December, the last month of the year and a last walk from my local forest. Not all photos are from the same walk as with approximately 150 walks there over the year, the selection of images used over the past two weeks have inevitable been taken from more than one walk in each month.
The RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch is coming up again at the end of January and the other day I did a dummy run whilst waiting for video to process.
Regular feeding – Having realised that feeding the birds a little regularly is better than a lot all at once, I started on a daily regime of a couple of fat balls and some nuts. I guess they are very pleased to have it there now that we have some proper winter weather.
Jackdaw
Robin
Starling
Blackbird
Blackbird
Sparrows
Recently we have had some unusually hot weather for the time of year and the other day I discovered this –
Aftermath of Wildfire on the Marshes
Not as dramatic as the fires in canberra in 2003 which my friend, Simon, who lives there, was telling me about a little while ago. He described the incredible speed at which the fires spread across the length of this hill which he can see from his house.
Canberra fires 2003
The photo sent to me can also be seen on Wikipedia along with much more info.
The land in Australia is at least “designed” by nature to cope with this kind of conflagration and I am sure that nature, being what it is, will allow the marshes to recover quickly as well. However, it is still a heart rending sight to see the damage that fire can cause.
Sunrise and Robins – Having taken some photos of the results of the marsh fires, I then caught the sun coming up and enjoyed immensely the sound of this Robin which would be part of Week 9’s Marsh Wood birds recording – more available on SoundCloud. More photos on Flickr, and Facebook.
Sunrise
At last – sunshine in amongst all the drizzle and mist in South Wales. It’s a couple of days ago now and, of course, we were straight back to the drizzle on Monday but the memory remains.
Saturday was at least dry and allowed me to get out to record week 5 of the birds down at the marsh woods. Listen to the clip below. This is a 2 minute clip but I could have sat and listened through the cans for a lot more than the 7 minutes of the full clip. Remember, if you’re reading this in an email, you’ll have to click the title above or the http link at the bottom to see the full blog entry with sound clips . . . or you could click the comment button.
And then in the woods the birds were arguing over territory again – or was it food? The two things guaranteed to make birds or humans argue. Listen below.
Marshes
This Robin's keeping an eye on me
Old railway track through the woods
Sunday AM
At last, a bright day. At least for today there would be no SAD. I took a walk down to the old St Teilo’s Churchyard and had to take my coat off in the warmth – I love this place and have done a StillWalks there, a Summer sample of which you can see here – Old Churchyard Walk. Here are a few pics from Sunday AM.
Marsh Grasses
St Teilo's Churchyard
St Teilo's Churchyard
River Loughor - Down on the Marshes
Sunday PM
With the sun still shining, a trip to Cardiff was called for to take Ellen back to Uni – she had come down to Swansea to go and see the National Dance Company of Wales (NDCWales) at the Taliesin Arts Centre with us. They were awesome 🙂 Anyway, not wanting to waste the sunshine, we had a walk in Roath Park and got a cuppa in the cafe there. We were reminded what a popular place it is . . . with birds and people alike. Whoops! How did I manage to miss both people and birds off these shots – I wouldn’t have thought it possible lol. The sound clips at the bottom prove they were there though.
Roath Park
Roath Park Crocuses
Roath Park
Remember, if you’re reading this in an email, you’ll have to click the title above or the http link below to see the full blog entry with sound clips . . . or you could click the comment button.
“Daily” doesn’t seem to be working out too bad at the moment when it comes to posts! Here is a clip from yesterday. Does anybody hate IKEA like I do?
IKEA car park
Next door to the IKEA car park
Another Cardiff multi storey car park
. . . and then here is a sound clip from today – a bit of a nicer tune from a Robin.