In the Wet Patch

Soooo, amidst all the  bunnies dying of myxomatosis at work - I saw three affected rabbits within 10 metres of each other today - I came across a little flash of colour among the still straw brown grass at work.

On the exotic location of a roundabout, a little patch of ground had somehow been able to absorb a bit  of the rain that has fallen the last few days, and gone noticeably greener than its surroundings.

And within that, although there are none anywhere else in the town, a little clump of birds foot trefoil has bloomed.

It was a most surprising sight!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 01.08.18

A Beautiful Evening

Found myself down by the river at sunset this evening, where the sand martins were putting on a display of nimble flying over the water, occasionally flying into their nest holes. One such nesthole is right next to "Newark's Famous Barge Pub".

The patrons of the establishment are far more interested in their beers and cocktails than the feathery aerobatics taking place right under their noses. 

The helmetless teenagers on a quad and a cross bike, riding illegally along the far path, weren't terribly interested either. They nearly ran over an elderly barge dweller, his wife and his dog, who remostrated at them with a large stick and then laughed as the kid on the quad stalled his bike while posing. 

The narrowboat lights got brighter as the sky darkened. Venus, the evening star appeared. The air was still warm. 

It was a lovely evening.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 04.05.18

Great Birds Today!

So, a bright if very cold day, a long walk to be had. I wasn't going to make the mistake I made last time and forget my camera, my proper camera, my big camera, my bridge camera.

It was very worth it. There were a lot of birds at the cemetery and on the Blue Lake today. 30-50 very busy redwing, a goldcrest feeding off a gravestone, the new little egret on its island, and a cormorant sailing by.

The flowers were beautiful too, but more of those later. I'm just glad I've got some ok, if as ever rather soft looking bird shots.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 04.02.18

Murk and Mushrooms

Today and yesterday have been entirely the same; days where you never could tell if the sun had risen, set, or was overhead in the bloody sky. The only difference was there was enough rain this morning to mean I had to deploy the sexy kagool on my ride to work.

Last night, I noticed bracket fungi on the trees by the library, trying to capture them in the dark while a mad robin tried to sing somewhere.

I wonder when I will hear the first blackbirds sing? That can't be far off.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 10.01.18

A Good Day for Urban Birding

Last day of my Christmas break today, and I've had yet another 10,000 step day, according to my Huawei phone which tells me such things. The only day I haven't achieved this mark was Christmas Day itself.

The result of this is I seem to have avoided mega weight gain over Christmas, touch all the wood in a correspondingly mega forest. Unfortunately today I appear to have damaged my shoulder ticcing again, so I'm anticipating being woken up in pain again tonight. I won't be able to do my press ups either, which has also been helping keep me fit.

Today, I've done the tour of the two lakes and Friary Gardens, and all of a sudden, birds seem to have turned up from their Christmas break. Redwing were outside my house on the park today, raiding the cotoneaster trees, again taking refuge in an overlooking high tree when people were around as they did outside the Co-Op yesterday. Similar size flock too, about 20 birds.

More excitingly, goosander have appeared on the Balderton Blue Lake again after a year's absence. There were two drakes and four ducks today, as usual miles away in the middle of the water so my phone camera couldn't pick them up - will have to remember my big camera next weekend. I need to get back on the proper photography, I just found the results a little dispiriting. My hands are so so shakey, it's hard to get a good shot and they always looked soft at best and taken while standing on a vibrating floor at worst.

More flowers have come out now, including the first aconite on Friary Gardens, and the first cemetery primrose to go with increasing numbers of snowdrops. I guess every spring this blog goes the same way, but I love recording the emergence of the new flowers over the next few months.

The goosander today were a bonus.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 02.01.18

It's Winter Cliche Time!

So yes, when I awoke today I could look out the window and see the snow on the roof tops, see the small flakes like spindrift falling out of the sky. It wasn't a heavy fall with big fat flakes, but it had settled.

Good. It wasn't a work day, and it gave me a chance to try out my new Karrimors (weatherproof, supposedly) and take some nice winter shots, same as everyone else does. I was out for 3 hours in the end and enjoyed every second of it - apparently when some kids of a certain background came into Rumbles cafe and behaved like animals - and got some nice shots.

There were my first winter thrushes too - a few redwing berry hunting along the cycle path - as well as a happily chubby female bullfinch, drawing attention to herself with a burlesque flash of white rump. Mixed flocks of tits tweeped through the bare trees, and that pink footed goose was still by the blue lake. My Karrimor's behaved well, had been worried after a bit of pinching on the top of my foot, and they are certainly warm.

The snow kept pricking down, on the revellers at the Christmas Market being sold overpriced hog roast or wood fired pizza. I ate and slept all afternoon.

It was a nice day.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 10.12.17

The Beets are Being Harvested

It's that time of the year in Newark again, the time when the giant sugar factory belches back into life, belching its clouds of smoke into the air - these help me judge the wind direction when I'm cycling home - and wafting its thick organic order over the town.

Sugar beet time, the time when you find their lumpy brown corpses littering the roads like velociraptor droppings, the time when you find piles of them walled around fields like ancient fortifications, the time when you wonder what it would taste like if you made one into chips and fried them.

Came across the harvest on a Hawton farm being loaded up into a trailer today, ready to be taken a couple of miles across town to be made into smells for autumn.

Immediately after on my 9km plod, came across a Nottinghamshire County Council logo on a park bench that was sinking back into a mass of lichens. Thought it was wonderful.

Saw one last house martin over a field today, swooping around feeding, probably having migrated from further north. I wish it well.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 02.10.17

A Monstrous Beastie

Well, it's actually been a reasonable day today by the standards of recent weather, and I've had a fair old potter about. I always like to spy out the local clumps of buddleia, as I'm sure all amateur nature lovers do, because there is so much insect life you can potentially find feeding of it.

Hit the jackpot today!

I'd been initially disappointed, scanning through the purple clumps of flowers growing on the plants sticking through the fencing at Derry's, but then a big yellow behind caught my eye.

I've seen this colour before, once you do you really don't mistake it for anything else. It belongs to the hornet mimic hoverfly, our largest hoverfly species and a truly magnificent insect. The yellow-white abdomen glows, the eyes are huge, and the wings are like those of a pterodactyl.

They were once rare, but are another species creeping north with global warming. All the others I've seen have been very skittish, but this one let me take a shot or two, and I'm very grateful for it!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 31.07.17

A Natural Vignette

I've not been cricketing today, as I've had a works festival to work at, at a Social / Football club with swallows skimming around the stalls all day, while house martins twittered above, their white rumps plain in the occasionally blue skies.

We were lucky with the weather today, we avoided a major soaking until 6pm when the event finished. Not been a healthy day; lunch was a burger and chips, dinner was a burger and chips. THat'll be a 10km plus run for me tomorrow, that's for sure.

Had a great view of a natural encounter on the way home, literally as I was leaving the car park. A woodpigeon was flying along, just minding its own business past a stand of trees, when suddenly, with three sharp screeches, a sparrowhawk - identified by the three dark bars under the tail - shot out of the treetops and set off in pursuit, causing the pigeon to do a handbrake turn in mid-air and head off in the opposite direction at high speed.

Wonder if it was an inexeperienced young raptor, as its timing was miles off! It set off in pursuit, but it was never going to catch the woodpigeon unless it had a jetpack strapped on. It made me smile though.

Here's a hoverfly on the sun to make you smile too.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 30.07.17

Nature at Work

I managed to get out with a little compact camera at lunchtime at work, to survey my nature empire.

We have got the on site gardeners to leave a large swathe of grassland unmowed which has worked a treat because my colleague in our nature plan found bee orchids today. Over in another area, we've dug two 10x2 metre beds out to act as wildflower mini meadows, and we are going to transplant some buddleia in and plant some wild cherry.

So, it was good to have a little trot about and see what I could find. The answer, well, quite a lot!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 02.06.17