Pigeon Convocation

I wonder what they are up to...holding an anti Trump rally to which they had forgotten to bring their placards? Southern Rail picket line? Simulating Nottingham Forest's home attendance in 5 years time?

Today they wouldn't have been perched in their trees, there has been light, but stinging, rain all day today, which would have affected my Vitamin D levels even if I had been outside all day which I haven't.

We had a session with our work physio today who suggested we were all suffering from Vitamin D deficiency in that environment, many of us going days at a time without seeing any natural light with our shift patterns.

I thought as an outdoorsy type I might be alright, but alas this vitamin can't be stored over time, apparently.

The local Holland and Barrets might find us storming the aisles.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 31.01.17

Those Pesky Grebes Again!

These pictures were taken while out on my run yesterday, but I decided you might like to see the muddy bottom of an empty river first. Which stats suggest you didn't actually want to see, so that was a bit of a fail on my part.

The great crested grebes of Balderton Lake, known to locals as The Blue Lake for some sort of rather colour blind reason, were a photography target yesterday, but just as at London Road Lake, they weren't keen on being shot. When they get going, they work up a pretty impressive head of steam and are hard to keep in focus as they carve through the waters, leaving impressive wakes.

Then of course, there is the diving, perfectly timed to coincide with getting the blasted bird in focus.  And when they surface, they are invariably further away from you.

I managed to photograph two grebes, an immature specimen just losing the cute zebra stripes they have as chicks, and an adult, probably the parent as they started swimming along together eventually.

They are such beautiful birds, I would love to capture some lovely shots of them, but it still isn't happening for me. But I will keep trying.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 30.10.15

Mission: Photography

Oh I'm such a lazy boy. The plan was to have a really good long run today, out to 20km or beyond, and after a bright start to the day, I ended up so tired in the afternoon that I ended up dozing for a couple of hours in front of a DVD.

This was not acceptable.

When I did get going, I just didn't feel like running at all and was looking for any excuse. Not a good attitude when one is trying to drop a bit of holiday weight I'm afraid, but I didn't waste the day. I headed to the park with the new camera to see if I could get any good bird shots.

The answer was, no, not really. Aside from a lovely "seeeeep"-ing flock of long tailed tits, which were bar too busy for me to get a shot of, the large number of dogs being walked had probably driven the birds way into the tree tops, and there were no kestrels hunting above the pasture.

The muntjac deer that, unbelievably, visit the park were obviously not going to show themselves, being barely larger than a dog themselves. No-one seems to know where they have come from, but they've been popping up in people's gardens here from time to time.

The waterfowl on Balderton Lake were a better target, although there were no great crested grebes to shoot, but I'm still not happy with my pictures. I'm getting better, but any motion at all seems to blur the image, and I'm far too shaky to maintain a good focus point when on the zoom.

Still, it is only a basic bridge camera and I'm only a far more basic photographer. My bird shots are still better than any I've got before, and my squirrel even looks like a squirrel!

Hope you like them.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 23.10.15

Sconce old wood

Coot

Macro flower

Another late lasting flower on the Sconce

Mallard

Squirrel in the old wood tree

Going down!

Tufted duck

Vulcan XH558 Drops By

She seemed like an ideal test subject for my DA-DA-DAAAAAA brand new Fuji S8650!

OK, it's the last one in the shop, a display model, but it works, and as soon as I'd rescued the SSD card from the compact camera I had dropped, I headed off for Newark Air Museum to take some thrilling shots of the mighty Vulcan V-Bomber on her last flight.

As she normally does, she honoured the museum with several circuits and a dramatic roll and climb, the engines roaring. And as I stood next to the main road, I found immediately how tricky it actually is to take photographs of a moving aircraft with a 36X bridge camera. The focus tends to struggle to keep up!

The extreme shakiness of the photographer doesn't help either!

(looking now at some online reviews, it appears that the focus is renowned for being a little slow on zoom shots, but the camera in general gets a good write up.)

Anyway, here are the best shots I could get of the Vulcan.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 11.10.15

Some Unusuals at RSPB Langford Lowfields

Today I cycled to RSPB Langford Lowfields using my "touring" route, which instead of a direct 10km ride, is an 18km ride via Stapleford Woods so you end up doing around 30 in all.

It was a pleasant afternoon for it, the wind of the morning had dropped, the weather was decent, and a group of three roe deer were watching me from a field, bright white bottoms shining like stars. I assume they were roe, even a a distance they looked bigger than the dog sized muntjacs that also live in the area.

When I arrived at about 430pm, there was a fair amount of quacking going on out on the water, and an egret was flying across the reed bed, scorching white, Sirius white. I took some photographs of a lovely sky, and settled down to scan through my binoculars.

Phase 1 was busier than I'd seen it for a while, with plenty of mute swans on the water and the gorgeous sight of a pair flying low and slow overhead, their wings beating with "wheee-wooo" sound I've never heard before. Tufted ducks, mainly out of eclipse, were numerous and of course most of the noise was coming from the inevitable mallards. But amongst all this, there a few things a little more unusual.

First up was the target of my visit after hearing they had been spotted on the water. A duck slightly smaller than a mallard, with almost pinkish looking flanks that were especially striking when it dabbled.. The bird was a long way across the lake, but I could still tell in my 10x50s it had a whopping great beak.

A shoveller! My first ever. The bottle green head wasn't particularly noticeable, but it may have not fully emerged from eclipse.

Not far away, were a pair of ducks coasting across the water, one a plain brown, the other a rather mottled looking duck with a white speculum. I thought at the time it might have been a gadwall, but looking it up when I got back, it may have been a wigeon of some description. The red and yellow head wasn't clear, but again the bird was a long way off.

The final bird was a small wader I noticed flying low across the water before settling down to feed on a mud bank. I had, and still have, no idea what it was, although its beak was short and its plumage mottled. Turnstone perhaps? I have no idea.

So, an interesting little session for me at Langford, and I even bin-scoped a couple of slightly less awful than usual shots for you!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 08.10.15

Lovely skies above the reed bed

Across the water

Through the binoculars, far far away

Bin scoped again, a heron watches over us

Lots of these have emerged on site since I last visited

Rays piercing through on the way home

A Cotham Hideaway

I awoke to rain at 8am, put my phone on charge, and read Oliver Sacks' excellent autobiography "On the Move" for two hours while wondering where I could perhaps go on a long walk to.

Next thing I know, it's 2pm and I'm waking up from a doze furious with myself!

Luckily the rain had stopped by then, and the although the skies were still battleship grey it was actually rather warm and muggy. So after a pate and pitta lunch, I saddled up my steed and headed off for a cycle with no particular destination in mind.

It was after I set off that I remembered this post on the Nottinghamshire Villages blog, and decided to ride out to Cotham to find this little footpath I'd always missed before.

Cotham is only a tiny village, and although it has a very pleasantly un-ornate church and surrounding countryside rich in bird life, I'd never really thought there was much to the village.

Not having a pub maybe doesn't help in this regard!

I found the the little row of 17th century houses quite easily, it is virtually the only side street in the village, and then found the charming, if slightly intrusive I felt, route through the private gardens of the listed cottages. I immediately wished I owned one, it would be a wonderful place for a writer to live. Writing by night, drinking large jugs of icy fresh lemonade in the garden by day. With a cat close to hand.

The last house had a larger patch of land, where a group of chooks were huddling under a bush from rain that wasn't happening. I continued around to a narrow tree lined path that opened up through the cunningly constructed rustic gate at the end.

This opened up onto a large field, a far reaching view of...nothing very much. A lot of grey sky and farmland looking towards the village of Elston. I'm sure on a warm day it be a lovely spot in it was a field of oilseed rape mind you, just not today.

The path seemed to wind around the field boundaries, and I was a cyclist today, not a walker, so I returned to my bike. As I suspected, the path emerged on the Elston road, and resolved to perhaps do a training run out in this direction.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 05.10.15

Entrance to The Row

Winding paths

Lovely gardens

The path narrows

Snuggling poultry

Along the path

Rustic gate

A very cunning latch!

Wide open space

Cotham sheep

Well I wasn't Expecting to see that!

Off my poor achey legs today, and on went my bum onto a bicycle seat. I headed off through Claypole, Stubton and then onto Fenton, with its attractive village pond acting as a home to a pair of moorhens.

I've run past Sutton earlier in the year, but it is actually off the road. The next village I came to was Beckingham, one of the larger satellites of Newark with a population of over 1000, a fine tower church, a pub, and a couple of very strange animals I cycled past in a field by the road.

"What on earth were they?" said my brain to itself when it had processed the white flashes I had seen through a gap in a hedge. I let the bike coast to a halt, turned around, and went back to have a look at what I had initially thought were a couple of alpacas - an increasingly fashionable item of livestock to keep around here - but soon turned out to have the wrong number of legs.

For in this field were standing two tall, creamy white birds with long necks, feeding with their backs to me. They were a little way off, but they appeared to be easily five feet high, with legs like Usain Bolt. On closer inspection, a chick could be seen feeding with the two adult birds.

I took some photographs of these birds - clearly rattites of some description, and carried on my ride, an enjoyably sunny 40km trek around these villages of the Lincolnshire - Nottinghamshire border. Pondering on these birds, I didn't think they were large enough, or indeed black enough, to be adult ostriches but thought they might be immature birds.

It was when researching this piece, that I remembered the large flightless bird that had made the news nationally when it escaped from a farm in North Nottinghamshire. The picture with this article identified the bird straightaway for me.

Have you guessed yet?

It was a rhea!

Rheas are normally dark in colour, but it seems that leucistic white birds are common, and cursory web research indicates that they are becoming increasingly farmed in the UK for their meat, with chicks on sale for £65 and adult birds £200 or over.

Whether these birds were pets, or for the pot, I have no idea.

I wonder if any of my steampunk friends would be interested in their feathers?

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 02.10.15

Fenton village pond

The church is hiding

The Beckingham "alpacas"

In this shot you can see the two toed hoof

Sorry these aren't the clearest shots

Beckingham church

The view deep into Lincs. The photo just does not do it justice, it was magnificent

Public footpath to certain death

Out in the sticks

A barn fit for swallows

River Witham at Stapleford

I love these village boards

Onion harvesting. The smell was quite something

Lanky bike rider