SPRING SPECIAL

Spring is here...in all it's glory.  The best season of the year for many people as nature wakes up from it's winter slumber.  For someone like me who is interested in all things nature, this is a great time of year and I've certainly been making the most of it so far.  Regular afternoon and evening trips are made to my local Reserve down by the river but trips have been made to Bempton Cliffs, Rutland Water and the local Rodley wildlife reserve.  More about Rodley later. 

The night skies continue to be interesting and we were treated to a Super Moon on the evening of the 5th May.  The first picture on this post is of the Super Moon taken from my backgarden on my now trusty PanasonicLumix FZ48!

Had a great weekend with Eddie two weeks ago when he came to pick James up for his Year long summer holiday.  Students eh..not a bad job if you can get it..what it is they do again??  Apart from the 4 month summer holiday they have (yup, break up in May go back September) they have months off at Christmas and Easter..SLAGS!  Filthy beasts they are too, having seen the filthy littter strewn cesspit they live in and created by them, i'd line them all up against the wall and threaten them with  incessant' Open university' Re-runs until they've cleaned their s**t up. Anyway, we had a good afternoon drinking in Headingley along with a cast of thousands including numerous super heroes, Rod hull and EMU, Captain Caveman, diving suits and furry animals et all, yup, they like their fancy dress!

Eddies saying of the day..."someones sat there mate!" lol 

After finally persuding him to have a little flutter on the Play off final, to make things ,more interesting, we had £1 bets on such things as first shot on goal, first corner, first booking, half time score, full time score, first shot on target...I lost. 

Anyway, I'm rambling...here's the Spring Special (part 1 ) pictures..

the Super Moon of 5/6th May - it was a third bigger in size and 33% brighter

back at Bempton and one of the local residents - a Kittiwake. Most people will just assume its a 'Gull'
Bemptons most prollific birds are Gannets, Kittiwakes, Guillemots and Razorbills

A Razorbill - now look at the guillemot below.  They are very difficult to seperate when viewing with the unaided eye

A Guillemot at Bempton..

Here's an illusive bird I captured at Rutland Water - a Yellow hammer

same bird...off hiding in the bushes!

Still at Rutland...A Greater Spottted Woodpecker at Lyndon

This amused..again at Rutland, an Egyptian Goose high in a tree!

Ahh Spring is definately here ...Hawthorn (or is Blackthorn??) down at the Reserve

As the song goes .."Spring is in the air..everywhere  i look around"

A common sight to all of us, a Grey squirrel.  This one is enjoying the fruits of his winter larder in
Golden Acre park

A Blue Tit singing in Middleton woods Ilkley

hmmm..a bit loud that!

A Song Thrush and chicks on the nest at the Reserve...

A hungry chick and mother ...may have noticed me!

Mother and Father exercising the 'children' at Rodley Reserve, Leeds

A meadow full of buttercups at the Baildon Reserve

just enjoying traditional pleasure down by the river at the Baildon reserve..the 'Terrace' residents
My neighbours Andy and Lisa and children Mel, Charlotte and Adam

This Sunday and Ollie me, Des, Sharon Sophie and Chloe go fishing!  Baildon Reserve.

"Dad, dad, have you got me, have you got me?", while Sharon concentrates hard..

Ollie has taken Des, Sophie and Chloe to the bridege to show them a secret Geocache.
.here they are waving to Sharon and myself

"Waaaaave!"

Father and Son enjoying time together

Dedication to the art...here I am at the reserve at 9:30pm checking out the evenings movements

Rodley reserve - a spectacular place and well kept secret.  A view from one of the hides over one of  the Lagoons

Rodley, another hide another Lagoon.  It's a fabulous place with field, river, woodland and lake habitats

One of our more spectacular summer visitors...a Lapwing

The Lapwing....look at the colours on the wing!

Last night, the moon from my garden..as spectacular as ever
A clear view here of the Sea of Tranquility and the Apollo 11 landing site

The Otter, Osprey and Puffin

A couple of snaps rounding off the Scotland trip followed by a few snaps taken at Rutland Water and Bempton cliffs.  Also, did you see the Super moon on the night of 5th may?  Apparantly it was 14% bigger in appearance and 30% brighter than normal.  This occurs due to it's elliptical orbit timed with it's closet approach to the Earth.

At Rutland water I was able to once again observe the Osprey nesting at the Manton Bay site.  There is a camera att'd on a pole overlooking the nest and from the visitor site at Lyndon you can watch live streaming pictures of the female on the nest.  There are three eggs at this nest and are expected to hatch in 2 to 3 weeks.  You can watch the live stream by clicking here between 6am and 8pm.

Of course you cannot beat watching them 'in the flesh' so to speak so i nipped down to the hide nearest the nest and managed to take a few shots.

At Bempton Cliffs (4th visit already this year!) I was able to spot the Puffins that had returned to the cliffs.  Amongst the 1000's of Guillemots, Razorbills and Gannets i spotted approximately 20 Puffins that were looking to nest on the cliffs. These were actually the first Puffins I have seen.

Anyway, here's the pics...

Taken in Scotland ... a Redpoll.  Notice the red crown on it's head. (Another first for me!)

A Song thrush...snapped in a tree in the gardens of Inverrary Castle, Scotland

The Otter

This was the best sighting of the Scottish holiday, a wild otter.  Just around the corner from the bathing seals the Otter was spotted.  Here he is feeding on some eel or chewing on kelp?

He's gazing out to sea...and then...

He was off....

The Super moon

I had to alter the exposure settings manually to capture this shot as it was too bright for the auto settings.  There was a thin wispy cloud acting as a filter too which gives a eerie glow around the image.

The brilliant white dot on the left hand side is the crater Aristarchus. Go on a straight horizontal line across to the left hand side and the large 'grey sea' you intersect is the 'Sea of Tranquility'.  In the 7 o'clock position in the sea of tranquility, right on the edge, is the landing position of Apollo 11.  The Sea of Tranquility also holds the remains of other NASA Space vehicles of Apollo 17, Surveyor 5 and Ranger 8.

The bright crater in the 6 o'clock position (or southern lunar highlands) is the crater 'Tycho' named after the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe

The Rutland Osprey



The Osprey nest at Manton bay, Rutland water.  The male is stood whilst the female is sittting on the eggs.  In the background is Hambledon Hall.

I managed to capture the male in flight...

Back from a foray for fish.  just landing back at the nest...

Bempton



Walking along the clifftops I spotted my first Puffin.  Here he is...sat with some Kittiwakes.

I think we've made eye contact here!  

Here he's spotted the remote camera which feeds live pictures back to the visitor centre.  "Here's looking at you, looking at me...looking at you!"

Thought I'd finish with my new mate!



Scotland 2012 part 4 -birds and Wildlife cont

A male Stonechat..my first ever sighting.

Typical highland Scotland again..Deer/Stags roaming the Glens.  These were spotted on the road from Skye to Oban.

If you are wondering..they are Red deer.

A closer shot of a group of Red deer...

A Stag.  'Somebody's looking at me..."

Close to the Seals...

Aware of us, they were still quite happy about us being close to them...

"This is my rock...ok"

The piece de resitance for me of the week..an Otter!  I has sight of it for 60 seconds before it went under and off.

Here i think it has just caught and is feeding on an eel.