A Water Rail in the Drain

 I've felt much better today, and with the weather good, hopes were high of a productive walk around the park and cemetery. I felt like I had wasted the weekend to be honest, and wanted to see something interesting, and burn a bit more energy.

Well, it was worth it! 15,000 steps, 10km and two hours!

Sconce Park wasn't very interesting, although the blossom is staggeringly beautiful. There were no peacocks on the blossom, and only a few honeybees working the higher flowers out of camera range. The birdsong was incredibly loud however, with the chaffinches really going for it, and two chiff chaffs singing in the park grounds. 

There's some very loud great tits around at the moment too!

After a circuit of the lake - a quiet time for birds there at the moment but the big carp were sunbathing in the lagoon, knowing that no anglers are allowed to do their angling there. 

The cycle path, bizarrely, was where the real good stuff was to be found. I'm saving some of that news for tomorrow, but down past London Road pond, in the drainage ditch, was where I was stunned to get my first ever sighting of a relative of the coot and moorhen.

I was walking along, and noticed a disturbance in the vegetation next to the water. It took a minute for my eyes to locate the source; then I saw the long red beak and dappled plumage of a water rail skulking about!

These aren't rare birds, and there are sightings at RSPB Langford Lowfields, but they are notoriously shy and secretive and so to see one next to a busy cycle path in the middle of town was just mindblowing. Apparently, one has been seen down there a few years ago, foraging among the discarded red bull cans.

So, all in all, a better day, and it has put me in a better frame of mind.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 22.03.21

Swan Family and Giant Fish

Out to the river today, with plenty to see on my two hour walk under a warm sun.

First up, where the rowing club were just starting to come back to life, there were two big carp basking in the River Devon under the bridge, a peaceful spot they would be shortly forced to vacate by a flotilla of skiffs and canoes.

I also spotted my first male orange tip butterfly in a while, very late in the season to see one of those fellows out and about. It's the end of the season, sadly, for this beautiful species.

Cottage lane nature reserve was full of damselflies, and I saw my first dragonfly of the year, a female broad bodied chaser I think. I also flushed a skylark up from next to one of the ponds.

Down by the river, no hirundines again, but a heron and an egret were having a squabble over fishing rights on the weir, with the heron getting rather testy with its smaller, but prettier, companion. A common tern was hunting along the power station reach, a swallow of the seas normally but you do get them around here as they have nesting grounds nearby.

Sweetest sight was a little further round back towards town. Cobb and Penn were out taking their new family of six cygnets for a peaceful swim along a mirror river.

They are pretty now, but when they grow up a bit, not so much!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 27.05.20

Blisters and Bruised Heels

Well, I've had two walks today for a total of about three hours outside, on a mild day with the sort of light refreshing rain I actually rather like.

I can't run at the moment due to this heel pain I've got at the moment, perhaps plantar fascitis. I thought I'd be  ok to walk though, however, I'm now pretty sore and  just to add to the irritation I'm sporting a blister on my heel.

I'm really hoping my winter training is not going to be ruined by injury, as tendonitis ruined it last winter.

Oh yep, I've been bitten on the wrist by a gnat as well, I noticed them flying around my garden in the mizzley afternoon.

Today, I just took a few photographs of what I saw as I  walked around. Nothing spectacular.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 04.11.18

Running in the Second Spring

I've not done enough running this summer, thanks to cricket, so it was nice to be able to get out for 8km today, even if they were slow and stiff.

I went around the glittering Blue Lake, where the carp are getting even cheekier in the lagoon where you can't fish, basking so close to the water's edge you could lift them out. Most seem to be common carp, but there are some mirror carp in there too.

The recent and much needed wet weather appears to have brought on a bit of a second spring - along the cycling track there are a lot of wildflowers in bloom, of many species I can't identify although I can do the rather splendid clumps of toadflax that have appeared.

If it isn't actually toadflax, I'm now looking rather stupid.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 21.08.18

Invasion of the Megafish

Originally the plan was to get the bus to Southwell today and do some exploring round there.

When the driver told me it was going to cost me £6.50 at 9am this morning, I thought better of it. Were they expecting me to pay for spare parts or something?

It was also freezing in the wind first thing and I really didn't fancy it. I ended up wandering around the river and park, smelling the freshly flowering garlic mustard plants and having a warming cup of tea.

During my 7km run in the afternoon, I noticed that in this sort of compressed Spring we've had, the saxifrage and buttercups have now emerged...sadly, the final wave of spring flowerings.

Of rather more surprise was the goings on in the Balderton Blue Lake. It does get used for fishing along nearly all of its banks, and I never see anyone catch anything. It's all static rods and furrowed brows, but not actual, you know, getting fish out of the water.

I never see any fish either, swimming about.

However, there is a small area of the lake called "The Lagoon" in which fishing is banned and the water is populated by the tame ducks being fed by children - they are getting better and using less bread and more leaves and seeds.

The little girl today however was throwing bread in with great abandon. The ducks couldn't get a look in however, as in the one part of the lake they can't be touched, a shoal of about 20 very large common and mirror carp were gulping it down as fast as she could throw it in. They were actually  coming right up to the edge of the water.

The girl could probably have fed them by hand, as if they were koi.

I thought the fish were the smartest things I've met all day - and I've been to the library!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 26.04.18

Market Day

I have been out today, but it was so grey and dark I could barely see anything! I did my 20km on the bike on my Cotham-Thrope type route, and was pleased to see my first redwing and fieldfare of the year out on the Sustrans 64 pathway, but you could barely see them against the sky and so photography was pointless.

Likewise the peregrine - or perhaps more likely a sparrowhak - I came across sat on a telegraph pole on a farm.

I'm keeping my eyes open for whooper and bewick swans in the fields now, as they are being reported in the area, hiding in feeding flocks of mute swans. But I didn't see any today.

What I did see were a fair few of my fellow cyclists, enjoying the chill weather as I was.

So, in the event with no worthwhile shots taken today, I shall show you what a full market day in Newark looks like. The market is reputedly struggling, but it still has stalls 5 days out of 7. SAturday is the big one, and as you can see it is the premier spot to buy mutilated animal remains for your dogs, eggs, endless bloody vaping shit, bird feeders, hippyish clothes, and er, ladders.

I've never seen a ladder stall on any market before, and I had no conception that this was a thing. Some of the ladders were very tall, and confusingly you could buy strange rocking bird feeder platforms at the same stall.

I wasn't tempted.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 20.11.16