Kicking off this year's odds and sods with Starlings in a rainbow on that extreme rarity: sunshine.
It was early morning, with the sun barely cresting the tree line. We were able to get out for our morning walk as it wasn't raining. This photo is my trusty Canon 80D and Sigma 18-300mm lens zoomed in at 300mm.
Pulling back a bit.
And finally all the way back.
Oh, 2024 got off to a good start with this.
So far my cat, perhaps two neighbouring cats visiting our garden, a local fox and Tawny owl, and this trap have accounted for at least five of the beasties. Sightings of rats in our garden are getting rarer, so I think I'm winning. Two rather timid and wary rats, that I know of, are proving more elusive to catch. I've resorted to buying a lethal trap. The trap was triggered, yesterday, but no rat, sadly. Though a mouse might have triggered it, and was small enough to be within the kill bar.
90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.
Good to get so close to a skylark Angus, great story and landscape photos.
More superb photos Angus.
Mrs PR loved the pics of the pigs.
Hathersage is an interesting village, there is a nice cafe upstairs in the large outdoor shop in the main street, where often Edale MRT will meet for a cuppa and chat.
I may have mentioned this before, strangely enough I was talking to my nurse yesterday about folklore around that part of the Peaks.
Did you know Robin Hood and his band of characters have close links to Hathersage and the surrounding countryside?
Little John is supposed to be buried in St Mary's Church, further south near to Birchover, there is Robin Hood's Stride, a rock formation purportedly with links to RH, and another interesting spot, a small cave setup on Stanage Edge called Robin Hood's Cave.
I did a short video May 2013, which can be viewed on my Flickr pages HERE, using a GoPro2 of the cave and commanding view over the countryside.
Nice to see the pipit, as to tree or meadow, I'm not even going to try and guess, but nice to see nonetheless, along with the skylark and others.
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
Love the photos of the pigs. I always find them amusing for some reason ...
A bridge too far.
Our walk continued with crossing the Derwent river via stepping stones. We stood on the bank to assess the stones, the rate of water flow and its depth. We also watched a couple of young ladies attempt the crossing. One skipped across the stones, the other was much more nervous and needed a lot of cajoling to make it across.
The old girl was very dubious about crossing. She's had a couple of falls in the past, sustaining serious injuries. All due credit to her, she gave it a go, made it to the middle and refused to go any further. One of the stepping stones had been washed away, leaving a wide gap necessitating a leap to bridge it. The fast moving water was reasonably deep on the downstream side. The old girl decided, quite sensibly, it was a stepping stone (or in this case leaping stone) too far. Slipping into the river (very easy to do with pack pack and walking boots to throw your balance) could incur injury but would also curtail our walk. At best a squelchy walk back to our car, at worst a visit to A&E.
Plan B. We decided to walk along the Derwent, back to the bridge we crossed earlier, then through Hathersage to pick up the path on the opposite bank where the stepping stones would have taken us. A three mile detour, but hey, it was a lovely day, we were in no rush, and we get a pleasant river walk with, hopefully, lots of wildlife.
Sure enough, a photographic opportunity presented itself. A duck with ducklings, which I thought was a Mallard, was swimming in the river. It took off before I could photograph while it was stationary (as is the way), but I managed this hazy shot as it flew past us at speed. I realised it was not a Mallard, but didn't know what it was.
I then spotted another slightly further downstream.
Although clearly nervous, this one did did not take flight, allowing a couple of decent photos.
Later that evening, I visited the RSPB bird identification web pages to look this bird up. It's a female Mandarin duck! The duck also had young, which I mistook for Mallard ducklings.
A we traipsed along the Derwent we realised we were in Mandarin duck heaven. There were loads of them.
Along a 1 1/2 mile stretch of river we saw at least four Mandarin females with large broods, plus any number of drakes.
This female had 11 ducklings, of which nine are in this photo. The smallest brood we saw had four ducklings.
Solitary drake on opposite bank.
To paraphrase Bob Ross, Happy Accidents was our detour.
Happy accident indeed Angus :o) I've still to see wild drake Mandarin, and always a (jealous) pleasure to see other peoples! Thanks for sharing :o)
Good to see so many Mandarin Angus, I have only ever seen one male in the wild.
Couple from the garden yesterday
No mow May in evidence!
Youngsters
Great photos and story Angus. I have seen Mandarin Ducks in the wild, but nowhere near so many at once. Well done ...
I wish I knew about 'No Mow May' earlier! I've been mowing all day ...
My mower is still sitting in storage. I had a 'no mow' March and April. There were dandelions. Most dandelions self-pollinate, but they are still generous with pollen and nectar. They've given up flowering now.
My excuse of a lawn is currently producing lots of buttercup flowers. If I squint (very) hard, it is reminiscent of damp meadow/pasture of upper Swaledale. (But it doesn't quite scale to the same proportions.)
I'll probably have a no-mow June as well.