Showtime

Following on from last week's post I said that I upload a some more images from the country show at Thorseby Hall.  These pictures are from the last couple of shows.

Thoresby Hall 

Sheepdog at work

Fastest dog competition

The Scurry Competition

A Steppes Hawk

Start Your Engines

The Thoresby Country Show is an annual event that takes place towards the end of February. We love the sheer variety of displays, craftsman and stalls on display.  My only gripe is that the weather can be unpredictable at this time of year so you'll never know if your going to be wading through mud or having your face frozen off by the wind.  This year, it was the latter.

I'll do a more general post on the show next time, but the thing we enjoyed the most was the chainsaw challenge.  Half a dozen chainsaw artists creating a piece in thirty minutes. The pieces would then be auctioned off to the spectators afterwards.

We managed to get a good spot where we had a great view of one of the artists at work.

Needless to say, we where impressed by the skill and talent on display, watching incredible birds appearing out of a large piece of wood.  I loved how much the guy wielding the chainsaw seemed to enjoy what he was going and the  Barn Owl was beginning to take shape in front of us.

There were bigger, more elaborate creations taking shape but what I liked about this one was the way the artist used the bark to help create the texture and colour of the wing.

A blow torch was used to colour parts of the sculpture.  We were impressed by the finished piece.

So impressed, we actually entered the bidding for it.  Amazingly, we won.

The light from the flash is a little harsh but I do like how it shows up every line and scratch.  It's an incredibly tactile object (and its also bloody heavy!).

Once the wood has dried out (we've been told this can take up to a year) we'll make a decision as to where "Oz" will sit.

Over the Border

 Living in the north of Nottinghamshire, geographically we sit on the edge of neighbouring counties.  Ten minutes drive and we're in South Yorkshire or Lincolnshire.  Lincoln is actually the closest city to us.

Our retired neighbour, Bill pointed us in the direction of Whisby Nature Reserve in Lincolnshire, so a few weeks ago we decided to hop over the border and pay a visit.

We were surprised by how large the reserve was, with several large lakes on the site.  A large part of the reserve was closed when we visited, as a bridge that was being built over a train line was not quite finished.  It is hoped that it will be open at the end of February.

There are numerous hides where you can watch what is going on out on the water and a rather impressive centre which includes a shop and large cafe.  I also took a few photos of the bird feeders that they had set up from a nearby viewing point.  I thought that our own garden feeders had a lot of Grey and Blue Tits using it.  At Whisby there seemed to be dozens of them.

We're looking forward to exploring more of this reserve in the coming weeks.  When we visited it was cold, dull and very overcast and I'm looking forward to seeing what else this great reserve has to offer.

Birds of a Feather

Anyone who reads this blog regularly will know that we have a soft spot for the pheasants that come into the garden.  In recent months, the male pheasant that we have nicknamed Billy has been the only bird around.  He comes to the back door where we feed him peanuts.  He's also started to hurry around to the back door when I call him from the bedroom window.

What we haven't really seen since early autumn have been any females.  On Saturday morning we where blessed with the presence of not one, but four hens who slipped into the garden.

Of course,they rushed straight to the area beneath the bird feeders.  We did not know if these girls where part of a family that we had seen in the summer or if they unconnected birds that had formed a group.  

One thing we did notice was as soon as one headed off, the others would leave what they where doing and hurry to catch up.  They headed straight for the bird feeder station in the corner of the garden.

The four pheasants hung around the garden for most of the day, moving from one feeder to the other.  We spotted Billy, observing from the farmers field behind the wire fence but neither he nor the females where particularly interested in each other.

We haven't seen them today, so its possible that they don't stay in the same area for very long.  This might be just as well, as we've seen and heard foxes in the garden in recent days and yesterday we also witnessed  one of the local cats take out a grey squirrel.  Nature can be cruel.

Deathstrike

It's easy to admire birds of prey when you see them.  I've taken photographs of sparrowhawks before (click on the label at the bottom of the post) and their appearances around the garden have been more frequent in the past weeks but as far as we've witnessed one has never managed to take out a bird around the feeders.

On Friday, one got lucky.  Terry took these photos after witnessing a sparrowhawk crash into the kitchen window with it's prey gripped in it's claws.  Fortunately, I had left the camera in the kitchen as I had been taking a few shots of different birds on the window feeder before I left for work.  He managed to snap a couple of pics before the bird took off with the blackbird it had grabbed on the wing.

Idle Weekend

Over the past two weekends we've visited the Idle Valley Wildlife Reserve in Retford.  The reserve is looked after by the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and a small army of volunteers who maintain the various habitats on the site. The main area is a large lake that is a haven for waterfowl and is an important stopping point for wintering birds (although we never really saw anything more exotic than seagulls and swans on our visits).

There are several different walks of various lengths around the reserve.  We opted for the one of the shorter walks around the main lake that took us alongside Idle river.  It's not a big river by any stretch of the imagination but when it bursts its banks it can cause flooding for the locals.

"White water" on the Idle

While walking around the lake we spotted a hovering Kestrel and were able to get close enough to get some photographs of it.

North Notts College also have a facility at the reserve which they share with the wildlife trust and a small cafe.  There are regular events at Idle Valley throughout the year ranging from stargazing evenings to nature walks.  It's worth checking out the website to see what's on.

Garden Gremlins

We've always had one or two squirrels that make themselves at home in the garden.  They can be quite entertaining chasing each other around the garden and through the trees.  For all of their cheeky charm they can be a nuisance.  They can wade through a bird feeder full of sunflower hearts in less than a morning.

You scratch my back...

I may not be the grey squirrel's biggest fan, but nor would I do anything that would injure or hurt them in anyway so we've opted for more preventative measures to stop them stealing the food by adding chilli powder.  They can still help themselves to the peanuts we put out, the feeders themselves tend to restrict them from guzzling the lot.

They can be a bit brazen when it comes to feeding.  The picture below is just before he makes a leap for the window feeder.  He almost seems to be checking if the coast is clear.

Casing the joint

The inevitable outcome was squirrel and window feeder taking a tumble.

It's fun to watch them speeding through the treetops and the incredible distance they achieve when leaping from one tree to another.  Their agility is second to none.

As of last Sunday, we currently have four squirrels in the garden.  We watched them chasing one another but we aren't sure if they are a family unit or two pairs that are defending their territory.  Some of them also seemed to have developed a taste for chilli as we've spotted greys munching at the coated sunflower hearts with enthusiasm.

We're going to need to come up with a plan B.