Armed with clipboards, we scanned the trees and bushes diligently. Not many birds were out braving the strong winds this morning but we did see quite a few seagulls & pigeons, a few crows & sparrows , a couple of magpies and a blackbird.

We were very lucky to finish just before the skies opened up!

A blustery chilly morning saw us helping out at Eastney Junior parkrun today. And as an added bonus it was the events 10th birthday! 🎉🥳

John, Vicki & Lorna took up marshal points along the route to cheer on all the participants 👏

Jen and mini GG-er Alice led everyone in an Australia themed warm up. Adding to the days festivities in honour of Australia day 🇦🇺

We had Loisa as our Run Director for the day. 🎬

Jane carried the halfway turnaround cone ⚠️ to ensure everyone went the correct distance!

Judy was a mobile marshal. Adding to her kms and steps to check all the runners were ok 🚶‍♀️

And Dave donned the orange vest as tailwalker to make sure noone got left behind. However, after 2 people ended up dropping out at various stages he ended up more tailrunning to catch up!! 😳

We warmed up before the Junior Parkrun by doing a mini litterpick in Bransbury Park.

Lots of stretching to reach the food wrappers and bottles that had blown into the bushes. Dave won the prize for the biggest find - a bike which he wheeled to the bike store in case they could make use of it.

Alongside our shoreline survey, we collected any and all litter that we saw.

Samantha found a fishing lure that was a glittery fish with no head! Only trumped by Wilson discovery near the end of a small strawberry eraser/toy/thing.

Of course there was a sock found as it doesn't count as a GG pick without discarded clothes.

Jen managed to sort her barnet out with a new comb!

And there was almost a couple of incidents as we traversed the beach with some slippy rocks! Fortunately we had no falls and everyone made it home safely!

We had a great time carrying out a review of the signage along the first part of the Langstone Harbour Shoreline walk.

At the start, we learnt what interdiction signs are so we could look out for them alongside blaze marks, signposts and interpretation boards.

We all identified the boards and stickers which Sammy expertly photographed, some of which were placed high up, some were old, some defaced, some confusing and some just blank.

We heroically waded through the mud around Eastney Lake only noticing afterwards the 👻 warning us that wading was prohibited.

At Swan Lake we enacted a beautiful scene from the ballet, which I'm sure the kind passerby who took our photo found very moving.

Thanks again to everyone helping out at JPR this morning. It was lovely to see Lorna out for her first GG task of the year - she had so much fun we dragged her along to two more tasks!

Being Run Director when GoodGymers are about is just marvellous. Will be great to see you guys again next week!