Up on Beacon Hill Nature Reserve

Do you know, I've not been to this reserve in such a long time, and I can't really think why. It's a beautiful place on a lovely spring day like this, filled with orange tip males patrolling the hedgerows, while the females occasionally settled on garlic mustard.

I managed to get a shot of such a lady, but as ever, not a great one. They are rather skittish, as I've said about a million times.

The bee fly I came across was also a difficult target as it fed off speedwell with its huge schnozzle. So it's a bit disappointing on the photographic front today.

I won't lie; it's been a difficult day. Well, they are all difficult for everyone at the moment, but today I listened to the news and thought that this is just never going to end. I felt that I couldn't see how it would ever end.

It got a bit much, but hey, I'm still here writing away tonight. Another day scratched off on the wall.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 24.04.20

The Charming Goldfinches

I've had two walks today, totalling 12877 steps so my phone lies to me, on one of those days where  the sun doesn't get out of bed, and decides to throw a dirty grey blanket over us so we can't tell.

This morning I was down by the park, walking along the River Devon, watching and listening to the numerous song birds working away amongst the trees and shrubs. When I had a cup of tea at Rumbles, a little pied wagtail came to join me, foraging among the bits of grit by the bins where occasionally they put seeds out.

On Radio 4 they argued about veganism.

This afternoon I went up to Beacon Hill reserve, a large green oasis perched above an industrial estate, but there wasn't much to see. The good stuff was in town by the castle and the library, where I came across two distinct charms of goldfinches.

The castle charm comprised around fifty birds, and they circled around settling from tree to tree, never settling for long and never being quiet for a second. In the horrible flat grey light, they barely looked more than dark shapes until they flew, when you could see the golden wing bars.

The library charm was smaller, may thirty birds, but because they were closer the noise they made was even louder, a constant noisy trill that went on and on until a guy in a hoodie scared them.

The flock went off in two opposite directions like the Red Sea at the hand of Moses.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 05.02.09

Red Sun Run

Well, I think that my fitness level at cricket has been lacking a little bit. Not the basic endurance, but the speed endurance for sprinting between the wickets, and chasing after the ball in the field.

I therefore thought it would be good to get a midweek run in, one with a fair few short sprints in it to increase endurance. But even today after my cricket weekend, my legs are so stiff that running at all was really really hard, and  made me feel really really old.

Still, I did 7km, and got to see many baby rabbits on the nature reserve, and a red sun sinking and scraping the rooftops, as my knees and hips scraped as I ran.

Time for a cup of tea,

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 23.05.18

A Shoveller amid the Toadstooling

After a slightly lazy morning where I overslept Parkrun and then went to the park where nice policemen gave me a new D-Lock for my bike and painted a postcode on the bottom bracket, I went out for a run this afternoon to hunt some toadstools.

I've seen so many colourful pictures of toadstool on Instagram, I figured it was a good time to head into the woods in Beacon Hill Reserve and see what I could find. Never mind cutting out the dead wood, I was actively seeking it.

But while on the initial runout down the cycle track, my eye was caught through the reeds by flashes of unfamiliar looking waterfowl out on London Road Pond. I went through a gap onto the bank to take a look, and there out on the water was a shoveller drake, swimming furiously around in tight circles with its head under the water.

Apparently this is how they feed in large groups to disturb prey items.

I've never seen one at close range, and certainly it's a bird I've never spotted out on this water before, so although a relatively common bird I was still pretty excited to see it. Did I have my good camera on me? No, of course not. Really annoying!

So, up the hill and onto the reserve, and a trip under the trees to see what was about. And the answer, in a fungal sense, was nothing exciting. A few king alfred's cakes, a few slimes of some description, and some plain white bracket fungi. No fly agarics or scarlet elf cups for me!

Still, I needed the 9km run, but laziness meant I didn't have time to deploy my new pencils and sketch pad on anything. The world will have to wait for my artistic talents a little longer.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 22.10.16

Another Walk for Wellness I Put Together

I seem to be making a regular Friday feature of these; I will have to do more and more walks to generate more copy!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 17.10.16

Beacon Hill and Clay Lane Miscellania

My magazine - leaflet really - got a good response if not the mass adulation I secretly craved.

Big weekend of sport for me, two cricket matches, a run tonight then a bath, 20 bike miles the other night too. Got to keep on it. I need a good bowling performance tomorrow.

Enjoy these pictures from the local nature reserve the other day.

Si

I've had the Builders in

For a man who considers himself sharply observant, I've missed a fairly blatant bit of construction that has been going on without planning permission.

I looked out my living room window this morning, down onto my little postage stamp garden, and saw that a bird's nest had been built smack in the middle of my low ivy bush.

Looking in, it seems blatant that this is a blackbird nest, and it has sadly been abandoned. One of the eggs appears to have a chick in it. I wonder if this nest, being very low down and very exposed by blackbird standards, was raided by a magpie or some other such predator.

After taking these photographs, got on with having a ten km run on what had by now turned into a lovely afternoon, with many holly blues, orange tips and small whites in flight. Clay Lane has largely dried out, and alongside it donkeys graze in fields of buttercups, and the oilseed rape is blooming.

I ran round to Beacon Hill Reserve, which is straggly and strangely devoid of butterflies and birds today. Still, I love the fact that so few people in my town know the reserve is there.

But I also hate it too!

Enjoy your weeks all!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 16.05.16