Friday 14 November 2014

Part 1 of my Come Back to Blogland!

5 months! I can't believe it has been that long since I last posted and even that post was about my trip to Cornwall which was in March! I do have a partially finished post with more photos from Cornwall but I have decided to do a couple of posts with a few photos from each month since April. Perhaps I will actually post this one... If you are reading this then obviously I have!

April

Naughty stoat at Elmley Marshes - most likely looking for a little water vole critter - Just pop my head in..

...maybe look a bit further....

Woooops fell in!

It's okay everyone... I'm okay!

Cute wood mouse in Perry Woods 

Spring colours 

May

Beautiful colours in National Trust owned Emmett Gardens

Speckled yellow moth at Emmett Gardens

House martins building a new nest on our house... they went on to have 2 successful broods!

Green hairstreak butterfly!!!! At KWT reserve park gate down

Male banded demoiselle at Stodmarsh NNR

Side view of this spectacular male banded demoiselle

This one is for you Ragged Robin :) 

Stay tuned, you never know, I may even post again during next week. To anyone who reads my blog thanks for not giving up on me and welcome to any new readers! I miss having the time to read all your wonderful blogs!

Hopefully I will share some photos from my little backpacking trip around Southern Spain next time!

Thursday 12 June 2014

March photos and a bit of Cornwall - more behind than ever before!

I have been more absent from blogging than ever! Life just gets busier. This post has been a draft for a while so I just thought I'd quickly finish it off and publish it.


Hellebore flowering in our garden early March


My trainee adventures....

Rodent footprints





Very misty morning checking the mink traps - none caught

...followed by a very misty bird survey - not ideal weather conditions but it made us use our ears! Pretty dew drop teasel

Dewy/wet reeds


Sunny walk up at Victory Wood mid March


Very windy!

From 20th March to 25th March Mum and I went down to Cornwall and stayed in a lovely B&B surrounded by beautiful Cornish countryside! We arrived on Thursday and settled in and took a walk around Wadebridge. On Friday we went to the Eden Project - Fantastic!! The weather was okay and there weren't too many hoards of people. Below is a selection of my favourite photos from our day there.


The biomes





Lovely big bee sculpture! It is a great educational centre and I do hope that it continues to be successful!


Inside the rainforest biome - not too hot at this level...

Blooming hot at this level though!!



Tulips in the Mediterranean biome

Wild boar sculptures - made out of cork!

Robin with a taste for spice?!



Carpets of heather on our way out
That is all for now folks. I have so many photos I want to share with you all! I will have to try and write another soon, and I REALLY must catch up with you all!! I hope everyone is well and enjoying the glorious sunshine we've been having recently. I expect you are all enjoying springwatch this year - lots of fascinating things have been shown :)

Thanks to all of you who take a moment to read and comment :)

Thursday 27 March 2014

Shoresearch, Snowdrops and Sunsets

Back in February I persuaded my lovely Mum to come along with me to a Shoresearch event. These are monthly happenings run by the Marine team at Kent Wildlife Trust and aim to record the marine species that are found on the shoreline. Different species are likely to be found depending on the geology of the beach. We went along to the Shoresearch at Copt Point in Folkstone. The weather was gorgeous! Sunshine for the entire time! There was also a record number of people who turned up, with some Wildlife Guides from France joining us. It really was a fascinating few hours - seeing creatures I had never seen before. Find more info at Kent Wildlife Trust - Shoresearch

Fabulous blue skies at Copt Point

Masses of egg wrack (Ascophyllum) - this is one of the only sites where this species of seaweed grows on natural objects

Sugar Kelp - Laminaria saccharina

Dog Whelks - Nucella lapillus

Sea slug - Acanthodoris pilosa

Shore Crab/Common Littoral Crab - Carcinus maenas

Small Spotted Catshark eggcase - Scyliorhinus canicula

Me searching the shore!

Beadlet anemone - Actinia equina

In comparison to the creatures featured above, these more common garden birds may seem dull to many people. However if you watch these little birds I can almost guarantee that you will be surprised at how interesting and endearing they can be. They are the perfect species to observe behaviour of, simply because you can get relatively close to them without them worrying about your presence. I saw an opportunity and took it. The neighbours may have thought I was odd hiding behind the sheets hanging in the garden to dry. Little did they know I was stalking our regular house sparrows and blue tits and watching them devour the fat balls we put out.

Mr and Mrs spuggy having a bite to eat

Gorgeous little blue tit

March 1st is a special day for my family so my Mum, my Auntie and I visited a sweet little church in Challock (Website Here) where there were hundreds of snowdrops. The sun shone occasionally through fast moving clouds and in the sunlight the early daffodils were gleaming and the snowdrops were shimmering.







I'll finish off with some pretty sunset photos from a few weeks ago. I love the wavy patterns the clouds have made.



Licking the ground - odd dog with a right mucky face!



Another post in quick succession from the last one. Just had the odd 20 minutes over the last few days to add to it. Tomorrow afternoon I will set aside some time to read everyone else's blogs and see what you have all been up to! I hope all my readers are well :)