Landscapes

Friday 26th October 2018

A really nice day, so decided to get out and take a few landscapes for a change.

Caunsall, The Cley Bridge

Cookley Lock Meadow Used by the BBC

Captain's Pool sunrise

Hurcott Woods

Hurcott Woods

Spennells Valley

Hurcott Pool

Toadstool at Hurcott

kestrel and Hurcott

Very quiet over the fields today due mainly to a kestrel hunting, didn't see him take anything but he was very busy hovering all over the place.

I did get one picture of a robin before the kestrel arrived and that was it.

Lots of starlings and finches about early on along with a few long tailed tits.

There was a lone great crested grebe on Captains, a couple of swans flew in and flew out again a few minutes later.

Kestrel hovering, bit far away for a decent pic.

Robin after some food.

Robin defending it's territory

This two of Hurcott are from earlier in the week.

Trip to Stourbridge

Sunday 21st October

Brightish start to the day ad I drove up to Stourbridge for a look round the narrowboats at the Bonded warehouse, free entry so I thought why not!

Spent a pleasant hour there and took a few pics, nothing amazing though.

After lunch an hour up at the stump was in order, wow tee shirt weather it was so warm it was amazing.

The photos below speak for themselves, food on the stump again.

Red Kite in the area again

Saturday 20th October

Quiet over the fields, but the leaves are disappearing fast now which should make it easier to spot the birds.

Plenty of raptor activity, couple of kestrels hunting on a regular basis, one of my aims now is to capture one of these in flight.

Yesterday I spotted a red kite flying low over the fields,

Good news at the moment is that the fields are now going to have houses built on them, but we cannot be complacent, they have tried once and no doubt they will be trying again.

Couple recent photos below, a few mealworms in the moss certainly gets the robin's attention.

Good news is that these two images are going to be used in a book all about robins, but that's not happening till next year, am quite pleased about this.

Action getting a touch better

Wednesday 17th October

Well here we are just over halfway through October and after a fair few days of miserable weather we had a little sunshine, so this morning I managed a couple of hours over the fields, not overly busy but was okay, had visits from the Robin and Great Tit after the seed which I had sprinkled over the toadstool, but light not that clever due to shadows, but I'm not knocking it.
After an hour I retreated further away and lay in wait for the Jay, he did turn up but didn't stay long, there's a lot of natural food for them at the moment.
There were a lot of long tailed tits and starlings in evidence this morning and a few fly pasts from the Kestrel, also a flock of finches were up and down from the field to the hedge.

Magpies again

Saturday October 13th

Wet windy, well very windy to be precise, did brighten this afternoon so I popped up to the stump, but apart from a couple of magpies it was very quiet, went dark behind me so I made a hasty retreat.

I did hear this afternoon that a couple of foxes had been shot over the field near to Captain's Pool, I find this very upsetting, these creatures have as much right as we do to live here.

Birds in flight

Tuesday 9th October

Had an early morning walkabout, saw buzzards, kestrel, male bullfinch and many other birds which are local.

A walk near the edge of the nature reserve got me this image.

Fly Agaric

Just love the walk along the fields

Walking back home

The edge of Pirates Wood, love this spot in the summer as it gets alive with insects.

Lovely blue sky over Stone Pool.

Wednesday October 10th 2018

Had a walkabout early on and then after breakfast I went and set the tripod up near the stump, bit quiet though at this time of the year, hopefully get busier over the next few weeks.

Robin

Robin having breakfast

Robin posing

I love this one but it's not sharp, so will be doing my best to repeat it.

Great tit

Magpie

Jay

Jay with nuts

Although the above images show it was busy I can assure you it wasn't, mainly due to heavy activity from a kestrel hunting.

Thursday 11th October

18.20 tonight, camera was on tripod by front door as I was hoping weather may turn nice after the rain, a quick 1 minute walk up to Captains Pool to capture this sky.

Sunset time

Been very quiet on my recent walkabouts, apart from the usual suspects.

Perhaps it's time I started wandering around other places again for something different, the pic below is from a sunset on Hartlebury Common, 04.10.18

Was used on the BBC weather on the same evening.

Hartlebury Common

Friday October 5th

An hour or so at Upton Warren, light was poor so only stayed an hour, but will be returning.
Was nice to see the kingfisher though.

Sunday 8th October

Had an hour at Dudmaston Hall in the hope of finding some fungi, but wasn't much about, will give it a couple of weeks and return.