrests and a trip up to Druridge courtesy of the Howdon Blogger afforded nice views of the Subalpine Warbler and a beautiful hovering Kestrel that hunted the dunes as a nice distraction when the Sub. submerged into cover.
Yesterday I ventured up to the Rising Sun, something I will be doing more often with the oncoming of winter and got rather excited with my first autumn Redwings. Only the 2, but still. Nice to see a couple of Dabchicks on Dukes Pond but viewing Swallow Pond from either the hide or screen can only improve as the vegetation dies back. I put my macro lens away for the winter at the weekend and of course forgot about capturing some nice images of the emerging fungi, of which I came across 3 lovely examples which I had to capture with the 300mm. When I sort through them I will post a few. I will post a copy of each species on I SPOT for possible I.D., as with almost everything I come across in the natural world, I ain't got a clue what they are. I just know they are stunning.
One image follows. One of my favourite birds, a Rook, which was making its' presence known on the stabilising cables to the masts north of St. Marys.