Parkrun Times

These are photographs from the last few weeks.

Parkrun is a fabulous event, free, well run and a reason not to sleep in of a Saturday morning.

Of course, it is painful too, Newark is a hard course with the soggy bark path, and the horrific final drag up to the finish. This morning after a comparatively slow 24.26 I felt like death.

I really needed my cup of Rumbles tea!

Rainy day start

Wind was getting up that day

Finish from Rumbles

I'd already finished for once

The killer final drag

Today's start

Today's finish

Some of the more blatant cheating you get at Parkrun

Kilton Raptor Rescue and More of their Wonderful Birds

Posting these pictures has somehow slipped my mind amidst very busy times. But a couple of weeks or so ago, the folk at Kilton Raptor Rescue brought their birds of prey to Newark market square once again.

The fabulous and huge eagle owl was a crowd favourite, and despite his fierce expression he adored having his head scritched.

What's over there?

Intellectual poise

Those eyes...

Deadly talons

What was also noticeable was how on a windy day, the buzzard and red tailed hawk would outstretch their wings and 'soar' while sitting on their perches.

Soaring without flying

Red tailed hawk feels the breeze

Also on view were a barn owl, tawny owl and peregrine falcon.

Peregrine gets a fussing

Barn own hunched

I hope people enjoyed the chance to get close to these birds; who knows, with raptor persecution seemingly on the increase again, how long these majestic birds will lord it over British skies?

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!

The Prince Rupert Spider and other Oddments

My eyes are open, even at the pub at 1130pm on a not terribly nice night. This Prince Rupert spider is a handsome specimen, no idea what it is, but it is well marked.

I wonder what it thinks, as it hangs largely unnoticed in its web, watching the people laughing and talking and arguing, pouring brown liquid down their necks.

Those silly two legs! Eight legs are the superior.

Elsewhere autumn sights and colours are becoming predominant, but summer life hangs on, reinvigorated for a short time with each late warm spell.

Hanging on a watching brief

Tussock moth caterpillar in the Sconce old wood

Bright berries

Ivy flowers one of few sources of nourishment still remaining

Squirrel and a very Masonic looking gravestone

Mama Llama!!!

Jeff Minter anyone? Ruminant fixated hippy who ran Llamasoft in the 80s knocking out C64 games like "Attack of the Mutant Camels".

Anyway, bloggeroid for some odd reason missed out my llama pictures, so here they are.

Pretty Mr Darcy

He's not allowed treats

And he has his own sign!

Greedy boss llama

Boss llama chased his pellets up and down...

Saucy eyelash flutterer

White Post Farm Visit

Yesterday, we took the olde worlde 28 double decker to past Farnsfield, sat up front up top like schoolkids, in order to visit White Post Farm.

It's been there for a long time; I remember friends of mine at school having jobs there and that was over 20 years ago, but I've never actually visited it myself until now. It was a glorious day, and the animals put on a show - bossy aggressive spitting llamas, coy alpacas happy to take your grass pellets but not let you pet them, big fat oinkers, and goats a-plenty trampling each other flat to get to your food.

I'm not a big fan of the "petting zoo" concept, but there were plenty of young children delighted to get close to the animals and it this inspires a love of wildlife, and a respect for domesticated animals into their adult lives, this is fine by me.

I think the centre needs a little bit of TLC - a lick of paint and a bit of a tidy up wouldn't go amiss in some of the areas, but I was surprised I enjoyed the day as I did.

And I'm sure my folks will look forward to eating their kangaroo sausages!

Big ugly turkey, fanning his tail constantly for his ladies

Goat mountain, Mussorgsky spent a night there. Didn't he?

Meerkat sentry. No hawks, but plenty of light aircraft for him to report

Chubster meerkat

Enjoy your mealworms chaps!

"Market?" "Meeeeeeerkat!"

Degus

Kissing harvest mice

The world looks better this way up

Green tree python

Cynical looking bearded dragon

Willow. This is a heck of a big snake

Big fat mummy oinker

Bog goat

Alpaca gets fussed over

Wallaby

Hungry goats

"Caw" cried the Rook

Fallow deer

Highland cattle

Goat attack!

The Kestrel Hunts by Twilight

I'm now in deep darkness as I leave for work each morning, a darkness pierced by the bright dawn call of blackbirds, and now sometimes suffused in thick mist.

By evening when I leave, the day has been and gone all but unseen by myself, and the sun has set leaving an intermediate twilight, with the golden-purple girdle of venus hugging the horizon. The smoke from the sugar factory acts as a wind-gauge, allowing me to realise the wind will be in my face when cycling home, as ever.

Against this backdrop, the wagtails have now indeed arrived in greater numbers  - see my post here - to the point where now well over a hundred are bubbling around their roost trees by 630pm. Their elegantly undulating flight sits black against the sky.

Further round, where the barn owl quarters the waste ground, a kestrel could be seen hovering against a strong blustery wind. Initially around ten metres up, the scythe winged predator is able to control its flight as if it is in a lift, lowering and raising itself with little apparent effort.

At one point it was barely a metre above the ground, before executing a messy drop to ground level, where it apparently missed whatever prey it had seen. No comparison with the 220 mph swoops of a peregrine, but its hover is something else entirely; undisturbed by even a wind as strong as this, it is able to focus on a small area of ground, and detect even the smallest prey species before bringing taloned death from the skies...

...but nit this time. Not this time.