The Ol’ Alma Mater and a Feast of Nature

November 28, 2024November 27, 2024 Mark Richards14 Comments

PXL_20240622_095158248 — *Whitworth Hall, University of Manchester.*

Little S and I had a day out in Manchester. We let the train take the strain. For him, a bit of prospective Uni research, for me a trip down memory lane, although Manchester has changed substantially since I lived there.

PXL_20240622_111410452 — *Little S admiring the Imperial Chinese Arch in Manchester.*

After a cursory* gander at the university, we had a wander around the town centre and a very fine tapas lunch near Piccadilly Gardens. (*I couldn’t persuade Little S to attend many talks, but we did the important ones.)

P1410797 — *One juvenile and one adult Goldfinch.*

Back home, much later, around five o’clock, I set out for a local stroll, taking in Lambert’s Meadow, Leighton Moss, Trowbarrow Quarry and Eaves Wood.

PXL_20240622_155531214 — *Cirrus clouds above Eaves Wood.*

PXL_20240622_161725972 — *Lambert’s Meadow.*

PXL_20240622_162022599 — *A bug’s eye view.*

My thumb gives a scale for the size of these eggs and just hatched nymphs.

PXL_20240622_170652054 — *Newly hatched nymphs. Common Green Shieldbugs?*

I think they might be Common Green Shieldbugs. Had I taken more note of the kind of leaf they are on, I might have had a better clue. The white spheres are the eggs. The black triangles on the eggs are apparently something to enable the nymphs to open the eggs from the inside.

P1410800 — *Large Skipper on Meadowsweet.*

P1410801 — *Brown-lipped Snail(?) on Nettles.*

P1410831 — *Emperor Dragonfly, female I think.*

P1410850 — *Broad-bodied Chaser, female.*

What a great selection of dragonflies; I was able to get several photos of each. I’m learning that whereas Broad-bodied Chasers seem to prefer quite a high perch on a tall plant like a Figwort, Emperor dragonflies will rest quite close to the ground and often fairly well hidden by foliage.

P1410855 — *Figwort Weevil. On Figwort! Tiny.*

P1410858 — *A Bumblebee. I’m not clever enough to make a guess as to which kind.*

Tutsan is a native shrub, but so handsome and colourful that I would always want to have some in my garden.

PXL_20240622_173542447 — *Leighton Moss from The Skytower.*

I’ve seen, and photographed, Ospreys locally before, but it’s absolutely thrilling that they are here at all and on this occasion I had a superb view of three of them fishing. Brilliant.

PXL_20240622_175818594 — *Common-spotted Orchid at Trowbarrow Quarry.*

I’d left it a bit late to photograph the Bee Orchids, both in the day, because they were now in the shade, and in the year, because most of the flowers were a bit dessicated and not at their best. But last year I didn’t see any Bee Orchids, so I was very pleased to have caught them at all.

PXL_20240622_181847366 — *Figwort flowers.*

On the track towards Moss Lane from Trowbarrow Quarry, I was struck by how the light was striking these Figwort Flowers. Now, Figwort Flowers are really tiny, so I am quite impressed at how well my phone camera managed to catch them.

I don’t often get chances to revisit old haunts in Manchester, have lunch and a pint with Little S, or to photograph Emperor Dragonflies, Ospreys, Marsh Harriers, or Bee Orchids, but it’s possible that the highlight of my day were the newly hatched shieldbug nymphs, so miniscule and colourful, and so unexpected. Nice to have such a rich list to choose from however.

I didn’t do half enough of this sort of thing this summer. Note to self, for next year!

Actually, I didn’t have to wait long for another opportunity to treat Little S to a slap-up lunch.

We were in Newcastle the following weekend, parked close to St. James’s Park for another open day…

PXL_20240629_101412053 — *Newcastle University.*

Little S has been to Newcastle on a few occasions, what with both of his siblings already studying there, and was keen to find a second-hand clothes shop he had been to before, which entailed a long and fruitless walk in the rain. At least we found some shelter in Grainger Market…

PXL_20240629_103443184 — *I do love a Brass Band.*

PXL_20240629_103512748 — *Pumphrey’s. Taken to impress old friend THO, but have forgotten to show him.*

We indulged in a superb lunch in a South-East Asian restaurant serving cuisine from Korea, the Philippines and, I think, Japan. Mine was ramen with kimchi, his udon with roast pork. We ended up sharing. Mine was very, very spicy. Lovely.

We returned to the uni for more talks. The Computing department has a little museum in the foyer, which I enjoyed. This took me back…

I omitted to mention, in my last post, when recounting my story of my post-Christmas shopping trip, in the dim and distant past, to buy records in Leicester that, at the time, my left arm was in plaster most of the way up to my shoulder. Pile-up in the roller disco. Bit of a mess. That Christmas, as well as my vouchers, I’d received a ZX81 personal computer and a small black and white TV to use as a monitor. Pretty fortunate, since the surgery and the anaesthetic left me bed-bound for most of Christmas. That little telly got a lot of use. Actually, I still had it nearly twenty years later when I met TBH.
When I excitedly pointed out ‘my old computer’ to Little S he was very sceptical about my stories of programming fledgeling games on a device with so little available memory. (I was a bit younger then than he is now). But my moon-lander simulator was terrific. Honest! We were easily pleased back then, Binatone TV Master tennis had hitherto been considered the height of sophistication.

Fly Orchids at Last!

August 13, 2023 Mark Richards8 Comments

Another week’s worth of evening, post-work walks from near the end of May.

Tuesday: The Lots and The Cove.

20230523_205451 — *Late light on The Lots.*

20230523_210403 — *Sunset over Hampsfell.*

Thursday: Lambert’s Meadow – Bank Well – Myer’s Allotment – Leighton Moss – Trowbarrow Quarry

P1370567 — *Lambert’s Meadow – I can’t stay away.*

P1370584 — *Male Common Blue Damselfly and female Damselfly (I’m not sure which flavour).*

20230525_191424 — *Leighton Moss from Myer’s Allotment.*

P1370596 — *Flowering shrub at Leighton Moss, coated in webs.*

P1370602 — *Male Pheasant, completely hidden, he thinks!*

P1370622 — *Trees fogged with Willow seeds.*

P1370620 — *Everything was quilted with Willow seeds.*

I’ve been hoping to spot some of these for years, so this was something of a red letter day. I’d been looking at another orchid, a Common Twayblade, and then noticed an even smaller orchid nearby. They’re tiny.

“Despite the flowers looking like flies, they actually attract digger wasps. They release a scent which mimics a female wasp’s pheromones, luring in males that attempt to mate with them. The male wasps get a dusting of pollen, which they carry on to the next flower that fools them, hopefully pollinating the plant.”

Source

How the heck does a pollination method as complex as that evolve?

Friday: The Lots – across the sands to Park Point and back.

20230526_173525 — *Arnside Knott from the Sands.*

20230526_173530 — *Looking back to The Cove and Know End Point.*

The flowers of this hawkweed appeared in a fairly recent post. I wasn’t expecting the seedheads to be almost as attractive, but when the multicoloured interior was revealed, I think it was…

When Andy and TBF were down on the Gower, a few days prior to this walk, TBF messaged me about the lovely pink flowers which were dotted about the coast there. Maybe that was at the back of my mind when I came this way. Anyway, there were lots of Bloody Crane’s-bill in evidence along our coastal cliffs too.

I think that these butterflies were mating, or attempting to mate. They kept being disturbed by a third Common Blue, a male, which persistently flew towards them.

Small, day-flying moths are very common in the summer, but as soon as they land they seem to disappear, so I was lucky to spot this one.

P1370774 — *Cryptocephalus bipunctatus – a nationally scarce species of beetle.*

I watched a couple of dark bees flying very low to the ground near to these holes, but didn’t manage to get photos, or seem them approach the holes, so I’ll never know whether these are bee burrows.

20230526_183851 — *Bloody Crane’s-bill and Rock Rose.*

May was a busy month; without really making a conscious effort, I logged over 250km of walks. The excellent weather helped a lot!
Not that I’ve quite finished my May posts yet!

Few-flowered Leek and other Curios.

July 12, 2023 Mark Richards9 Comments

On the day after B’s big night out, he was playing rugby in the afternoon, and I was accompanying as usual, but in the morning TBH and I did our usual Sunday circuit through Fleagarth Wood and around Jenny Brown’s Point. By the end of April, there were all sorts of flowers along the verge of Lindeth Road, our route back into the village. I was particularly taken by the Coral Root, which seems to crop up somewhere in this part of the village each spring. Whilst it’s a plant which is native to the UK, it’s probably a garden escapee in this area.

This was new plant to me. Definitely not a native plant, Few-flowered Leek is regarded as an invasive pest and, as such, it’s illegal to cause it to spread in the wild. On the plus side, apparently it’s very nice to eat – just don’t put any trimmings in your compost or it may take over your garden. It will be interesting to see whether it spreads along the lane over coming springs.

20230424_193250 — *Stormy weather over the Bay from Caton Moor.*

On the Monday evening, Little S was at Explorers in Littledale. Since I was dropping him off and then bringing him back later, I parked up on Caton Moor, by the wind-farm, and enjoyed the views.

20230424_202738 — *And the sunsetting over Black Combe from almost the same spot.*

The first May Bank Holiday weekend, when we would usually be camping in Wasdale with our old cronies, was a busy one again. We had a dance show in Newcastle to attend on the Saturday and the North-West Colts rugby final on the Sunday. Unlike last year, Kirkby Lonsdale didn’t win. On the plus side, I’m assured that the ref has been offered spectacles for his future outings.

20230501_114852 — *Early Purple Orchid.*

On the Bank Holiday Monday, TBH and I were out for a local stroll, through Fleagarth Wood again, but then across Quaker’s Stang, to Crag Foot, across the lower slopes of Warton Crag to Summerhouse Hill and back via Leighton Moss.

20230501_123100 — *TBH walking through Ramsons in bloom near Crag Foot.*

The path from Crag Foot to Peter Lane is one we don’t walk that often, but perhaps we should: it’s quiet and in places rather lovely.

20230501_131547 — *Another large boulder on Summerhouse Hill.*

20230501_131620 — *TBH enjoying the view from Summerhouse Hill.*

20230501_134830 — *Unidentified small caterpillar.*

Anniversary Lunch In Yealand.

April 15, 2023April 14, 2023 Mark Richards4 Comments

20221027_122755 — *A view from the causeway at Leighton Moss.*

Our wedding anniversary. Brass and nickel apparently. TBH had been doing some tutoring and a grateful tutee had given her a voucher for the New Inn in Yealand. So we’d booked a table.

20221027_125633 — *Leighton Hall, Leighton Moss and Arnside Knott from Summer House Hill.*

Uncharacteristically, we left early enough to be almost on time. If we took a direct route and didn’t tarry. So we did, and didn’t, if you see what I mean.

Despite the slight pressure we’d put ourselves under, it was a pleasant walk, if a somewhat gloomy day, as you can see.

20221027_125727 — *Summer House Hill Standing Stones*

I used to be a bit sceptical about the stone circle on Summer House Hill, thinking maybe the boulders just happened to be here anyway, but then I discovered that it’s actually a scheduled monument, and that the four remaining stones were once joined by thirteen others, now evident due to the socket holes which show their former positions, and by a ditch which ran around the circle.

20221027_130345 — *Lambs on the ‘wrong side’ of the fence.*

Not a great photo, but it does demonstrate how wet and muddy the ground was back in October and the propensity of lambs to get through a hedge or a fence and then decide that they would prefer to be back with the flock, if only they could remember how they managed it.

20221027_130551 — *Autumn colour and Farleton Fell.*

I used to come to the New Inn quite a lot. When I first moved to Silverdale, I would walk here to meet friends for a meal and a few drinks, then stagger home in the dark.

The pub closed for a while and was refurbished and I haven’t been back since then.

20221027_130958 — *A house in Yealand smothered in Virginia Creeper (I think).*

Anyway, the food was excellent. TBH was very happy with her vegan option.

20221027_135631 — *Gammon, eggs and chips with a little piccalilli.*

Mine was good too, and the beer went down well.

On the way home, the weather even brightened up a little.

20221027_161220 — *Abundant Honey Fungus in Eaves Wood.*

It was a grand day and we really should have repeated the experience by now. Soon, hopefully.

Home from Yealand Storrs

April 7, 2022 Mark Richards6 Comments

20220108_153314 — *Thrang Brow Lime Kiln.*

Early January, a late afternoon start, so not much light to play with. A dropped me off in Yealand, where Storrs Lane meets Thrang Brow Lane, which is also where the right-of-way sets off across Yealand Allotment. I left that path almost immediately, passing Thrang Brow Lime Kiln, and climbing towards Thrang Brow, so that views opened up over Leighton Moss.

20220108_153541 — *Leighton Moss. The ‘high’ ground on the right of the meres is Heald Brow.*

20220108_154532 — *Cartmell Fell and Whitbarrow from Thrang Brow.*

From Hawes Water I walked home via Eaves Wood. My winter walks often finish like this…

I can’t put my finger on why, but, in the winter at least, although I don’t like the short winter days when I’m at work, I do really enjoy a walk which finishes in the last of the light, or later.

Ricochet

May 29, 2020May 28, 2020 Mark Richards14 Comments

Hagg Wood – Bottom’s Lane – Burtonwell Wood – Lambert’s Meadow – Bank Well – The Row – The Golf Course – The Station – Storr’s Lane – Leighton Moss – Leighton Hall – Summer House Hill – Peter Lane Limekiln – Hyning Scout Wood – Warton – Warton Crag – Quaker’s Stang – Jenny Brown’s Point – Jack Scout – The Lots – The Cove

Lambert’s Meadow.

A long walk which didn’t go even remotely to plan. I had intended to climb Arnside Knott, but instead went in almost entirely the opposite direction.

Ribwort plantain.

I began by heading for Bottom’s Lane, in the ‘wrong’ direction, to drop some bread flour off with some friends of ours who were having to self-isolate after a positive test for the virus and for whom TBH had done a shop, but come up short on numerous predictable items like tinned tomatoes, yeast, toilet paper, bread flour etc.

Crane fly – possibly Tipula luna. Male – the females have a pointy tip to their abdomen for pushing eggs into the ground.

Hmmm. Marsh valerian? Why I didn’t photograph the leaves too I don’t know.

Orange-tip butterfly.

After that I kept spotting people on the paths ahead and changing course to evade them, and before I knew where I was, I was heading across Leighton Moss on the causeway path – the only part of the reserve which has remained open.

Canada goose and coot.

From that point, I just did what I normally do and made it up as I went along.

Leighton Moss.

The view from Summer House Hill.

Bluebells on Summer House Hill.

Peter Lane Limekiln.

Tree felling on Warton Crag has exposed a crag I didn’t even know was there. And expansive views from the top of that cliff.

Warton and a distant Ingleborough.

The Forest of Bowland and Carnforth.

Crosswort.

From the top of the Crag a path which seems like a new one to me seemed to promise more views, to the distant Lake District…

Why the fences either side and on the ground?

Because the path crosses one of the three Bronze Age walls which ring the summit of the Crag. Admittedly, it doesn’t look like an ancient monument in the photo, but it did seem quite obvious ‘in the flesh’.

The tree felling seems to have been successful, in as much as it has produced masses of primroses, a key food plant for certain butterflies.

Early purple orchid.

In amongst the cowslips at Jack Scout, these primulas stood out. If that’s what they are? Or are they a naturally occurring variation of cowslips? Or a hybrid?

Post sunset from above the Cove.

I bumped into a neighbour on The Lots, she was walking her dog, and she told me that she has stopped taking photographs of ‘the best sunsets in the world’, because she has thousands already. I have thousands too, probably. And no end of photos of early purple orchids and clouds and primroses, of Leighton Moss and of the views from Summer House Hill and Warton Crag. Fortunately, none of those things ever seem to get old, or lose their fascination and I fully intend to take thousands more.

Lucky me.

Note to self: this was too long a walk without carrying a drink – I keep doing that to myself. Did it again yesterday and have given myself a headache – golly it was hot.

Tunes. Back to Elvis in his Sun days, probably my favourite of his songs, ‘Mystery Train’:

Like most of Presley’s output, it’s a cover, and the laidback original by Little Junior and his Blue Flames is well worth seeking out.

And, while I’m making recommendations, the weird and wonderful 1989 film ‘Mystery Train’, directed by Jim Jarmusch, and starring, amongst others, both Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Joe Strummer, is also worth seeking out. Oddly, the song which recurs through the film is ‘Blue Moon’.

This next song, dating back to 1940, so older than Junior parker’s 1953 song, also contains the line ‘Train I ride, sixteen coaches long’.

When I was a nipper, my Dad bought a Reader’s Digest box set of Country records.

Photo credit: my mum or my dad? Ta.

He mostly listened to the Johnny Cash album, but somehow I cottoned on to the bluegrass of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, both alumni of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys. This is one of their better know tunes, Foggy Mountain Breakdown:

They also recorded the first version of ‘The Ballad of Jed Clampett’ theme tune to ‘The Beverley Hillbillies’.

Lapwings at Leighton Moss

June 7, 2019 Mark Richards9 Comments

On the Tuesday evening after our weekend away in Wasdale, A and B had, as they usually do, Explorer Scouts over at Silverhelme Scout Camp on The Row. TBH was on taxi duty and she suggested that she could drop me off so that I could walk home. That seemed like a first rate idea, and so it was that I found myself on Storrs Lane at the point where the path which skirts around the back of Leighton Moss leaves the road. I popped into Lower Hide and ended up staying much longer than I had intended to, which often happens.

Although there were plenty of other birds about, it was some Lapwings right under the hide windows which kept me entertained.

This adult male had chosen a prominent position in order to keep a watchful eye on the area. It looks like he’s on the remnants of some sort of nest. Not a Lapwing nest, I don’t think. Maybe something like a Coot.

When this first bird moved on, a second came stalking through the reeds…

To take over the same position. At first, I assumed that the birds must be a pair, but this is another male. You can tell because the black patch extends all the way down his throat and further down his breast than it would on a female. Also, those striking plumes on his head are longer than those sported by a female.

This, is a female…

She looks a bit chubby, but that’s because tucked away under her skirts she’s hiding her entire brood…

I watched as the chicks repeatedly made forays to explore the shallow margins of the mere…

There were five chicks in all, but two was the most I managed to catch on camera at once…

Her’s the matriarch without any chicks sheltering beneath her apron…

You can just about see that she has some slight mottling in the black plumage on her throat, which is absent in males.

The chicks seemed quite adventurous and would disperse over a fairly large area. This one came right up under the windows of the hide…

But then the chicks, presumably acting on the some signal from an alert parent, would all turn and head back to the protection of their mother…

And disappear into her feathery shelter…

This chick…

…seemed to be more independent than its siblings and was much less hasty when returning…

Half-Term Happenings I

April 4, 2019April 3, 2019 Mark Richards2 Comments

February half-term was very busy here at our Country Pile. The Surf’n’slide crew dropped by for the first weekend. My brother and his kids also arrived late on the Saturday and my mum and dad had booked a room at the Silverdale Hotel from Sunday night through till Thursday.

We had regular Roe Deer visitors in the garden too.

In the woods by Hawes Water.

The remaining photos are all garnered from the first of two walks we managed to squeeze in on the Saturday.

On the new Hawes Water boardwalk.

Gloucester Old Spot pigs at Hawes Water Villa.

Leighton Moss from the ‘Skytower’.

Andy has a fuller account of this and our other walks that weekend over on his blog. He seems to have taken more photos than I did.

In the summer, I shall be attempting to complete the annual 10 in 10 challenge. Briefly, the idea is to walk a route over 10 Wainwrights in 10 hours or less. You can find out more here.

The event is a fundraiser and I’m hoping to get some sponsorship for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. My Just Giving page is here. All donations, however small, will be most welcome. I should add that the sponsorship is not a condition of my entry and that I’ve already paid a fee to enter which covers all costs, so all sponsor money would go directly to charity.

Kaleidoscope Moon

July 8, 2018July 8, 2018 Mark Richards13 Comments

I decided to take an evening stroll down to Leighton Moss, thinking that on previous summer-evenings I’d seen Red Deer swimming in the meres near to Grizedale Hide and that maybe I would see them again.

Dryad’s Saddle.

Distant Great Spotted Woodpecker.

In the event, whilst I did spot a couple of deer, they were partially hidden in amongst the reeds. Fortunately, there was plenty more to see.

I particularly enjoyed the antics of this Little Egret. Unlike Herons – patient hunters which don’t generally move very much or very quickly, Little Egrets wander about, stirring up the mud at the bottom of the pond hoping to dislodge likely prey.

A nearby tree had seven Cormorants perched in it…

I knew that Herons and Egrets like to congregate to roost in the evenings, but perhaps Cormorants do too.

There were some Proper Birders in the hide, nice chaps, who told me that there were both Marsh Harriers and Bitterns nesting nearby. They were hoping for a sight of the Bitterns, which didn’t materialise, but we did see both adult Harriers, although somewhat distantly…

I find that I can only sit in a hide for so long before I start to get itchy feet and when the sun disappeared, perhaps for the last time that day I thought, it was time to move on.

Anyway, I wanted to get home before it got too late. On my way back around the reserve, I diverted slightly to take in the view from the Sky Tower…

From there I watched a pair of Swans and their large family of cygnets swim across the mere in a stately line and then, reaching their nest, enter into a noisy dispute with some Coots, who obviously felt that they had squatters’ rights.

Then I noticed some sort of commotion in the water, between the two islands of reeds in the photograph above. Fish were jumping out of the water, but not the odd fish rising for a fly, this was lots of fish and the fish were seemingly leaping in groups, with the activity moving around the small area as if something were pursuing the fish beneath the water. I’ve seen this sort of thing once before and that was just after I thought I’d seen an Otter dive into the water from the Causeway which crosses the reserve. In the middle of the area where the commotion was taking place the RSPB have built a small wooden platform. There were numerous birds on that platform and they were all obviously aware of what was going on too. The ducks all took to the water and headed swiftly away. The heron peered at the fish momentarily before unfurling its wings and also departing. Only the small white birds, which looked to be terns of some sort, didn’t seem to be bothered. Meanwhile a second area, along the edge of the mere, had also started to liven up with fish jumping this way and that. Perhaps there were a pair of Otters down there, doing a spot of fishing.

The area where this was all happening was right in front of Lillian’s Hide, so I thought I would head down there to see what I could see. When I got there, the fish were no longer leaping, but a disturbance in the reeds alerted me and there was my Otter, swimming along the channel in front of the hide. I lost sight of it, but there was another chap in the hide and, when I told him there was an otter nearby, he came up trumps by spotting it swimming away.

Not as good as my photos from this winter, but it’s not often that I get to see an Otter after work, so I was very happy.

The heron returned and I could see now why the terns were so unperturbed – they weren’t real – I suppose that this is an attempt to attract actual terns to nest on this faux island?

Buzzard.

By the time I was walking back across the fields towards home, I’d missed the sunset, but there was still lots of colour in the sky.

The moon was half hidden by this great swathe of pink clouds. Using the zoom on my camera I watched the moon as it was repeatedly veiled and unveiled by the clouds.

Searching for a title for the post, and reverting, as I often do, to songs titles half-remembered from my youth, I thought I could recall a song called Kaleidoscope Moon.

A bit of googling however, reminded me that the song I was thinking of was actually ‘Kaleidoscope World’ from the album of the same name by Kiwi band The Chills.

Other songs on the album were called ‘Rolling Moon’ and my own favourite ‘Pink Frost’, so maybe I had dimly muddled these three and somehow got ‘pink’, ‘moon’ and ‘kaleidoscope’ from the three songs. I’m surprised that I seem to have managed to almost completely forget this band, although some fragment of a memory was clearly lurking in the recesses of my mind, and I’m very happy to have been serendipitously jolted into recollection.

An ¡Ándale! Walk

January 16, 2018January 15, 2018 Mark Richards5 Comments

Look at that sky!

When we got back from Underley, I was keen to get out for another walk whilst the daylight and the good weather lasted. I fancied one of my favourite local routes from last year, which takes in Eaves Wood, Hawes Water, Yealand Allotment and Leighton Moss. I usually walk it clockwise, in that order, but it occurred to me that the path ’round the back’ of Leighton Moss might still be flooded, so went widdershins so that I could ask at the visitor centre. Which I did. I was assured that all of the paths around the reserve were open, by a volunteer, well-intentioned I’m sure, who may have been distracted by the fact that he was just about to go on his break.

Pheasants…

…are daft creatures, apt to stay hidden until you’re almost standing on them and then burst out in a flurry of wings and calls, leaving you every bit as flustered as they clearly are. But this hen pheasant was one of several I saw last Sunday which were apparently completely sanguine about my presence.

The meres (and paths) were partially frozen over still…

I wondered what had caused these strange undulations and gouges in the ice in front of the public hide…

There were lots of ducks in evidence. Mainly Shovelers, Teal and Pintails. Judging by the reactions of the proper birders who were about, the Pintails are the most exciting of these.

I walked around to Lower Hide. The path was pretty wet and the last bit was iced over and decidedly treacherous.

Teal on the ice.

The onward path from there was barred with a notice saying it was closed because it was flooded. I went past it anyway, as I am wont to do. But not very far. It was flooded. Oh….blast!

Time’s winged chariot was hurtling on, as it is wont to do, the sun was low in the sky…

…and my plan was thwarted. What to do?

I contemplated the possibilities as I wandered back to the visitor centre.

Stopping briefly again at the public hide for another gander. There were cygnets…

And…a willow?…catching the lovely light.

And Black-headed gulls briefly launching into the air before making shallow dives into the water. I wonder what they were after?

I’d heard several people discussing the Starling murmuration, and since, slightly ridiculously, its several years since I’ve been at the Moss to witness that, one possibility was to wait to watch that. It seemed to me that the other sensible option would be to head down towards Quaker’s Stang and Quicksand Pool to catch the sunset. I chose the latter. But that meant a stretch of road-walking and a need for speed to find a good vantage point before it was too late.

So, I was in the unusual position of being in a hurry on one of my walks. Which is what made me think of Speedy Gonzales and “¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba! ¡Epa! ¡Epa! ¡Epa! Yeehaw!”. (Well that and the fact that ‘An ¡Ándale! Walk’ follows on quite satisfyingly from ‘An Underley Walk’.)