Recent Oddments

Well, during the last few days of activity - there was a 5km walk and a 9km run today to go with  the  visits of the last couple of days - I've accumulated some other photographs from various places. Just a few splashes a colour.

The main news nature wise is the emergence of holly blue and orange tip butterflies - indeed I've had a couple of holly blues spiralling away in my garden today.

What's coming up as the temperatures drop a little over the weekend? We shall see.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 20.04.18

Evening under the Screeching Swifts

After cycling back from work, a very long and dragging day at work, I saw that the lowering sun had found a few gaps in the cloud to shine through, and that there were gaps in the cloud. That was good enough for me.

A bite of food, and I was out there!

I walked around the park, past the river, past lots of families, lovers, shy teens holding hands, football kickers and the inevitable dog walkers. Overhead, motorised parachutes droned about like flying vuvuzelas. With it being evening, the woodland was dominated by the song of the blackbird. The River Devon was acting as a waterpark for millions of insects, and excited small fish ripped through the surface in their pursuit of them.

As I headed back into town, along old Millgate, I was really happy to see so many swifts in the sky, and indeed to identify a nest site I wasn't aware of before. They were hunting at medium level, but every so often one would streak down to head height before making a near vertical ascent up to the nest under the eaves of a Georgian house.

I have an idea that this is the best spring for swifts here in some years. Now that I've identified where their nests are, I'm hopeful I can get a sequence of shots of them arriving and entering. I would love to get one clear shot of a swift, for they are masters of the sky.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 22.05.16

Conker candle

Bronze River Devon

Garlic mustard meadow

The individual flowerhead

Buttercups

A cow parsley meadow

Insect life

Sunset over the marina

Golden castle

Deep into sunset

The Swift and the Sparrowhawk

This would have been a very mundane little walk tonight, on a pleasant if not spectacular evening, with just some pretty pictures of the dandelion clocks on the Devon Pastures, if it wasn't for a couple of spectacular avian encounters I had after I'd done my 2km trot through the park.

I'd just emerged onto Farndon Road, when I looked up to see a small bird being pursued by a raptor of some kind at very high speed. Abruptly the bird performed a handbrake 180 in the air, and its pursuer made a sort of desperate upward lunge to try and take it in its talons.

It missed.

With insane reflexes, it immediately lunged at another bird - a swift - which similarly escaped by pulling a scything, slicing turn and heading back where it came, at which point the would be killer settled itself down and slowly flapped off along the River Devon. I decided from its long tail and broadish, fingered wings that it was a sparrowhawk, although it was silhouetted against a low bright sun. 

Immediately afterwards, I went past the cob horse field and noticed a bird alight on a tree stump. At first I thought it was a thrush before I realised it was way too big; then it made a leap at a blackbird feeding nearby. It was a kestrel, although seemingly such a rubbish one said blackbird carried on happily feeding even after it had side stepped the attack.

Finally, although three is more than a couple, I had the pleasure of a close range head high encounter with a swift as it blasted past me before finding its way into a gap less than an inch high in the eaves of a nearby house. They've only been home a couple of weeks, so I'm guessing this is nest building rather than rearing, but I could be wrong. 

So good to see them nesting!

Si

A lovely evening

Ceonothus

Devon Reflections

What time is it?

Willow tree

Devon Pasture

Buttercups unfurl

Flare!!!

Cow parsley

Me in the river, at the lock

Sunset

A Butterfly and a Disaster

Fully geared up to hit the road again today, on what was such a glorious day I was actually able to sit in my garden chair for only the second time all summer. No cycling today. A proper run, in my proper running shorts and running shirt, proper running shoes, and proper running belt.

Ah the belt. More of that anon. On such a glorious day, there was a fair amount of life to be seen in our postage stamp gardens. It interrupted my Polish neighbour's seeming hibernation, and brought her out tinkering with her flowers again. The bush under the holly was busy with hoverflies, and a very approachable speckled wood butterfly. No bees visit this plant, but a lot of other insects seem to like nectaring from it. Ladybirds hide away where the leaves meet the stems.

So, after taking a few macro shots, I headed off to run to Farndon. And as I arrived there, reaching into my very proper running belt to check my 5km time on my phone, my camera decided to make a dash for freedom and cracked its LCD screen on the tarmac.

The damage didn't seem massive, but the screen is well and truly jiggered. So, as I carried on my run wondering what my options were and how I was going to tell my sister that I'd had this mishap. It was her camera until a few weeks ago. Ooops.

So, the rest of my run was a little subdued, and I'm afraid the rubber duck race I found was taken with my rubbish mobile phone.

I'm so clumsy it amazes me building doesn't collapse as soon as I put my key in the lock.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 06.09.15

Capturing the Magical Light

Today was indeed a special one. As I ran along the cycle path, there was a flash of metallic blue from low down over the clogged drainage ditch.

It was a kingfisher, seen between the Clay Lane and Barnby Lane bridges. The first I've ever seen here. These birds are always a glorious sight, but to see one on the cycle track, well, golly as they say.

I finished up at Rumbles cafe, where I watched peeping wagtails and squawking gulls feed off bread as the sun set.

posted from Bloggeroid

The Redwing Arrive by Night

Yesterday my twitter feed was full of excited reports of the mass arrival of Redwing, that most attractive member of the thrush family. A bird who's blushing red flank and distinctive eye stripes bring joy to the winter walker, and terror to berry laden bushes and trees.

It wasn't just sightings of flocks of the actual bird that were being reported. After dark, people were tweeting of the redwing tweets, the distinctive high pitched "seeeeeeep" the birds emit as they fly over. The redwing, and its cousin the fieldfare, are icons of the British winter, and they will be a familiar sight in country trees and fields over the season, moving into town to attack berry laden trees when the cold snaps hard.

So, I decided to have a listen out for the redwing before I went to bed. For an urban location, I have a very tranquil little spot to stargaze and listen for birds in, and as midnight ticked over, I took myself out to have a listen in the quiet.

Within five minutes, I heard a faint call. It was redwing, heading over NW to SE by the sounds of things, the delicate "seeep" distinctly heard. A few minutes later, I heard the calls again, moving in the same direction.

The redwing have arrived! And you don't have to birdwatch with just your eyes!

On the Run from Newark to Southwell

At last, I ran the whole path from Newark to Southwell, home of the Bramley apple and my Alma mater.

Only I didn't.

I did well, following the route I'd been told about until well past Kelham, but then bad signposting of the path and my own idiocy took me off course through a field and into a nursery corn field full of pheasant and partridge.

It was round here I noticed the stunning white rump of a wheatear, a late migrant, in the farmer's field with the cows.

Ran out eventually through a smelly farm, and after a frightening stretch down the A617, found myself back on the right route again.

This was the best part of the run, high upon the hill with fantastic views. However, after reaching Upton, went off course again and found myself on the fairway at Rolleston golf course, and taking a close look at Southwell race course.

Still a few red admirals and whites on the wing, and plenty of common darter dragonflies.

Found my way to Fiskerton station, and ran the 4 km into Southwell from here, sore knee and all. My old school is now a building site on top of a wonderful archaeological find, a possible temple to Sulis. So long since I've been to Southwell, and I was there hardly any time at all, as I had a bus to catch.

Kelham Track

Path to nowhere

Not very helpful

Can you spot the grey partridge?

More unhelpful signs

Cows on the herd

A617 farm

View 1

View 2

View 3

Style of genius

Old Upton map. No help to me

Upton church

12th Green, Rolleston Gold Course

Southwell races stalls

Fiskerton railway station. About 4 miles off course now.

Southwell is where Bramley apples come from

This is my old school

Minster 1

Minster 2