What have you seen
Comments
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We saw a couple of Swallows today, RK. You never know when they're going to be the last ones until next year.
Had a walk along the pebbled beach gazing out to sea today and were rewarded with a Razorbill and a Red Throated Diver who appeared almost at the sea edge right in front of us and stayed for as long as we wanted him to. Some lovely Turnstones and Ringed Plovers on the beach and Brent Geese and Pink Feet flying around.
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Just when you think your local patch has shown all its got, this turns up....in fact two of them.
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No...it was at my usual watchpoint alongside the River Chet. Chatting to a fisherman and he said that he had seen two of them a couple of weeks ago. I thought that if they stayed, the chance of seeing them was remote considering the reeds. This bird just took off and floated above the reeds for around 75 yards.
You never know what you will see.
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Your right...many's the time I have come away with nothing to show for the time put in....but it is very therapeutic just watching nature.
Sitting by the van in Lincolnshire and watching Wood Mice scampering around the hedgerow when this mouse started feeding on this weed.
Couldn't have been more obliging.
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Nice to see you back and on form GL. Great pics.
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A touch of Autumn out at NT Barrington Court today. A nice area sown with annuals and the pumpkins ready to be lifted.
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Wonderful photos GL. We had never seen a bittern until a couple of years ago. We popped into Black Toft Sands reserve, ambled up to end hide, had just sat down with Binocs, and wow, three flew off together. Magical! We saw another first for us as well that holiday, a Spoonbill.
On a sadder note, we are deep in shooting country here, up on NY Moors. Literally thousands of bewildered, obviously very young pheasants all over the place. Driving the roads isn’t pleasant, hundreds dead for miles along the roads. You have to take it very steady to avoid them, and of course most folks don’t. Frankly it’s very depressing as they are lovely birds bred just to die. Lots of partridge and grouse as well, but these seem to survive better. At least on the roads. 😢
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Strange things!
Our daughter found a couple of giant puffballs in a nearby field. (Football sized.) So now my OH has one all to himself, cooking bits of it in butter and garlic. He has rather a lot to get through!
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I saw part of a poem by John Clare at Minsmere RSPB reserve today and sought out the full version when I got back to the caravan. It was the reference to "bumbarrels" and more importantly what their current name is that attracted me. See what you think.
I love to see the old heath’s withered brake
Mingle its crimpled leaves with furze and ling
While the old heron from the lonely lake
Starts slow and flaps his melancholly wing
And oddling crow in idle motion swing
On the half-rotten ash-tree’s topmost twig
Beside whose trunk the gipsey makes his bed
Up flies the bouncing woodcock from the brig
Where a black quagmire quakes beneath the tread
The fieldfare chatter in the whistling thorn
And for the awe round fields and closen rove
And coy bumbarrels twenty in a drove
Flit down the hedgerows in the frozen plain
And hang on little twigs and start again2 -
Had to look it up, WN, but did you know that there are lots more names for the same bird :-
Hedge Mumruffin, Jack-in-a-bottle, Bum Towel , Prinpriddle, Feather Poke, Long-tailed Mag and Millithrum (Miller’s Thumb)
Ref. Somerset Wildlife Trust.
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Lovely bit of verse Wherenext, I guessed what they might be, they are flocking through our garden on a daily basis just now. These old words have a special ring to them.
Nice to see a Kingfisher on the Barle, Rayjsj, haven't seen our local one for a long time but they are around I'm told.
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This evening there were hundreds of Geese (Pink Footed?) flying over the CL we're on at the moment, heading towards the Northumberland coast.
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Last thing before turning in I walked round the back of the caravan and nearly trod on a hedgehog! Fortunately I spotted it so managed to avoid any damage to either itself or me. Numerous Tawny Owls calling close to the van, and many more geese flying overhead towards the coast this evening.
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Just back in from starting to put the garden to bed for the down time of Winter. I didn’t get much done thanks(a big thanks too👍🏻) to the 4 skeins of Geese tracking over the Holderness plain of the East Riding of Yorkshire. 3 following the coastline very high, 1 skein approx 2 miles inland probably dropping their landing gear in approach. It is a complete pleasure to witness this joy twice a year. The best being the North to South flow in Autumn. It’s the whole atmosphere they create, the visual ballet of movement coupled with the shared comms for benefit of the large amount of first time travellers. It leaves me full of joy & privileged to be able to share it. It will go on for a month more at least if past years are any indicator.
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Embrace WN?, I find it gently pulls me in then squeezes until I feel contentment with the World(my world that is) whilst showing me a tinglingly beautiful canvas of both flora & fauna. . .& rest👍🏻😊
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Spotted a Hedgehog again last night, in a different place from the previous night. It's been a while since I saw one two nights in succession. Lots more geese flying over again this morning.
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Nice spot nelliethehooker. Our hedgehog still calls, rarely see it but food, noticed the squirrel entering the hedgehog box during daylight hours - no food in there at that time! Is generally all eaten. I suspect we have at least 2 hedgehogs as I study the other signs that they leave 😂. Sadly I saw a squashed one on a local road last week.
Rocky2buckets, you describe nature so beautifully. I love all our seasons, but would love the next two seasons to be a little shorter 😉. But clear days are so much nicer than the grey ones we seem to suffer a lot of here 😢.
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1 Lonely swallow flying south today and we have had very strong winds so it was not making much progress flying quite low also had 2 red kites fly over the house lovely to watch and coping with the gusts of wind, had a lot of small groups of birds going south but to quick before I could get the binoculars. Now got the local roe deer around the field and eating my shrubs I have cut a lot of plants down for the winter season just as well with the deer and no shortage of food for them in the woods, the local woods nearby do not have any hunting thankfully.
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