Hair cut and Birding ?

The other day I had a ride over to see Keith, one of the lads I use to work with. The crack is always good with Keith, and there is always a cup of tea on offer. During our conversation I half jokingly said, "I nearly brought my new dog trimming kit so you could cut my hair", "no need " says He I already have a hair trimmer. Later in the conversation He said "well do you want a hair cut or not?" and 10 minutes later It was all over and a grand job too, so that saved me a few shekels.
      So one cup of tea and a hair cut later, we went outside to see if anything was about on the wildlife front. Not a lot really, so just fired a few shots off of what there was.

High up on Keith's roof there was this Robin .

And a winter plumage Pied Wagtail

It had a yellowish head and no black bib.

And on the log pile one of two Hedge Sparrows flitting about. 

There was also a Wren about but too active to capture with the lens.

And the leaves are still hanging on, this just outside our house.

Thank you for looking in, and now have a look at more gorgeous birds by following the link to Stewarts wild bird Wednesday.  ---  http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.co.uk/

Cold but sunny day at Leighton Moss

Greeted by a beautiful blue sky yesterday morning, and lots of sun. I took the weasties for their walk first thing, walking part of the patch.. There was getting on for 100 Lapwing on the remains of the flash, this is the most I have seen in the area in a long time. The new reserve is believed to be teaming with Snipe but there is too much cover, and so sighting are rare. However John has seen as many as 70 or so lift off in a morning. This may be just a fraction of actual numbers.
         The weather was too good to waste, so back home I put a few things together and set off for Leighton Moss, arriving at about half ten. I parked at the centre and had a look in at Lillian's hide first, there was hardly any one in considering the car park was packed. There was little action on the water so I moved on. It was firm under foot after the frost and the going was good as I made my way to the causeway (no Beardies about) and then called in the Public hide. There was so little activity from this hide it was joked about by the few people that was in there. I think people where spending more time walking about rather than spend any time in a cold hide. I plodded on to Lower hide, where I found a few Teal milling about near the reed edge.

Teal mixed with Mallard.

On the Lower Hide track a Redwing was found feeding on berries but was bad to get a pick of as it was in silhouette

Redwing.

Apart from the few Fieldfares on the patch I haven't seen many winter thrushes yet.

  By 12pm I was back at the centre tucking into a spot of lunch, before heading off to the Jackson hide. Again there was very little on the water, the only interest being about half a dozen Snipe, as usual too far away for my lens.
     However, at one point along the path some kind sole had put some seed on a log and it was doing good trade.

Star turn was this Marsh Tit, although there could have been more than one, as I found them in a few different areas.

 

 

In fact most of the tit family made an appearance during the session.

Blue Tit.

Great Tit.

Coal Tit.

And its always nice to see one of these little fellas fly in , Nuthatch

Nuthatch

Nuthatch.

A bit of a bummer.

Blue Tit.

And a Robin looking in on the feast.

Just before 3pm I was back in Lillian's hide, and in the far distance I manged to find the Long-tailed Duck, which again was too far away for pics. However I was in better luck with the Snipe.

Snipe

And again.

There was a few Herons about.

And Two squabbling over Territorial rights.

And lastly a Male Teal.

Linking to Stewarts Wild bird Wednesday  http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.co.uk/

Jack frost

We where greeted by a clear sky and lots of sun this morning, unfortunately there had been a keen frost, and the car was rock hard and needed quite a bit of scraping to get rid of the frost. having removed the frost the car started OK, in contrast to yesterday when it didn't, and by the end of the day I had shelled out nearly 70 quid for a new battery. And now the battery warning light is staying on, which looks like the alternator might be ca put, more expense. now this is telling me the alternator was probably the fault in the first place, you can tell I'm no mechanic !!.
          Anyway off we went for our morning walk round the patch, and not a lot knocking about.

What I'm finding amazing this year is how much the trees are hanging on to their leaves, just look at this Ash, and again no sign of Ash die-back

Again the subject was mainly the frost on various seed heads, this is grass seed.

This may be Ground Elder

 

Frost crystals on a fence post

Misty having a good sniff around

This another view of the new reserve, which has been holding large numbers of snipe.

And another view , this time showing the big hedge, which has turned up some good sightings over the years, at this time of year we start to get the thrushes and Bramblings feeding on the berries and apples.

The Westies back in the car after their walk, Kyfer has his eyes closed as if he is just soaking up the warm sun.

And a few pics of Blencathera from flusco, I don't think I have ever seen a mix of snow and Autumn Colours, but that's what we have this year.

 

It reminds me of the cloud plum that comes off Everest.

Walking the Westies

Took the camera with me this morning when walking the Westies, the main reason for this was the fact that we had had the first real frost of the season, and I was hoping for some good shots. Its better if there has been a mist with the frost, but not this morning. So the following photos are just a general sample of the walk.

Looking S-E  towards the big house, the frost beginning to melt as the sun took over.

Clear blue sky and a white frost make for good walking days, looking N-E , the tree in the photo is an Ash, which has taken some punishment from wind over the years, bur I haven't seen any sign of Ash die back.

And a few pics of the little Westies on the top track.

Misty & Kyfer

Kyfer scanning the field

Frost on Nettle

Sycamore caught on wire, also caught the frost.

Shadow fun.