You may gather from the photos I am posting for my walk this week which spans the two weeks of our holiday in Scotland in September, that we were staying on the coast – if the sunsets over the bay posted yesterday didn’t prove it, this seaweed will!
Category Archives: Nature
A Natural End to Summer
My walk this week took place at the end of September which this year means it was still a Summer walk as the temperatures were so unusually high. But we are now in the full sway of Autumn and I would be unlikely to see this red admiral butterfly or any of the other natural details of this walk in quite the same way, if at all, were I to return to Port Eynon now at the end of October.
Red Admiral
Autumnal Growth
Leaving one woodland and entering the next on my walk this week, I noted something of the variety of trees and their Autumnal growth. From red hawthorn berries to acorns, apples and brambles (blackberries). The brambles appeared early this year but it wasn’t too late to enjoy some of those I found on my walk in the woods at Stainton in north east England – the best were beautifully sweet and juicy!
Avian Profiles in Roath Park
Nearing the end of my walk this week and one of the eastern exits to Roath Park in Cardiff, I am struck by the classic pose set by this cormorant. There are many, many birds of many different species in Roath Park but determining the variety of any specific bird is somewhat of a challenge to me. So I think this is a cormorant and the other avian profile in the images below I think is a Yellow Legged Gull in its first year . . . but don’t quote me on it. The swans I know are swans but what variety of swan I could not say.
Not being able to identify many of the creatures, avian or otherwise, or much of the plant life I see around me in any given environment, does not reduce or hamper my enjoyment and appreciation of that environment, either natural or urban. The naming and labelling of things has its advantages when it comes to communication and understanding but for the purposes of StillWalks and my own personal enjoyment of my surroundings and the benefits I get from it, it is not necessary to name everything. Indeed, considering that StillWalks videos have no voiceovers (or music), it is not necessary to name anything! It is only in my blog posts that you will “hear my voice” so to speak.
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Reflecting
cormorant concentrating
Feeding Frenzy
Walking round Roath Park lake in Cardiff there were many opportunities to photograph the birds – trouble is they will insist on moving! Fast shutter speeds and quick reflexes will suffice but you still have to take a load of pulse shots to have any hope of freezing there sometimes frenzied motion – particularly when they are fighting over food.
More relaxed are the mothers and their their babies enjoying the natural environment in the centre of a busy city.
I think this is a Kittywake
Feeding Frenzy
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Feeding Frenzy
Kittywake
Early Autumn colour
Mothers in the park
Sitting Ducks
Literally – sitting ducks! But no danger to them I think. My walk this week around the lake in Roath Park, Cardiff was peaceful but not quiet. I wouldn’t describe either the lake or the park as overcrowded, but there was plenty of both human and wildlife enjoying the day there.
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Sitting ducks
Roath Lake – north end
green lake
fence
Natural Pattern and the Convenience of Stiles
Natural pattern can be seen all over the place, nature is full of it. The natural pattern for me, perhaps I should say rhythm, of a Taste of Gower walk is one of regular pauses followed by a rush to catch up with the group. My pauses are taken in order to do some photography and field recording but as a result, I inevitably need to catch up to the rest of the group. And that is why it is so convenient to have one or two stiles along the footpath route. The palaver of a group of people climbing over a stile or going through a kissing gate individually provides me with all the time I need to cover the ground between us.
Natural pattern
Bird and Gate
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Natural pattern
Ducks and People
Parks always have duck – yes? Parks with a pond do anyway. My walk this week around Brynmill Park in Swansea has not, until now, revealed either ducks or people other than aurally. So here is the visual proof . . . and a bit more sound to accompany it.
Ducks Washing
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