An evening watching the sea from Meon Shore.
A Great black-backed gull on the beach.
By the sea.
Author: Andy Finnegan
Siege.
I try and get out in the environment not only is it physical exercise it is mental exercise. I always take a camera with me I never know what I will see on my trips out. A couple of times a week I go to the coast on Southampton Water. There were 3 Grey Heron fishing together at the Haven this morning. The 1st 5 pictures are of an adult bird the other pictures show young immature birds probably born last year.
The collective noun for Herons is a ‘siege‘,
Heron eat, lots of fish and eels, but also small birds such as ducklings, small mammals like voles and amphibians.
7 UP.
Not the well-known fizzy drink but the number of relatively newly hatched Mute Swan cygnets on Hatchet Pond in the New Forest.
I will say no more and let the photographs do the speaking – the only words I could find were ” just so cute.”
Trail camera.
Yesterday we collected our trail cameras placed at a Badger Sett in the New Forest. It was great to see several Cuckoos en route (see yesterday’s post).
Got a bit muddy in the process trying to get some photos of a small fungus.
In the UK and Ireland, it is known as the Bog Beacon,( in the USA it is commonly referred to as the Swamp Beacon.) This little fungus occurs only in very wet places and looks like a flower popping out of the water.
1st New Forest Pony foals of the year were also spotted during today’s walk.
The camera had some good Badger footage.
Cuckoo.
Wordless Wednesday.
The return of the terns.
Common Terns have returned to the Solent and Southampton Water in the past week – I always look forward to their arrival and their numbers are increasing daily as they reach our shores from Africa. My 1st pictures this year which I am very pleased with. I have until September to practise when they will again leave.
A Sunday Stroll.
A plant that favours the Water Meadow is The Milkmaid, a member of the mustard family it is also known as the lady’s smock or Cuckoo flower. The flowers; colour can vary from pale lilac to white. A food plant for the Orange-tip butterfly caterpillars – this female Orange-tip had found the Milkmaid flowers.
Today’s lucky spot was some Slow Worms. Mistaken by many for a snake Slow worms are legless lizards.
A female Blackbird.
More grebe pictures.
“Tree duck”.
What is odd about Mandarin ducks? They nest in trees often high above the water. Two drakes spotted today but no female ! not even up in the trees so they must be well camouflaged.
The Mallards on the pond were not amused!
Standing with giants.
Fort Nelson, near Portsmouth, is home to the Royal Armouries’ national artillery and historic cannon collection. The fort was built in the 1860s to protect against a potential invasion by the French, it was one of a ring of land and sea forts around the Naval base at Portsmouth. The invitation never came and the forts became known as “Palmerston’s Follies” after Prime Minster, Lord Henry Palmerston, who commissioned the forts.
I visited Fort Nelson today to see an art display “Standing with Giants” It is a tribute honouring those who lost their lives in the Falklands Conflict. The installation is silhouetted figures of the 258 who died in Falklands War in 1982.
Continued Reflections from my World. 