A cold November day and memories of May

November 3, 2014November 12, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

It feels more like a typical November day today chilly and dark, in fact it is only just daylight by the time I get to work, I walk in darkness to the train station, but the Robins are singing under the false dawn of the street lamps, it is these dark mornings I notice how close the blackbirds get to your feet as you scuffle along in the fallen leaves, perhaps they are behaving like true woodland birds as they along with Robins would follow wild boar as they uncovered slugs and worms in the leaf litter of old woodlands.

It is days like today I think back to what is now seeming to be those far off days of late Spring and Early Summer, like late May when we spent a week in Kessingland visiting family and old haunts like Dunwich Heath.

Dunwich Heath

Dunwich Heath was always rich in birds and wildlife, but in recent years it now has a rare breeding bird that I would never have seen in my childhood years, the Dartford warbler which I was lucky enough to get an image of this year, now breeds on the heath, but sometimes their numbers take a tumble if we have a harsh winter so can be hard to find at times in the following spring.

Dartford Warbler, Dunwich Heath

So let us hope the winter is short and not a harsh one and it will not be so long before we can walk along the beaches of Suffolk and the heathlands are full of nesting birds.

Looking South on Kessingland beach, Suffolk

Could this be the start of a Normal November?

November 2, 2014November 12, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

First job of the day is to walk the dog, on stepping out side even though it is still mild the wind had got up and I could see we had not long had some rain.

I grabbed my camera and binoculars just in case we had some winter visitors flying in, most of the birds on the berries appeared to be Blackbirds but no sign of any Redwings or Fieldfares.

Passing some of the freshly ploughed fields I could see that a lot of the trees had shed their leaves overnight and this gave me a clue as to why there were no winter birds and the leaves were lying north-east of the lone Oak in a field which told me the wind had come from the South West and the reason it was still mild.

Lone Oak in middle of field with leaves on North East side

After feeding the dog, and putting out food for the birds in the garden it was mostly a day spent inside due to the heavy rain showers.

I was able to catch up on a few things but kept looking out for a break to get out with the camera as luck would have it I managed to get before Sunset and take some shots of the Fenland sky, usually very dramatic after rain I found todays to be very calming with the Aircraft flying to west and the sun catching the vapour trails.

The sun catches an aircraft’s vapour trail

Big Fenland sky

A new Month, a new Day

November 1, 2014November 12, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

November can be a grey Month, but today was warm and as the progressed was bright and Sunny, the first visitor to the garden feeders was a male Great Spotted Woodpecker, I had not seen one in the garden since last winter.

Male Great spotted woodpecker

We walked into Ely so I decided to take my camera and was rewarded with plenty of sights first a steam engine traveling down the high street

Steam Engine in Ely high street

Which was escorted by an Edwardian Policeman

Edwardian Policeman escorting the Steam Engine

The we came upon a wedding at the cathedral where the wedding party arrived by horse and carriage.

Wedding party arriving by carriage

The afternoon was spent at WWT Welney where I gave the 3:30 pm Swan talk and feed, this week to 85 people, there are lots of birds arriving now, lots of Golden Plover estimated around 2,000 birds, Kingfisher, Geese, lots of wading birds and of course the Whooper swans, I managed to get some more images, one of which is of these Geese landing

Graylag and Canada geese coming in to land at WWT Welney

And it is always worth waiting for a fenland sunset

the Sun sets over Welney

Warmest Halloween day

October 31, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

So it did after all turn out to be the warmest recorded Halloween day here in the UK, I decided to take my camera with me to work in Cambridge and took images before I started work, during my Lunch break and when I got home.

Where the leaves on the trees had turned there were some stunning colours and it was hard to know where to start but sometimes just the simple shot works to show the variation in the colours.

Autumn Leaves

Walking during my lunch break I saw there were many Squirrels running around storing the nuts they had gathered into thier secret hiding places always looking to see who or what may be watching where the stored food for the winter months is located. Usually the squirrel will be watching the Jays stashing food only to steal it for themselves.

Grey Squirrel on the lookout for other watching squirrels

On the train on the way home I noticed lots of Lapwings gathering on the fields amongst them here and there were Golden Plover, the next field revealed about 200 Golden Plover by themselves, the train was going too fast to take a picture and I hoped the train going past may have put the plover up so I could see the changing white to golden brown as they turned into the sunlight, but it was not to be.

When I arrived home the trick or treaters were walking around the neighbourhood, this has got really popular here in the UK over the last few years, when I was a lad we did try to make lanterns using swedes we found in the farmers fields, but I just had to take a picture of Pumpkins my neighbours children had made next door.

Happy Halloween to you all.

Halloween Lanterns my neighbours children had made

Autumnal Colours

October 30, 2014October 30, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

October draws to a close and once again it has been a really mild day, the prediction for the last day is the warmest Halloween on record, but the colours of Autumn this year do not seem to be as bright at last year, maybe I am wrong there are still some very colourful trees but not in such big numbers, maybe some are just late changing? and we are going to see more warm days in November or will we be in for a shock?.

The Colours of Autumn

I dare say a mild dry day will bring plenty of Trick or Treaters out tomorrow evening, so I wonder if this scarecrow I saw early this year is still in it’s field or will it be wandering about tomorrow?

A wandering Scarecrow?

Counting on the birds

October 29, 2014November 12, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

I have always kept a list of the species of birds I see every year, unfortunately I happened to mention this to members of our Local Wildlife Group committee and now found we have all kept a yearly list and it has got pretty competitive, only rules are the bird must be seen in the UK.

This year I have decided to keep a monthly list as well as a year list, looking at the months from January so far my monthly list has gone 78, 60, 72, 73, 74, 66, 51, 58, 70 and so far this Month 58. Obviously dropped off a bit in July and August but starting to build up again with the winter birds flying in.

Hopefully November and December may become colder and I get some good garden birds like this Sparrowhawk below that sat on our birdfeeders in January and February this year.

Sparrowhawk waiting on our garden birdfeeders

Another Mild October day

October 28, 2014November 12, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

I was up early again to take the dog for a walk, it was clear and there were many stars, I could see Orion and the Plough and it looked as if we were going to have another Sunny day, how long will this last? I have already heard Redwings flying over at night coming in from Scandinavia so are they ahead of the cold weather?.

This evening there is already cloud building up so maybe I will wake up to rain in the morning.

Cold front of cloud over small body of water.

Cloud over Roswell Pits, Ely

Wildlife can surprise you

October 27, 2014November 12, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

I am never surprised as to what can turn up where as far as wildlife is concerned, I have seen foxes in the centre of Cambridge, caught Badgers on my camera trap also in the centre of Cambridge, but this morning on my way to work it was not the fact I saw a Grey Heron in Cambridge, but the fact there were three sitting together on the cross bar of a goal on a football pitch, of course I did not have my camera to hand, which is always the case when you see something like this, so here is a photo of a Grey Heron from May along the river Ouse.

Grey Heron in flight along the river Ouse, Ely.

Early Sunday Morning walk

October 26, 2014November 12, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

This Morning dawned grey and overcast but even though the clocks went back an hour a Border collie that needs walking still thinks it is 8am at 7am.

Group of fresh Shaggy Inkcaps

Lots of fabulous fungi out on the grass on the walk including Shaggy Inkcap like the ones above.

Lone Shaggy Inkcaps pushes up through the grass

Some in groups and some single.

So many Fungi some hard to name

Lots yet to be Identified in small groups

Another group of fungi could all be same as fungi in previous image

And some in larger groups but smaller caps.

Fungi starting to turn

Some getting past their best

Shaggy Inkcaps on point of turning and decaying

and some way past their best.

First Swan talk of the season

October 26, 2014November 12, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

This Saturday saw my first swan talk of the season at WWT Welney

Whooper swans at Welney, Norfolk

WWT Welney And the the first family groups of whoopers have started to arrive.

There are around 800 swans there now and numbers will increase over the next few days, the young swans like the ones above will have flown 1200 miles to get to Welney and they are only a few months old, 500 miles of their flight will have been over open sea non stop.

Whooper swans at Welney, Norfolk

The small Bewick swan will fly in from Siberia having flown a total distance of 2,500 miles, but as yet only 8 birds have been seen in the area but we know there are 1,000 birds in the Netherlands.

You can tell by the yellow bill pattern which is a Whooper and which is a Bewick swan.

The yellow on a Whooper is pointed like a ‘Wedge of cheese’ and extends beyond the nostril as seen in the photograph above, on a Bewick the yellow is rounded like a ‘Blob of Butter’ and does not extend beyond the nostrils.

I shall be doing my swan talk and feeds at Welney now most Saturdays and as yet the water levels are down but all too soon I am sure the floating wheelbarrow will be out.