OK, yes I've been a bit absent the last couple of weeks, and with genuine reasons. Normally I pop on on a Wednesday afternoon after my weekly hospital visit, but with the current climate, I'm at work until the hospital appointments resume, and, working has been variable days and times, which means fitting in shopping and other tasks around my work hours, oh and not forgetting the HS2 road closures, narrow lanes etc as they ramp up their work!
So, I'm well, and I hope you're all well?
Any gossip, please tag it here.....
My local reserve I understand has been overwhelmed with visitors, so I've kept away, because in places, social distancing is not practicable. That's nature, not a fault of the reserve, making some paths very narrow. Long term, it doesn't look like things will get much better quickly, especially as a nearby town is experiencing uncontrolled Covid-19 cases, but not deaths, and if Leicester is anything to go by, if a localised lockdown does occur, then i will be impacted.
Lets hope not.
I've not been too busy with the camera, but here's a few, and some interesting rare visitors included....
A large white butterfly enjoying one of the new lavender plants
A peach of a sunrise....
The next two sunrise pics were taken about two mins apart.
A hiding pond lily
And a blooming nice lily
The newly planted erysimum and lavender plants are filling out nicely,
And the big surprise visitors, long tailed tits, of which at one point, we had at least ten on one feeder!
This pic below, there were two just out of the the image, which I didn't see til afterwards.
One cutely waiting its turn...
This one gave up waiting and found another feeder...
And once the feeding frenzy had died off, this one came back....
Take care and stay safe and I'll hopefully catch up with more posts over the weekend.
STOP PRESS!
More LTT's this afternoon!
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
Unknown said:Good to see the garden birds doing well. Mind you, I can't believe Lollipops have mastered queueing let alone socially distanced queueing! They used to cram as many as possible on my feeder. They only queued when it was physically impossible to fit another one in there!!
I think the queuing was mastered from an early stage, when I had I think ten or twelve were trying to get on one feeder at a time.
A few more Furlough Fotos, though the weather hasn't been too providing, well, more like, I don't want to get my camera and lenses wet, but nature has been out and just as busy, cos they have to feed to live.....
18th August
First, some sky shots, before the storm....
and now the storm starts rolling in....
a post storm photo (using Star6 filter), the sun is back out again
A robin checking all is clear before it goes to the feeders
A juvenile house sparrow also checking the coast is clear, before going to the feeders...
Though collared doves have been around for a very long time, generally, they're not observed in the garden, however, just lately, they've been quite regular visitors, and to the point of standing their ground against jealous wood pigeons....
As the wood pigeon approached the pair of collared doves, one turned around to face the WP, at which point the WP decided to fly away....
(Yes, it was raining, hence the white/grey streaks, at the time of the photo, which was taken from the kitchen.)
19th August
Sunrises have been a bit scarce of late, even scarcer are sunsets. This one looked like the clouds had burning embers....
More collared dove photos, this time without the rain.....
They even allowed me to get a little closer, once the wood pigeons had flown off......
but it wasn't long before they decided it might be wise to move to a better vantage point for a quick escape....
The next couple of days, the weather was just, well, yuk....
23rd August
Another sunrise and less cloud than there has been....
But it wasn't long before those dark clouds came rambling in!
I just managed to get in as the heavens opened, when a wood pigeon decided to settle on the grass and bathe!
The rain subsided for a short while, and it was time to feed the fish, well, it was overdue because of the weather....
Once the wind and rain has subsided, the garden took on an autumnal appearance.....
Nice photos Mike, the one with the night sky in red/orange is very nice against the dark sky.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
(Pardon the Scottish Accent)
__________
Nige Flickr
Lynn L said:Nice photos Mike, the one with the night sky in red/orange is very nice agains the dark sky.
Thank you CL.
We've not been very blessed recently with decent sunrises, or sunsets, so it's nice to get one every once in a while.
Linda257 said:Very nice pics Mike although am not really liking that Autumnal one....I need a little more summer first !!!
Thank you Linda.
The autumnal one isn't that unusual for the time of year. Very often we start to see autumn leaves early August, but not quite so many....
That said, the weather we've been enjoying [tongue-in-cheek] has been very Octoberish, with the winds and rain!
Unknown said:Some lovely skies and Doves/Pigeons. I don't think I've seen a WP or anything else bathe in wet grass before
Nor me with the WP, but then our woopies are a bit, well, strange!
As I type this, it looks like I could be back at work next week, I'm just awaiting the final confirmation. Some normality is to be resumed, but sadly, not at many of the open spaces, they dwindling number we have locally, and likewise many of the reserves.
A few more photos since the last lot.
An early morning snail making good headway
A pretty decent sunrise for a change on the morning of the 24th...
and that autumnal feel is definitely getting a grapple-hold here....
The large whites are pretty on the erysimum, and I've been getting up close and not quite personal with them....
up-close and not quite personal....
the one that tried to get away, and got photobombed!
A variety of hoverflies and bees were also busy on the erysimum...
pond life, one of the many water snails...
the lily's are still looking fine
_________________________________________________________________________
Regards, Hazel