A Late Walk Around Nettleton Woods.

Again, a dull morning so late in the afternoon, when the sun came out, we picked up Jet and went for a walk in Nettleton Woods, varying and extending our walk from last time somewhat.  The terrain  looks admirably suited to fungi so keeping everything crossed for the Autumn.  We found a couple of speckled wood butterflies and a superbly pristine red admiral posed perfectly.  Again we enjoyed the contrast between the cathedralesque scots pines with the ancient oak and silver birch woodland.  There are some truly ancient oaks and birches in here; we are so lucky to have discovered this wood.

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First Session at the Winter Feeding Station.

On my second visit to top up the feeders at the feeding station, I noticed that already quite a few birds were coming down to feed.  In view of this I decided to take the camera on today's visit and sit to see what was coming down and also have another go with the new lens and camera body.  There were large numbers of tits backwards and forwards all the time: blue, great, coal and a few long tailed tits.  At one point they all scattered in a whir of wings and a superb male sparrowhawk streaked through the wood in front of the hide. If it is hunting round the feeders I may get some photographs this winter.  Another bird of interest spotted when I set the hide up again a fortnight ago was a tawny owl which I think that I disturbed in the holly just behind the hide.  I must keep my eye open to see if I can discover where it's roosting.

I am delighted with the new equipment; the 100-400 even with the 1.4 converter is very sharp.  As the weather was dull I had to use ISO 3200 which I wouldn't have contemplated with the old canon 7D but the Fuji coped admirably.  There was some noise but this was easily corrected in Lightroom.

Other birds that visited today were a robin, a few chaffinches and a single tree creeper which I took some shots of but unfortunately it is obscured slightly by an out of focus twig.
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A Walk around childhood woods.

When my brother and I were boys growing up in Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire, playing down Kirkby Lane was always at the top of our agenda.  One of our favourite places was the 'old reservoir', now Kirkby Moor Nature Reserve managed by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust.  Adjacent to this was Ostler's plantation run by the Forestry Commission and planted on the edge of the old RAF Woodhall WWII bomber base, a satellite of RAF Coningsby and at one time the base for the famous 617 'dam-busters' squadron commanded by Guy Gibson.  One of the biggest attractions of roaming in here was the old anti aircraft gun which we used to play on and act out the roles of heroes.  We also used to find discarded, but live, 303 ammunition which we used to put in our father's vice (unbeknownst to him!) pull out the bullet, empty out the cordite and then put back it together and polish it up.  How I have managed to reach the age of 70 I don't know.  As we entered our teens and took up distance running it was a favourite place to train for cross country; in fact the last time I was there was about 10 years ago when I ran in a Lincolnshire League cross country race.  The area is popular for walking, off road cycling and horse riding.  I had long been wanting to revisit this childhood playground and a visit to friends in Woodhall gave me the ideal opportunity.  Heather and I enjoyed a very pleasant walk through the woods enjoying the first signs of autumn.  It was also a splendid location for one of my favourite styles of photography: intimate landscape.  All too soon it was time to return home, but it will repay further exploration along with a visit to Kirkby Moor.  Unfortunately we were not able to locate the anti aircraft gun!

Topping up the Feeders at the Winter Feeding Station.

Once home  from our New Year trip to Derbyshire it was time to top up the feeders at the winter feeding station.  The wood is drying again now with the wood floor crisp with dead leaves and beech mast crunching underfoot.  Snowdrops are poking through the leaf cover, although not as far advanced as the ones at Hartington where with flowers are just beginning to open up.  I was surprised to see Lords-and-Ladies leaves emerged and well developed, bright fresh spring-like green against the browns of the winter wood.  As I arrived a buzzard drifted overhead its plaintive, wild mewing carrying on the still air.  The rooks were noisy in the south meadow where they are seeing to their nests already. 

At the feeding station, the feeders were all empty.  As soon as they were filled birds began to come down even while I was standing watching.  Blue, great and coal tits buzzed to and fro in large numbers and a procession of nuthatches came down to pick up the peanuts I had dropped on the ground.  These easy pickings disappear first.  A lone robin hopped around the periphery, waiting for my departure before moving in for its share.  No sign of the woodpecker, but I am sure it would be down as soon as the annoying human presence had disappeared.
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Dog Walking and Photography.

We decided to celebrate delivering my degree work to Barnsley for final assessment by taking Jet for an extra long walk through Irby and Swallow valleys and woods. 
Our route took us from Irby Dale high over the wold with expansive views over the Number and down into Swallow Dale.  We had to stick to the valley path here as timber felling was in progress.  It was good to see that they were not clear felling but substantial trees were being left with clearing to allow the light into glades.  Good for wildlife.
A short road section took us to Swallow and then the old road back to Irby Dale.  Butterflies were on the wing: speckled woods and tortoiseshells and a superb second brood brimstone.  There were still plenty of sloes on the bushes as we returned along the top path to the car.