A Fantastic Autumn Week.

After coming back from the Dales, between the 8th and 15th November I made several visits to the cemetery and Woodland Burial Ground, the Horsefield and the Deadwood.  It was a week of perfect weather and the Autumn colours were spectacular, perhaps one of the best Autumns for several years.  The air was still and drifts of leaves floated down to carpet the ground like large gold snowflakes.   By and large things were quiet on the bird front, although I did see a mixed flock of goldfinches and siskins feeding on the cones of the alders in the cemetery; I live in hope of redpoll here.  I also had good views of hare on the fields and 3 roe deer in the Deadwood.

To view large, please click on an image.

More Autumn Colours and Fungi in Nettleton Woods

 Having had my pacemaker fitted on 28th October and struggled with a bad back since, I was suffering from cabin fever, so persuaded the very patient Mrs Pickwell to drive me to Nettleton Wood to catch the last of the autumn colour.  The less said about the back pain during our walk the better.  The woods were looking stunning, although the avenue of beeches along the drive to the scout camp were past their best.  There were still a few fungi but the fly agarics and amethyst deceivers appeared to have finished.

view large, please click on an image.

Scallows Scampering

On the 8th and 11th of November I went out to Scallows, partly to check on and top up the feeders and the winter feeding station and also of some photography of the autumn colours.  As I walk into the wood at the moment I enter a hall of golds, reds, coppers, yellows and greens.  The wood floor is still dry and the beech mast crunches under my feet.  It is quiet in the wood with not much bird sound although the food is being taken from the feeders.  The beech trees are especially beautiful and a buzzard drifts quietly over the wood.