This Little Egret was taking advantage of the fish stranded by the recent flooding of the River Wharfe near Wetherby. A few years back these birds would have attracted a small crowd of ‘twitchers’, but they seem to be quite well established in the UK now.
—Stephen G. Hipperson—
Almost as bad as ‘I told you so!’ – but as predicted our moley house builders looked to have come a cropper in the lastest flooding of the local Ings. Judging by the height of the debris line, the water might have been as much as 6ft deep here overnight. I’m not sure the little blighters would necessarily have got drown, as I saw evidence of fresh disturbance from underneath on a few of the mounds.
—-Stephen G. Hipperson—
Looks as if the mole’s town planners are as good ours at the moment … see a bit of green and build a house on it. AND, in this case, they also seem to be ignoring the basic good sense of avoiding flood plains as this field regularly floods every year.
—Stephen G. Hipperson—
Making the best of a poor image technically, I couldn’t make my mind up whether I prefered colour or black and white so I made both. IS0 1600 is well over the top of my usual threshold for taking photos with my Canon 80D – but better that than no image! There is an argument for not bothering….. but it’s all part of the learning process – and I liked the sort of regal nature of these Goosanders.
—Stephen G. Hipperson
Caught these Mallard ducks as the sun was sinking – I thought the duck’s pose a little unusual, almost as if she was dancing.
—Stephen G. Hipperson—
Thick cloud here today. A couple of strangers visited our garden feeders today – a Blackcap and two female Chaffinches. Blackcaps tend to be summer migrants but during most winters we get to see a least one pass through. And Chaffinches, although by no means uncommon in the UK, rarely if ever visit our garden nowadays – must be several months since the last.
Male Blackap (puffed up against the cold).
Female Chaffinch
Starling
—Stephen G. Hipperson—
I’ve not posted for a fair time, life has a habit of getting in the way – so I thought I’d post a picture of a Blue Tit to kick things off again. Of course, WordPress have redesigned the editing software interface since I was last here – still, like life, technology is there to be overcome!
—Stephen G. Hipperson
Seen on Sao Miguel – a naturalised immigrant from the Madeiran Islands.
—Stephen—
The primary reason for our visit to the Azores was for the opportunity to see a whale – not dolphins, porpoises or the like, but a genuine whale. The first few days we were there the sea was too rough for the sightseeing boats to go out. A calmer day was forecast so we booked to go – with the chance to see a Sperm whale. Off we set in a double-decker boat. On the journey out they gave us a talk on what we might see – setting our expectations. A whale was spotted so we headed for it.
A Sperm whale has its blow hole on the front of its head which made the sight of it a little unexpected. We watched the whale for about 15 minutes as it hyperventilated before its next dive. The whale took a last breath and then upended, tail in the air, and disappeared below the surface.
Footnote: I little confession here – I was lucky to get any pictures at all, indeed it took a great deal of mental fortitude on my part. Just prior to us spotting the whale I had an attack of the landlubbers nightmare – fortunately the boat was equipped with an ample supply of ‘just the right size’ plastic bags. From what I saw, several others had similar problems. I was fine until the boat stopped and again when the boat resumed it’s forward motion back to port. I wasn’t swell in the swell!
—Stephen—
Myioborus miniatus – shame I didn’t get the end of the tail.
—Stephen—
Stephen G Hipperson 