SUMMERTIME - and the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the Flowers are high
One of these mornin's
You're gonna rise up singin'
Then you'll spread your wing's
And you'll take to the sky.
Willow thanks for ALL your photos. Love the white cliffs, but my fav is the light boat. Is it stationary or does it patrol an area?
The choppy waves are fantastic.
Good afternoon all. June the light vessel is stationary and anchored. There used to be about 5 of these light vessels to warn shipping of these dangerous sands. I think the South vessel was wrecked in a storm and all aboard were lost except one survivor! There remains were never seen again. There was a crew of seven aboard but now are unmanned and replaced by bouys. This is the last light vessel not sure how they are lit now but possibly with solar panel!
You can go to the sands only for about an hour during spring tides. Very dangerous as the tide come in and the water bubbles up from below and claims you! They have played cricket on the sands occasionally! Many ships have been taken and countless lives. I can think of no better resting place :(
VERY interesting history!! These men are truly heroes. One reason I love lite houses.
They must have had to have the ability to get on with their fellow ship mates and in terribly rough conditions at times! The local people would take presents and Christmas goodies out to them at Christmas. They gave their lives to save others and that is the reason I have a very soft spot for the RNLI! (Royal Lifeboat) :)
I have to say the seal and the light vessel were taken by OH!He had much better reach on his camera but I had a wider view!
Looks like there was a drammatid jump for S2 at Rutland today. Should very nearly be fledging also at the Lowes! I dread it as one step closer to migration :( That is what they are born and raised to do, so I try and see as much as possible while here!
AWOL last week.
Now to catch up on the osprey news that I have missed and although I do not see a thread on Breagha I understand from Alan that he is still at his stop over in France.
I am now starting to think he will not return to UK maybe thinking wrong but we will have to wait and see.
I do not think it is co-incidence that two of EJ followed tagged birds have not returned or may not return to UK as two year olds.
Rothes never survived to see what she would do as a three year old.
How many birds return as two year olds - How many make a partial northern migration as a two year old and return home as a three year old - How many settle in another country permanantly - I do not know just clips in Roys book that this happens.
Many are first sighted in UK as three year olds for the first time but this is not evidence that they did not return the previous year and were not sighted.
It looks if we will see a couple of maiden flights this week on the web cams at Loch of the Lowes and Mantoin Bay.
Keeping an eye on the weather to see when to go to LOTL.
Good afternoonall. Interesting your thoughts Keith on juveniles returning in 2 or 3 year. I think that Breagh will not return to the UK this year. As long as he stays safe! It looks as though he has found a nice spot with plenty of fishing! I believe this is the area he had a stop off on his first South bound migration.
Really happy that White 14 has retuned to Bassenthwaite. I thought he might stay in Norway or Sweden, so delighted hes returned home!
Will be great if he returnd the following year and finds a mate :)
Hi 58willow - Yes I thorougly enjoyed my trip around Chatham Dockyard - a very historic Royal Dockyard.
I too very pleased White 14 made it back to Bassenthwaite and am wondering does his touch into Southern Scotland count as another country visited. Hope he knows the way back to his wintering grounds hopefully not via Norway. I would like him to return to Ureca on the southern shores of Bioko Island. Nothing to bother him except maybe me looking for him next trip out.
Last week I was working in Whitby again with a working colleague who is a comitee member of the Lockwood Beck Fishing Club on N Yorkshire Moors. We visited Lockwood beck on Tuesday but he explained that only the ospreys come through in March/April then August/March - They have many pictures of ringed birds. However he said we get the occasional in the summer and went on to describe of the one that visited with an aerial last year. I went back on Thursday evening to meet another person who fishes the beck but is also a keen bird watcher who watched the osprey with the aerial over the beck and remembers it well as he said the "Twitchers" were there all week but the bird never came back. He said it was later in the season after the main migration of ospreys came through.
I am just wondering if this was Blue YD - I put this to the member and told him the story. He did say on the moorland where lockwood beck is were many grouse nesting at this time and there were buzzards about. Although illegal he explained the landowners shoot the buzzards which we are aware of and it was the general consensus maybe this osprey suffered the same fate as they would not know a buzzard from an osprey. I somehow feel the same and that osprey was Blue YD.
All we know is that Blue YD was never tracked again and it may well be the last account of someone seeing him.
I also visited Scaling Dam nearer to Whitby where they are trying to attract ospreys by placing nesting poles but i do not think looking at this area it will be a success as it is too open space although AlanP does report many sightings here during the migration windows.