My Friendly Urban Fox

It had been a while since I'd seen a fox.

There always used to be at least one highly visible one in Newark down the years. The specimen that used to patrol Balderton Gate, running away from your post pub footsteps into the gardens of the sheltered accomodation. The family that used to live on Lime Grove, a vixen and her three cubs I once saw peering at me round a gatepost, heads above each other like a Disney tableau.

Another fox family I saw fleetingly on Middlegate once, feasting off the detritus of a Friday night, and even at work in Nottingham there was a friendly vixen who used to sit outside the canteen and take bits of breakfast cob from your hand.

But I'd not seen one for a while, and had contended myself with hedgehogs, frogs, toads, and the 24.7 tuneful warbling of robins as I transported myself by night.

Until recently.

There is a new fox in town.

I'd say, judging by the brush, it's a male, and it is a very handsome chap. It appears out of the church gardens, and comes to feed off whatever has overflowed from the bins by the...Fox and Crown Pub, where else! I'd love to photograph it, but Fantastic Mr Fox is far too canny for that, although he seems to be quite calm around people.

I love the fact he's busy scoffing away, three feet outside the door of an oblivious pub full of drinkers, and only I can see him!

Like an REM Cover

Enjoyed a walk in the oak woods by Devon Pastures. I had already been all over, feeling the first snow of the winter brushing my face and settling behind my ears, but it was raining by the time I got here - yesterday 30.01.14 is the date.

I was there to look for a treecreeper the excellent warden had reported, but I didn't see it. What I did see was a multitude of great tits, blue tits and long tailed tits doing their callisthenics in the trees, while blackbirds ravaged the leaf litter at ground level. The noise was intense; somewhere a bird made a sound like someone scraping a metal woodwork file, while another, while another went "tweet tweet poooooo-WEEEEEE".

It's a lovely place, and in a dim winter light, it looks like REM's cover for "Murmur".

The River Devon in flood

Catkins

Blackbird throwing around the leaf litter

Slowly Starts the Spring

Another walk around the lakes, more life struggles up through the soggy ground...no goosander on Balderton Lake yesterday, but the attractive pochard put on a fine display of diving. The trees in the cemetery were busy with great tits,chaffinch and long tailed tits, while blue tits seemed to be engaging in some acrobatic fights in the air, and in the branches.

Are they starting to get ready for breeding season?

It was on London Road Lake where I got my surprise sighting. A solitary goosander was patrolling the far side of the lake there, the first one I'd ever seen on these waters. Through binoculars, the squarish head and sharp, fish catching bill is very apparent, and very obviously different from the other duck species around.

A special word for Leroy the muscovy duck. He has made it into the Newark Advertiser for very sad reasons - apparently children are throwing stones at him because he isn't like all the other ducks. Well, my cousin in Wales kept musocvy ducks, and I know at first hand, they can bite...

More crocus beginning to slowly flower

Another snowdrop photo opp

Winter aconite, seemingly, an ornamental non native species

Hungry blackbird

No, I can never capture the angle right

Leroy the muscovy

Unusual Ducks Ahoy!

I'm relishing walking rather than running at the moment, you get to see so much more...but then I feel guilty about not exercising properly, so when I'm on form again, I shall be walking AND running around.

Today was crocus hunt day in the cemtery, and as you can see below, I was rewarded by the sight of a single, rather pathetic specimen poking up dejectedly into the cold, sunless morning. The snowdrops are really coming into their own at the moment, and there is more (I think) cherry blossom on the trees - and more on the ground, where the wild winds have shredded it.

I was also hoping to see something unusual on the Balderton Lake, colder snaps being the best time to see more interesting birds than mallards and canada geese on the waters.

The first thing I noticed initially was that the male great crested grebes have put on their breeding colours - the tan red flashes on their ruffs were very prominent at a distance. The moorhens are getting feisty. But it was some handsome black and white ducks in the distance which really caught my eye. Three male goosander, and a chestnut headed female, were on the water, and that was not the last of it. Further round the lake were some unfamiliar ducks, silver grey and white, with a red-brown head. I had to confirm my suspicions on the net, but they were correct - I was looking at two male pochard, with a much darker female in tow. This is a new species for me to see on the lake, and I was excited to record it.

My walk was happily rounded off by a close up view of some long tailed tits on the pollarded willows at the water's edge on London Road Lake. They really are quite unafraid of humans, and allow quite a close approach to see their featherweight acrobatic antics on the twigs.

It took my mind off the tedious shopping I was about to have to do.

Cemtery blossom

More life and death

Snowdrop close up

Crocus!

Great crested grebe in the distance

Hide and seek with coots and moorhens

Picture Posts

I understand that on some browsers, the photographs may be extending so far across the screen they obscure some of the "recent posts" links on the right, and make things a little untidy. Well, I post pictures from my mobile phone Blogger app, and have very little control over their size.

In any case a few people have told me, and I agree, that they prefer the large format pictures, and that they have the best possible image quality. I will try and see what I can do to make them fit the Blogger windows better.

In other news, the great tits have been singing tremendously loudly from the trees on my walk into town, but I haven't had a chance to do much today as I've been waiting to pick up my newly repaired bike from the shop - hooray! the gears are no longer clunking about right left and centre, and so trips to Besthorpe and RSPB Langford will be on the cards if the weather isn't too atrocious.

I long to see the winter waterfowl at Langford, but the N64 cycle path in the vicinity is a mudbath this time of year.

A Winterwatch Kind of Walk

What a cold, bright and beautifully lit morning it was, and with my pulled muscle not going into blinding spasms, I was out early (by my standards) with my little 10x25 field glasses and a lot of warm clothing on.

It was a wonderful walk, birdsong blipping out from every tree and hedgerow - the repetitive "deeeee-doooooo" of great tits being particularly noticeable; and there was a spot in the ditch next to the cycle path between the two lakes that a number of chaffinch, blackbirds and dunnock were using as a communal spa. As can be seen below, signs of spring were present despite the cold, and a juvenile blackbird was making a very scratchy and off key attempt to sing from a tree top before it was chased off by an adult male no doubt fed up with having to put its wings over its ears.

A final treat - on the park near my home, a small flock of redwing took up residence for the afternoon, brought into town by the cold.

Frozen lichen

Captivating light

The author and the sprouting crocuses

Life and death

Snowdrops

Balderton lake aglow

Great crested grebe in the distance

Canada goose and the skeksis like muscovy duck

Gorse in flower - goldfinches were loving it!

Redwing in the tree

Blossom Dearie

Running out to Hawton and Farndon in a low sun revealed flocks of chaffinch in the ash trees by the bypass, while the inevitable black headed gulls sailed the air above the swampy looking paddocks in the vicinity.

The light was sunset gold again, and a ten metre shadow was following me wherever I went, looking rather stiff as its owner was running with a sore back.

I figured the riverside route would be too boggy to pursue, so I just headed straight along Farndon Road back into town. And as I ran, along the backs of some Farndon houses, I noticed that there was blossom growing from smallish shrub trees in the verge.

Early blossom decorates the roadside

 It's the second set of early blossom I've seen this year, after the cherry trees in the cemtery. I have no idea what it is, but it certainly brightened up the mud soaked ground no end. 

As a further bonus, approaching the Devon bridge, I heard a tremendous cacophany coming from a thickset tree above me, and looked up to see not just an exciteable flock of goldfinches clattering about with exciteable calls, but also a flock of pretty in pink long tailed tits, their quieter "seeeps" still audible amidst the general avian chatter.

I'm paying for the run today with a fair bit of stiffness, but it always makes it worthwhile when you notice something news.