After yet another successful year on the Odds & Sods thread, initially started I think by Hazy, it might be wise to kickstart the 2023 thread off.
Thank you to those who have contributed to last years thread, and there has been very interesting odds and sods in "Odds & Sods 2022" that aren't enough to place into a dedicated thread, which you can look back on the following link:
https://community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/f/all-creatures/278729/odds-sods-2022/1417300?pifragment-4285=76#pifragment-4285=1
What better for me, and as yet, I've not ventured far, ewe know what I mean, with this lassie on Baddesley Clinton estate yesterday....
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
Cin J
Germain said:You might be amazed with how little soil a self seeded Holly needs to start ;) tenacious spiky little devils
I have holly growing among the granite stone edging around the pond, it has been there for about four years, and doing very well. The roots have probably finally reached soil.
Left to its own devices, and without mans destruction, nature can be very inventive when needs must....
I finally managed to get and download the garden trailcams, which surprisingly, didn't have as many videos as I'd expect.
The foxes seem now to be using the garden less, though the bird life is still as prolific.
Here, a couple of videos from one of the two trailcams:
A fox foraging for food in the garden
https://www.flickr.com/photos/peak-rambler/52608586620/in/album-72177720304884911/
A blackbird finding breakie among the leaves in the garden
Had a look at your classic car pictures on Flickr Mike. It takes me back to my youth. I had an MGB GT for a while in my 20's, which looked pretty cool, but was not very fast. So I got an MGB GT V8, which was pretty fast in it's day, but didn't handle very well - a huge steering wheel which was needed to park in small gaps as it had no power steering! I then had an RS 2000 at the time when 'The Professionals' was on television, which of course made it the business ...
Billysdad said:Had a look at your classic car pictures on Flickr Mike. It takes me back to my youth. I had an MGB GT for a while in my 20's, which looked pretty cool, but was not very fast. So I got an MGB GT V8, which was pretty fast in it's day, but didn't handle very well - a huge steering wheel which was needed to park in small gaps as it had no power steering! I then had an RS 2000 at the time when 'The Professionals' was on television, which of course made it the business ...
I've worked on a good few MGB's, and the Midgets, and I loved the throaty exhaust note the 1798cc engine produced.
The 3528cc V8 was some motor for a car of that size, though I never did like the thick Marley foam bumpers, that were only required for the US markets. As for the handling, that is because it was really a track design, rather than twist road design, if that makes sense.
I'll not go too far off topic, but just to say there are some more oldies (cars that is) about to be revealed.
It was actually sunny, this morning. Haven't seen much of the yellow orb in weeks. Nipped down to Manor Farm part of Eversley quarry restoration to see what progress has been made since New Year.
Not much wildlife about. Decided to turn stomp into BIF photography practice. Anything that flew was fair game to be BIFfed. These Carrion Crows put up a spirited display, having a little territorial tiff - starting roughly 75m from me, then moving to 100m+ Some photos cropped.
Cropping birds out
Two against one
Harassed crow makes a dive for the deck
Quite astonished my camera picked the fast moving birds out from background clutter. Still diving. Now about 90m from me.
The birds were now getting a bit far from me. Shortly after this next photo, they disappeared behind some trees to my left. I was hoping they would swing back toward me.
90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.
Similar to Angus, forecast was for a couple of hours sun this morning, followed by wind and rain (and yet another yellow weather warning for both) and the forecast was correct. Off today, so nipped out for a couple of hours
Distant, murky Barn Owl
Lovely Kestrel
Finally a couple of half decent Red Kite shots
And to end lovely Mrs K
Just to warn you, I'm off tomorrow and the forecast is rubbish, but I have a couple of pre-Chrimbo walkabouts to sort through!
Lot to learn
(Pardon the Scottish Accent)