Wednesday, 11 April 2012

What else has been going on...

Been scouring the archives during a quiet night on tv tonight...or more to the point too wet to go out and check the Reserve.

Here's a few pics to enjoy and underline the past couple of weeks..


Ollie, Chloe and Sophie..

The 'Kids' at the Forbidden corner....
As good as the Corner is , a simple hole in a tree seemed to delight just as much!

Ollie survived!!

Ollie and Jo enjoying a joke....

As mentioned in an earlier POST..the snow came unexpectedly last Wednesday night!!
For those of you without snow (ED)...here's how bad it was!!

The view from the back, normally a vista of many miles it was just a whiteout!

Attenborough eat your heart out!  Me on one of my more frequent photography outings..

On the old Brid road I came across this..a tribute to some brave airman who died in the war..

Group photo from my recent French trip to see Mum and Dad....yes it was sunny!

C'est la vie....

Me and lobster pink Eddie, enjoying a bit of French sunshine in March...


Leaving France....I took this for ollie but it's a quick film of the departure from Poitiers..


Just a quick video showing the extent of the snow last Wednesday..look at the front bumper
to see how deep it was!!

Easter...

Hi all

Had a quiet Easter.  Didn't see Olly which was a real downer so took myself out and about.

Went to Bempton cliffs on Sunday looking for the Puffins that had been sighted.  They had arrived early this year but by late Saturday afternoon had taken themselves out to sea to feed.  Once they go out to see they go out for tens of miles and can be gone for days.  Unlucklily, I didn't see them on Sunday.  Soon they'll be nesting on the cliffs and there will thousands of them so I'll wait till May now to guarantee a sighting.

Here's a few pics anyway..

These magnificent Roe deer I captured on film less than 1 minute from my house (by car)

They are often spotted grazing in fields to the left of Hollins Hill...

This time i spotted them and stopped the car to photograph them..

Then just through Otley and into the Wharfe valley I spotted a resplendent Red Kite soaring above the car..
Unfortunately the leaden sky and bad light stopped me from being able to pick out the colouring..

Puffin hunting at Bempton Cliffs...




Here's a video of a Mink i spotted down by the river at the reserve..very unusual!
It just goes to show the diverse nature that is active down by my local river.
You've just got to get out there to see it and enjoy it!

Wednesday, 4 April 2012

Snow is back!

April, Spring. Conjures up pictures of spring lambs lolling in sun kissed meadows, banks of golden daffodils basking in some early sun, a bit of spring cleaning in the garden and leaving the back door open for some fresh air...nope. Winter was back with a vengeance this morning. I woke up this morning to a blanket of snow, a blizzard wind and swirling snow.

The car is snowed in and going no where early and where I currently am, Northowram, there are abandoned cars and telegraph wires brought down by the weight of the snow. What strange weather we are having. It was only last week I was wearing shorts and t-shirt.

Well With the weather comes travel disruption and work have been called to say I'm working from home today so the toaster is on, the coffee brewing and the biscuits broken out ;)

As I sit here and type this and look out of the window to my left, all I can see is a 'white out'..across many miles of fields to the far horizon. Although it is predicted to be only a short spell of snow it has had it's usual effect on the transport system and effectiveness of the British to cope. On the road out of this village there are two stuck articulated lorries and numerous abondened cars. Sometimes simple intelligence tells you a two wheel drive motor is going no where but you can only end up blocking the road for others. The usual 4*4 drivers are out.."look at me look at me in my 4*4, get out of my way plebs in your little plebby cars you're holding me up. Don't you know who I am?? Ihave a 4*4 and are thus considerably far more richer than yow!"

This is the first in my working life that I've not made it to work in my working life so I'm going to fully enjoy it.

Right, the sausages need turning...laters!


UPDATE:

The sausages were great!

I manfully battled through the Arctic North and arrived at work just before mid day.  What a hero! (said my boss!).  The southern softies will still be sat at home sipping hot chocolate and dipping rich tea biscuits, waltzing about in their moccasin loafers, facebooking their 'friends' at how they are trapped in a wintry wilderness (half an inch of melting slush) and Tarquin want's to go build a snowman but they can't possibly go outside whilst it's so cold and inhospitable, I mean, after all they have no sherpas to roll the snow for the snowman and Jeremy Kyle is on in ten minutes

Benefit Britain won't even know it's snowed today as it will have melted before they get out of their pit.  Mr Salesman will have contributed to about 30 road related accidents from speeding and crawling up the backside of other motorists as they are oblivious to the weather conditions and are suddenly suprised that their BMW (always BMW drivers!) suddenly won't brake to a stop in 5 yards..

The same people that have abandoned their cars at the side of the road will be the same people that moan about the lack of gritters, the same gritters that can't grit the road because some idiots have abandoned their cars on them...

The trains awill be delayed because it is the wrong kind of snow ...causing signal failures and points failures which makes a nice change from delays caused by cable theft

The buses won't run because of 'Elf and safety'..."can't drive down their mate, elf and safety..bus might skid"

The Hyacinth Bouquets of the world are out and about holding up the British working man by doing 5mph down the road with a tail back behind them.  They've failed to notice that the snow has been ploughed to the side of the road, the road surface is just wet and the temperature above freezing - stay at home and do some crochet!

Joggers - hate them even more today.  There's snow on the paths so apparantly it gives them the right to run on the road.  But there is snow in the gutters and the first yard into the road so they think they can run in the middle of the road?!!?  Tell you what morons, have a day off!  The last one apparantly didn't take too kindly to a blast of the horn lol

Laters

Thursday, 29 March 2012

This weekend

This weekend I managed all day trips to Malham on Saturday and Bempton Cliffs (between Flamborough and Filey) on Sunday...

On a recent trip to the Lake District i was able to find the grave of a true British hero
and legend, Sir Donald Campbell.  Here he is laid to rest in Coniston cemetery.
He died on lake Coniston in January 1967 but his body was not recovered
until 28th May 2001.

Malham last Saturday.  Just entering the path leading to the Cove when i spotted
a Green Woodpecker..

A popular bird in the Dales..a Pied Wagtail, shot taken just south of Malham Cove

After watching the Peregrine Falcon at Malham (a pair has been nesting for the last few years), watching the male on the nest ledge then go of soaring above the Cove itself, we had
a picnic way above Malham, miles from anywhere whilst being serenaded
by skylarks.  Later in the day we would catch sight of flocks of Fieldfares and a pair of Curlews.

Sunday was Bempton Cliffs, an RSPB reserve.  It must have the biggest
Gannet colony in the UK along with the massive amount of Razorbills and Guillemots
that were on show.It was too early for the Puffins but I'll be back in May to capture
 them on film.The cliffs were a base for larege colonys of Kittiwake too.

Enjoying the sights, sounds and weather at Bempton

Living in harmony...Kittiwakes and Gannets share the cliff face at Bempton

I've plenty more photo's if any of you want to see more...:)

The lock bond...

Ollie and myself have found a special place to place a very special object that means a lot to both of us.  It is a place we can both go to when we are apart from each other..it's in a beautiful place on Shipley Glen and affords glorious views of the Aire valley and a place to think about each other...

Our special lock and bond...

Ollie...come on Dad, lets fix it in place!

Some kind girl took a pic of us just about to fix it..

It's in place...Ollie is just checking it out...

The place we chose is very beautiful...

The Reserve

Now that Spring is beginning with a vengence I try to get down to the reserve and the river after work. As well as being very relaxing! there is so much actually going on.  For example just in the last two weeks I have seen Roe Deer (with Jo and my neighbour Andy), filmed a mink swimming in the river and playing on the bank (see my Utube film of this on the link i will post later) . The Kingfishers continue to flourish and myself, Andy and the reserve warden Steve were lucky enough to watch 3 Kingfishers fly in a line down the river.  Only today i sat and watched a Kingfisher feeding.  It would sit perched on a branch before dropping into the river (fully immersed) then fly back to the branch with a minnow in it's beak.  it would then bash the head of the minnow against the tree to kill or stun it before swallowing whole...fantastic..no washing up!

Anyway, here's a few pics I have taken in the last week or so down by the river..
(ps look out for my UTube links too)

Ahh my friend the Heron.  Always there or there abouts.  Here I caught him loitering on the river awaiting a fish or two to pass by...he never took his beady eye of me though...

Woody woodpecker!  I have got used to spotting him flying around the locale and here I spotted him atop the trip surveying his territory. Btw, he's a Greater Spotted Woodpecker.

I like this bird..Long tailed tit.  I've captured one of them here in the little woods surrounding the reserve and along the river bank.

This a Wren.  And for a month became public enemy number 1.  There are lot's of them by the river and their song/call is one of the loudest you will hear, probably the loudest of all songbirds, at tleast on a par with the blackbird.  They never stop moving, are so small and I never thought I would capture one on film..i don't think i did too bad...though it took a month of stalking!

My little friend the Wren..caught at last!

The majestic Kingfisher...I've spotted four in all, two pairs.  Very difficult to capture on film to be honest so i'm pleased with every shot i get.

This was taken Friday..he's thinking of going to the nest..which isn't far from this perch.  Patience pays off sometimes...

I've put this up because i really like it.  I saw this Mistle Thrush on the opposite bank from me and i liked the composition of almost sillhoutted Thrush (sic spelling) against the sunlit moist grass

It's not all about the birds! Here i came face to face with a common toad on one of the numerous ponds on the reserve.  Here's looking at you kid!

A few more of France...

I said i'd post a few more.  Ed and myself both said on the journey home what a good time we had had.  We'd put on the odd pund in weight but who would,nt with mums cooking!

A few more pics..

Ahhh, the old favourite..must have eight of these now...

Ed and a pine cone.  Though on our walk around this particular French wood they became imaginary hand grenades....BOOM!!


This has quickly become a favourite pic of mine...my dad out walking between Chouppes and Mirebeau..lost in thought..i'll treasure this

Again i took this in France...Mum and Dad do you recognise it.....
It's on the entry to Mont Sur Gesgnes...as it is Easter  i thought it would be quite appropriate..

Wednesday, 28 March 2012

The night sky

It's been a very good couple of months.  Absolutely no one can have missed the conjunction of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter constantly changing places in the night sky. Both Mars and Saturn have joined them in their dance around the sky and at times this month 5 planets have been visible to the naked eye.

Here's a few pics I have taken..
Taken just a few nights ago, the crescent moon with Venus and Jupiter.  The three lights below the conjunction are a plane in flight as i had the shutter open for 2 seconds

The same shot on an instant take, no open shutter.  The plane has gone!

This shot is taken over the roof of the 'terrace'.  I like the moonshine on the roof.  The 'dot' above the very bright moon in the twelve o'clock position is Mars!

Here is a picture of March's full moon, known as the 'Worm moon'.  It's called this as the ground softens hastening the reappearance of the first earthworm casts and the return of the Robin.  Each full moon in each of the calendar months has it's own name, next months, April's, is the pink moon.  It's called this from the herb moss pink or wild ground phlox which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. May's moon is called the Flower moon....

This is a celestial picture i took in France recently.  There is  prize for the first person to succesfully post on here what it is of.....





Hi all

My home PC problems continue I'm afraid so i am currently attempting to update the blog on Jo's prehistoric piece of crap. No SD card slot, no Bluetooth, no likey!

This is a big update as it's photo heavy but i hope you will enjoy this post. I've tried to split the post so it's more structured, a lot's been happening!

Saturday, 17 March 2012

France

Hi all

Just a quick visit today.  I'm currently in France visiting my parents.  There will be a fuller update later but here's a few pics of my visit so far..

Great to see Mum and Dad...this is the top of their street

Strolling back from the centre of the village...

It wasn't all play!  Chopping logs for their open log fire..

visiting Milly and ken...friends from a nearby village

The town hall in Mont sur Guenses, Milly and Kens village

High tea in France!

Gin and Tonic pre dinner at Mum and Dads

Going for a stroll and chat with my Dad..

Another sunny day in Chouppes...

Visiting Val and Andrew in another nearby village ..they're alright for Mancs!

Flannaghan and Allen...aka Dad and Ed who thought it a bit 'chilly'!..queers

Me and my tree on one tree hill...theres a story here..

Chillin...