Fungus in the Wild

... and yet More Owls!

Monday 16th January 2012

Again, a beautiful sunny day, so I decided to take another stroll across Papercourt Meadows, this time restricting it to the late afternoon. When I arrived there just before 3pm, two Short-Eared Owls were already searching and swooping at the far end of the field, and it wasn't long before they were joined by a Barn Owl.

A Barn Owl searches the meadows.

He sees something on the ground, and stoops!

False alarm! Continue the search.

At one point, a Short-eared Owl and the Barn Owl were both so intent on watching the ground that they came very close to colliding. They both took evasive action at the last moment, then had a little mid-air scrap before resuming their searches. During the incident, the Barn Owl nicked an electricity cable with his wing and started falling, but fortunately he quickly recovered.

A Short-Eared Owl and a Barn Owl come close to an accidental collision ...

... and there is a bit of a mid-air scrap before they resume their search patterns.

The Short-Eared Owls seem to keep low when searching.

There was a bit of a diversion when a Kestrel appeared, being chased by two Crows. The Kestrel is pretty agile in flight, and this one was making plenty of quick evasive turns, but the Crows are surprisingly agile too, and kept right on his tail. Eventually however, the Crows gave up and let the Kestrel be on his way.

The Kestrel swerves into a sudden dive, but the Crow stays right on his tail!

And finally, a couple of shots taken yesterday and sent to me by Dom (http://www.flickr.com/photos/domgreves/), in which he was unfortunate enough to get me almost in line with the owl. I appear to be photographing something further to the left.

Owls

Sunday, 15th January 2012

After yesterday's good luck finding a Little Owl, I decided this morning to follow up a report of Short Eared Owls on Papercourt Meadows, between Old Woking and Ripley. I parked at Old Woking, and headed across the water meadows towards Papercourt Lock on the Wey Navigation. What I didn't know at the time was that the Owls don't normally appear until after 3pm. But it was a pleasant sunny day, attractive countryside, plenty of other wildlife to see, and I continued beyond the lock to the Seven Stars at Ripley for lunch.

A pair of Stonechats on their favourite vantage point, a grass stalk.

A Kestrel sizes up a potential meal.

A male Stonechat

A female Stonechat.

A Deer, north of the river

A Cormorant passes by.

Just after 3.30pm, the Short Eared Owls arrived. Of course, they were at the opposite end of the meadow, so we made our way down to get a better view of their flying display.

One of the Short Eared Owls flies past during the display ...

... and turns his face towards us and smiles (?).

One of the Owls gives a harrying Crow a taste of its own medicine.

After a while the Owls moved back to where we had been originally, and as I could also see a Barn Owl there, I followed them. I got some good views but no more pictures.

Painshill and Thereabouts

Saturday, 14th January, 2012

I can't believe that my last post to this blog was over a year ago. I must have seen some wildlife since then! Anyway, here I am again with a report of a couple of visits to Painshill and the surrounding area.

Firstly, the Goosanders. In the past two winters at least, flocks of usually 8 to 10 Goosanders have visited Painshill Park in Surrey. Yesterday I saw some for the first time this year, but only three males. Today I was there again, and saw only one male. Better luck next time, perhaps.

Three male Goosander at Painahill, 13th Jan.

A male Goosander at Painshill, 14th Jan.

There were three Great Crested Grebes on the lake yesterday and today; a lone juvenile and a pair. Twice I saw the pair engaging in their little lovey-dovey greeting ritual. None of the serious stand-up-on-the-hind-legs dancing yet though.

Mr & Mrs G.C. Grebe exchange pleasantries after a short spell apart.

As always at Painshill, there were plenty of Herons in evidence.

A Heron waits by the Chinese bridge.

A Heron waits for his lunch to arrive.

After our circuit of Painshill, we went for a short walk down by the cemetary, where we spotted a Little Owl roosting in an Oak tree. I've not seen one of those before. (The owl that is, not the tree.)

A Little Owl dozes in an Oak tree.

The Little Owl watches intently as I edge a little closer.

Staines Moor

OCTOBER 2010

I needed to visit Staines market to buy a few items for use in the production of wine from my garden grapes. An ideal opportunity to kill two birds with one stone (inapproptiate metaphor) and visit Staines Moor. The first bird I saw was something of a surprise, as I had only previously seen them in the uplands of Scotland and Cumbria; a Wheatear.

The Crow is quite an attractive bird, in its own way.

A Sparrow-Hawk circled over me for a while. Just look at that big yellow eye!

Who can resist stopping to hear a Robin singing?

The next one can only be regarded as a record shot as it's not a very clear picture. It was only when I examined it at home that I realised the flock of small birds in the bushes were Redpolls.

The Cormorant is common enough, but they look so superior flying past that I can never resist a picture!

Cider Making

10th OCTOBER 2010

I was invited by Linda & Alan to join them in crushing and pressing apples for cider. There was also some mention of sampling last year's product, so off the Medstead I went!

The first stage of the process after collecting the apples was to chop them into manageable pieces for the crusher. This was a manual process involving large kitchen knives and a significant risk to the fingers.

The result was a crusher full of apples but not (we hope) fingers.

Next came some hard work for Alan, turning the crusher handle to crush the apples into a pulp. It was backbreaking work - and I was only watching!

The apple pulp was then transferred to the press, where every last drop of juice was squeezed out. The whole process was then repeated until we were worn out or there were no apples left.

Then came the best bit! Samples were imbibed of last year's wine and cider, and the apple juice we had just produced.

It had not escaped my notice that Linda & Alan's home in Medstead was close to the Mid-Hants Railway, which is operated with steam locomotives. So on my way to Medstead, in return for ten minutes spent by the lineside I was rewarded with the sight of a train in each direction, each hauled by a big black engine.

For the technically-minded, the first engine (two pictures) is a LMS 5MT 4-6-0, which was colloquially known to railwaymen as a "Black Five". The other engine is a British Railways 9F 2-10-0 heavy freight locomotive.

Hobby & Painshill

20th & 21st SEPTEMBER 2010

I mentioned earlier that I had regularly seen a family of Hobbies over our garden. Well, my luck got even better when the juvenile landed on the pine tree in full view of my camera, which was indoors but ready for use. It was dusk so the exposures were quite long, but the camera's shake reduction worked and gave me a couple of usable images.

I hadn't been to Painshill for a while, and was delighted to find that the three Great Crested Grebe chicks were still there, two with one parent and one with the other. My visit was rewarded with this beautiful sequence of a fish being fed to a chick.

And there were two Buzzards there, soaring above the lake.

Southwold

15th to 19th SEPTEMBER 2010

We had booked a cottage in Southwold for four nights, and on our way north we visited Orford Ness. It's a bleak but interesting location, accessible only by ferry from Orford village. The lighthouse is unmanned but still in use. However it is now only a few metres from the sea and getting closer every year, so one day it will disappear. There is no intention to replace it, and it seems that the light output from Southwold lighthouse is being increased to compensate.

There are a few manages reedbeds and scrapes on Orford Ness, and this one was home to the usual selection of waders.

The pier car park at Southwold is next to water-meadows and pools, which supported a variety of bird species. This Meadow Pipit was heading for the grass by the model boat pool, before 9am when there was no-one around.