Today has been unusually hot. Lots of people sat out at the seafront pub. We got out for a walk along the front. Alice got out of her pram to walk the whole front.
The gulls lining up on the sea defences.
Alice had a good run.
In the park she had a good explore of the Autumn leaves. A lot of fun from the simple pleasure of throwing them. It’s the simple things in life.
Early start
Following on from badger adventures and beach walking Alice decided to wake up very early on Friday. So we got to see the sun rise over the bay.
Morning explore
Alice was restless in the house so we got out to see the streets quiet. This was a nice change from the usual mass of people struggling up and down the slope.
Seafront
Down at the front there was lots of life out. The gulls and wagtails exploring the seaweed.
Nap time
I returned Alice to the house and got out for another walk on my own. I was keen to try and get a bit closer to the oystercatchers. The oystercatchers were more plentiful this time with the tide going out and the rock pools to explore. These waders use their distinctive long beak to look for molluscs amongst the pools. They are rather striking and are probably the key bird I connect with the bay.
A few in flight.
The only one in clear focus didn’t have the angle on the beak sadly.
I did manage a bit closer than the day before though to get a better shot. It’s not a postcard perfect shot, but a bit closer than I could manage with Alice on my back.
While I didn’t manage a perfect oystercatcher photo the robins were out in groups, unusually for a bird known for its territorial behaviour. They kindly obliged for photos and serenaded as I walked back up the cliff path.
Cliff View
I walked a little way along the cliff edge along the Cleveland Walk to switch to the wide angle extension to try for a shot of the whole bay.
Not a bad use of an early start.
The second day at the bay we got out for a walk along the sea front with Alice’s aunt, uncle, cousin and granddad.
Max had an explore down the tunnel.
Alice had a brief walk on the sand. She didn’t like the water very much so ended up back in the howdah pretty quick.
Alice’s Uncle Rich and cousin Max explored rock pools finding a decent sized crab.
Pecking through the distant rock pools for molluscs we saw the oyster catchers.
And a few butterflies on the way back up the cliff.
Back at the house we had a sit down in the rather beautiful garden for a cuppa. Alice had a good explore.
Photo challenge
The photo challenge I’ve been taking part in had been focussing on flowers and petals this week. So I’ve been playing with aperture.
So here is the same flower at different apertures. This affects the background focus. Generally for flowers people aim to have the flower in focus, then the background in soft focus isolating the main subject of the flower.
1/6 sec. f/36 50 mm
This gives some focus to the background leaves, which here isn’t quite as nice as the soft focus.
1/200 sec. f/5.6 50 mm
1/200 sec. f/6.3 42 mm
The higher f-number giving a nicer shot in my opinion. The subject flower is shot showing the colours nicely with the background as a soft blur.
And a few other shots from the garden.
Alice has enjoyed having her cousin around.
This weekend my twitter feed was filled with the wonderful happenings at bird fair. However there was no bird fair for me, but still plenty of birding action.
While out for a walk with Alice I finally got close enough to photograph one of the pied wagtails that hop all along the grassland verges on the seafront.
The rooks were being equally obliging for photos. The seafront corvids are often a bit skittish, but they can’t have been feeling too threatened on Sunday as they were happy for us to get fairly close.
I was set for photographing the sparrows in the rose bushes when a large flash went past my face. I just managed to snap a photo of what I think is a sparrowhawk before it disappeared into the distance. While not a great photo, I was happy to have had good enough reflexes and getting the focus to manage a photo that showed what it was.
Along the seafront there was a cormorant perching out on one of the posts. While neither this or the sparrowhawk are amazing photos I was happy to capture them. I see sparrowhawks regularly, especially on the way to work, but haven’t managed to photograph one yet. The cormorants I see flying over head most days, but rarely see them settled down on the ground. Neither are going to win me bird photographer of the year but I’m still happy to have captured the images. The winners of bird photographer of the the year were announced this weekend at birdfair. Some stunning images, well worth a browse. There is a lovely looking book available. We’re cutting back our books to make space for Alice’s belongings, so I will just be enjoying the images online.
As well as the birds there was lots of activity from the insects. The small tortoiseshells seemed to be enjoying the dry grass cuttings.
A fantastic fuzzy caterpillar made a quick dash across the path.
I spotted some camomile for wildflower hour growing out of a crack in the pavement.
Alice got out for a walk along the grass, but insisted on carrying her Meg and Mog book with her. She’s become quite attached to this one recently.
So happy to of photographed a few birds I’ve not managed yet. I’ll carry on working on improving my photos. I may eventually manage a decent focussed shot from the front of one of the sparrowhawks, but it’s a start.
- Roads go ever ever on,
- Over rock and under tree,
- By caves where never sun has shone,
- By streams that never find the sea;
- Over snow by winter sown,
- And through the merry flowers of June,
- Over grass and over stone,
- And under mountains in the moon.
J.R.R Tolkein-The hobbit
Sunday saw Alice and myself escaping out the house to escape paint stripper fumes. Amy has been working hard stripping paint off the stair bannister. We’ve tried to avoid Alice being around it. We headed off along one of the footpaths through the new housing estate that brings us out into the countryside. The crops were being harvested today. A great amount of dust and wheat shreds were in the air.
The side of the path has a number of the largest buddleia bushes. The peacocks who were absent a few weeks ago are now swarming all over it.
From here we explored a bridleway I’ve not ventured down yet. It runs alongside one of the caravan parks and is quite well kept in comparison to other around.
A number of speckled woods departed as we came along.
The bridleway took us out back along the coastal edge. The path took us down past a boat club. Along the path are a number of objects diving crews have brought ashore.
We stopped the pram to let a ground beetle cross our path. It seemed to be in more of a rush than us.
The sun was out bright and the sea was looking spectacular.
Flamborough Cliffs looking good today.
We walked as far as the pram would safely go before returning back along the coast path back to town. On the way saw a distant rabbit hopping back into the hedges as it saw us.
Alice had a run around on the grass along the coast edge before heading for the park. She was in a very sociable mood today chasing other families shouting hiya and waving bye as people went past.
Alice discovered a stick. She’s starting to realise why this is one of the most popular toys of all time. She engaged in some mark making on the path, running and waving it around and bashing other sticks. An excellent toy available in a range of sizes and limited colours. She carried it most of the way home before dropping it as we got back to our street.
We fitted in a quick go on the swings before leaving the park. She’s becoming a bit of a thrill seeker enjoying going higher and higher.
As a teacher I get these long periods of time off for the Summer and it’s lovely being able to spend time like this with Alice. She’s really starting to develop rapidly now. Her understanding is improving daily and her desire to communicate and interact. She loves getting out and has started fetching her shoes and going to the door to show her preference. We’re lucky that we have so many wonderful places to explore around us. I hope everyone had as pleasant Sundays as me and Alice.
Today I’ve carried on with clearing the old compost heap, which was filled with more rubbish after the house was rented than compost material and I’ve had quite a few visitors to the garden.
Big Butterfly Count
It was the last day of the Butterfly Count today. Today I just counted from the garden. I counted three red admirals, one peacock, two small whites and a painted lady. I didn’t get a photo of the painted lady, but nice to see. I’ve spotted them in the local area but not in my garden. Not a great number, but a nice variety of butterflies. Hopefully this will of been a record breaking year for the count with many people logging sightings.
Mouse
While I’ve been levelling paving slabs for compost bins to sit on I’ve had this little mouse watching. I don’t know if I should be concerned that it has little fear of me. But it was good to see it nibbling some of the unwanted weeds.
Afternoon out
With the paving slabs laid ready for delivery of compost bin later in the week I headed out with Amy and Alice as lots was going on in Hornsea today.
Hornsea District Lions Club were celebrating 50 years with free entertainment in the Memorial Gardens. They had put on a Johnny Cash tribute, “Keep it Cash“. The main singer was pretty much spot on with the voice when singing. They did two solid sets of Cash classics. Alice enjoyed it swaying back and forth, dancing to lots of songs. With plenty of tunes with good rhythm she was happy. Who’d of thought Johnny Cash would make good family fun?
In between sets there was a Punch and Judy show for the kids, but we left for a walk as it was a bit above Alice’s head.
Rescue Day
Down at the sea front it was emergency rescue day. Many of the emergency services had representatives demonstrating their jobs. The rescue dogs were demonstrating their water searches when we arrives. It was good to see the divers showing how they rescue stranded marine animals. A nice little finish to Marine Week
Then we returned for some more Cash in the gardens. A good day, a garden job done, some wonderful wildlife visitors and a marvellous afternoon of music. What have you done with your Sunday Fun day?
Today and the next couple of days we are having our hallway plastered. So the house is a little bit topsy turvy. So with little space for Alice to go back and forth we headed out for a walk to prevent cabin fever.
I discovered a new picnic area has been put together with a display showing what wildlife we might see
The spot overlooks part of the mere.
At the moment we have a scarecrow trail around town. At this new picnic spot I discovered one, an actual scary-crow scarecrow.
From there we walked around to the mere’s edge. The mere is a large body of fresh water. It has an abundance of bird life. Within the habitats available it attracts wetland, farm and sea birds. Even on a grey rainy day like today I still saw more variety than many trips to nature reserves.
There were lots of Canadian Geese.
I saw a good number of ducks. Some mallards and some I don’t know.
The jackdaws were hopping in and out of the other birds. As discussed before I like corvids and particularly jackdaws. I know some people consider them evil looking, but I rather like the blue eyes and apparent intelligence.
Alice thought the ducks and geese were hilarious, but they didn’t seem as keen on her.
We saw a number of types of gull. Springwatch released an article last week pointing out that there is no such thing as a seagull. So with that in mind here are black headed gulls and a herring gull.
Within the thistles and cow parsley goldfinches and pied wagtails flitted about. The goldfinch was slightly rude refusing to turn so I could take a photo of its better side.
The thistles were still seeing quite a few visitors despite the colder weather.
After the mere, we walked along the seafront home where we saw the lesser spotted sea pigeons.
Before heading home I gave Alice a quick run around outside the Floral Hall.
The Floral Hall is a community run venture with a cafe and hall. They put on live music, club nights, theatre shows and cinema nights. The flower displays are always lovely. The bug hotel they built this year is looking good and with plenty of teasel around it should see some visitors. Teasel is high on the list of flowers I would like to get growing in the garden next year. It is loved by pollinators and the birds will eat the seed heads.
Not a bad way to fill time staying away from the plastering in the house.
