Fowl Play

We've had a good friend staying with us recently and as we also had the week off we opted for an afternoon out and paid another visit to Rufford Abbey.  I have posted pictures from here before (you can find them here) but this time I actually brought my camera with me rather than relying on my mobile phone.

I've grouped the photos together and decided to split them into three separate posts.  This one is on the wild fowl that call Rufford and its lake home.

Sunrise Station

Last week I was working in Nottingham, which meant a long and boring journey down the Robin Hood Line.  The train from Retford arrives 15 minutes before the Nottingham train, so I would call in at the station cafe for a  Latte (recommended) and then head back over the pedestrian bridge to the other platform.

Now Worksop train station could do with a fresh lick of paint here and there but my brief waiting time coincided perfectly with the sunrise and on Tuesday and Friday the morning sky was beautiful.

I took these photos using my mobile phone, Other than some cropping and a black and white filter nothing else has been added.  The first set of photos where taken on the 17th February.

The pictures below where taken on Friday (19th February).   I was lucky enough the actually catch the sun peeking over the horizon before I had to get on the train. 

You may have noticed that regular updates to the blog have become a little spaced out.  The reason for this is lack of time and other commitments (rooms don't decorate themselves, unfortunately).  The weather has also been terrible on the weekends and I haven't gotten out and about (B&Q aside) as I would like to.

Spider-Monkey

I've been meaning to post these pictures for awhile now but somehow I never got round to them.  These pictures where taken at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park and we were lucky as just as we arrived at the enclosure the keepers opened up their enclosure to let the Spider Monkeys out.

As you can imagine, they are agile creatures and seemed quite at home with people being on their territory.  I was quite surprised how close they would come to the public as they explored their surroundings and sped across their runs above our heads.

Skying

First post of a new year and earlier this week I heard the telltale thump of a twin-rotored Chinook helicopter passing over the house.  I didn't really think anything of it until I saw on the nine o clock news a Chinook that was shoring up a breached flood defence in the north west of England and it got me wondering if this was the same aircraft that I had photographed earlier in the day.

I've taken the odd picture of military helicopters passing over in recent months but I've never really had enough shots to make a post.  The Chinook pictures are below combined with some gunships (I'm guessing Apaches) that I've spotted in recent months.

Now You See Me

It's amazing what you can see in the mist.

On a normal morning, I can look out of the kitchen window and hardly see a spider web. When the mist descends, the effect is truly spectacular.  Dozens, (and I do mean dozens) of spider webs pop into existence.  The gazebo, the hedge, the swings,  any surface where the spiders can attach themselves.  The moisture in the air clings to the delicate threads and brings them into sharp focus.

Of course with lots of spider webs, there are lots of spiders.  Not surprisingly, most of them are the common garden spider.

This one spun a web that went from the edge of the house to the fence - easily six feet.

Apologies for the delay with this post as well.  I've just upgraded my computer so it's taken a little longer than anticipated to get everything back on (the joy of upgrading to a 64-bit system from a 32).

Elusive

The first time I set eyes on a humming-bird Hawk-moth was  around ten years ago.  I remember it was a hot summer and I just happened to spot it hovering around one of the flower boxes.  They seemed to have a particular love of Bizzie Lizzies.  Subsequently, we made sure that we always had the flowers in the garden to try and tempt them in.  We saw them twice more,  always when the summer was hot.  I've not seen one in England in the last five years.

So it was a bit of a surprise to see one zooming around the Fox's Brush in the flower bed  during the last week of October.

They are a thing of beauty, with their long tongues dipping in and out of the flowers.  They move quickly but make it look effortless.  I imagine to keep it's wings beating at that speed they need a lot of nectar to maintain it.

Frustratingly, there was a trinity of factors that conspired to make it difficult to photograph it.  Bad light, a small fast moving subject and a camera focus that refused to do just that.  Out of forty shots there were only these ones that actually were passable enough to put on the blog.