Weekend – including Sunday to Turnerwood

Some of my pics are possibly not very good ’cause they’re rather blurry. This is because of either the distance between me and the target or my hamhandedness and general incompetence. I smarten ‘em up a tad in the GIMP ^{[poor man's Photoshop]} only by slightly adjusting the colour.

Saturday 15th June

Pond → Town → Back.

First flower on the lily patch on the pond.

Small white butterfly on a rapeseed flower

A bee between visits to rapeseed

Bee at work on rapeseed

Gotta have a duckling or two

Rabbit next to the towpath

Pied wagtail on the towpath

Sparrow on a dead tree branch

Robin!

Sadly a dead mole on the path round the pond

Creepy crawly: a woodlouse.

Sunday 16th June

Weather almost ideal for walking. Only thing I took was my waterproof all wrapped up and tied to my waist. Walked up to Turnerwood, taking a diversion to Brancliffe from Duke’s bridge and back following the feeder.

Sparrow’s back view – pretty, innit?

Chiffchaff

 
 
 

Side trip from Doefield Dun to walk round via Shireoaks Miner’s Welfare Through an insectfull field of buttercups.
click to embiggen

Hoverfly on mother-die

Beastly bug on cow parsley.

Another beastly bug on cow parsley.

Tiny bee on buttercup.

Bee buttercup

Field of buttercups

This is a goldfinch at a distance

This time it’s a small white on a buttercup

All afternoon there were a couple of biplane among the Netherthorpe flights

Just a word about cow parsley: I always called it “mother-die” when I was a kid. The word being that if picked your mother would die. I still have never knowingly picked any, despite my mother being twenty plus years dead.

Bee on a …?

Yellowhammer near Brancliffe

Photographing swallows is dead dodgy They flit around so fast and unpredictably.

Swallows over Brancliffe barley

 
 
 
click to embiggen

Heron doin’ the buggerin’ off from the feeder

Heron stops on the way to buggerin’ off

Chaffinch on a windlass post

Quite old ducklings having a kip with Mum

Day old chicks.

Swallow – the wire’s in the way but a must show pic

And a final grebe on t’pond.

An idle week

This last week I have done virtually NOWT.

I was knackered and sciatic from the walk to Clumber and later not really in the best frame of mind. Weather’s been crap too!

Anyhow: some pics.

Saturday the eighth June

Birds around the pond and mallards on the canal

Still singing after all this time

Two views of the same pied wagtail in the rugby field

Getting blasé about these now: Chiffchaff

A damp tit swinging underneath some of last year’s haws.

A couple of mallard males having a scrap

Should just say that the grebe family are still on the pond but stay as far from land as they can – not good for handheld tele pics.

Sonntag der neunte Juni

Just round the pond.
Sparrows were hunting, bobbing about on the tops of a field of nettles.

Sparrow with nest stuff

Goldfinches are commoner than I thought

And I’ve no idea what this little beggar was. Only caught a momentary glimpse.

Identify this wee beast please.

Lundi le dixième Juin

Ladybird – only the second I’ve seen this year.

A bug

Coot ‘n’ kid

Martedì l’undici di Giugno

Goldfinch

Mum and kids on the canal

Perch

Rather beautiful black headed gull (should be called “chocolate headed”)

Small white

The cutest!

Grebe parent

El Miércoles el duodécimo de Junio

Didn’t set foot outside all bloody day.
Highlight was Squeak in my backpack.

Squeak

Quinta-feira, a décima terceira do mês de Junho

Bloody rain!
Got soaked
one pic:

Stripy headed grebe chick

Friday

Chaffinch over the canal

Liked this blackbird on its hawthorn

Blackbird taking tea home

Sparrow hunting

Sky over St Anne’s took my fancy

Fence again!

Spoke too soon yesterday. The Worksop yobboes have been round:
Approaching from the pond this meets your eye:

and over the bridge:

What do these idiots get out of it?

Fence!

Yesterday’s post included a picture of a broken piece of fence at Morse lock:

Fence: broken

It’s been mended! A couple of nails and it’s (almost) as good as new:

Mended fence

Dunno who fixed it, C&RT, Rugby club or third party, but well done!

June carries on

Wednesday 5th June

Round the pond and to town.

The pond is Godfrey’s Pond to locals but Sandhills Lake to the powers that be. It was known as Godfrey’s after the old owner who was the proprietor of a butcher’s shop nearby. Originally a sand quarry, it became a private fishing pond before being given to the council. There’s what appears to be the remains of a wharf on the canal bank nearby. I live about 50 feet from the south east end – although it’s round a corner out of sight.

Godfrey’s Pond

Although Worksop has a population of about 40,000, I don’t believe that I have ever seen more than four dozen folk here at any one time. This is cause for varied feelings: sadness that the folk of Worksop are so uninterested; and happiness that they aren’t cluttering it up and disturbing the wildlife.

Anyhow: some pics (If you want to, you can click on ‘em to embiggen ‘em).

Grass seeds

Bramble flower

Daddy Long Legs

Embryo apples

 

I thought of having a sweepstake on how long it took this smashing fence alongside Morse Lock to be smashed. It took longer than I’d thought.

Fence: broken

Chaffinch

Distant “Little Brown Job” (chiffchaff?)

 
 
 
 

Thursday sixth of June

Once again just the pond & town.

Resident robin

Crumpled bramble flower

There’s loads o’ ducklings about now

And here’s a mallard scooting along

Embryo cherry trees

Embryo ash trees

Friday seventh to Clumber

First pond and canal to town

A wet web

At Morse lock there’s a couple of long tailed tits on a thorn and here’s an annotated version.

Click to view.
Bigger version here.
 
 
 
 
Then the bus to “Wilko” and walk to Clumber.
(click to view map)

Most of the walk is wooded – there’s birdsong all around but seeing ‘em’s a whole other story. All the flying beasties I managed to snap are here:

Midge

The lime tree avenue is actually three avenues: the road is flanked by double rows of lime trees.

An outer avenue of limes

 
 
 
 
Rhododendrons are beginning to bloom. You can see why garden designers of the past were so keen on them.

 
 
 
 
The dead trees in the lake always attract my attention. Specially as summer nears the difference between the lush green growth and the stark grey-white …

Duck guarding a junction

click it
 
 
 
 

Lion bench as seen

and cleaned up a bit.

t first I thought these were daisies ,,,

Embryo beech tree

You can see why hawthorn are the rose family, can’t you?

 
 
 
 
Seems to be the time of year for yellow flowers
Crossing College Pines Golf course the broom continues the yellow theme. but there are one or two butterflies around.

Not sure which butterfly this is: family Nymphalidae though.

Peacock resting.

Broom flower

I was absolutely knackered by the time I got home. I’d taken too much in my backpack – fleece, showerproof, spare lenses, tablet, sarnies and drinks. The fleece, lenses & tablet are being left behind next time.

Flaming June

Decent weather sun and a slight breeze.

Oak before ash,
We’re in for a splash.
Ash before oak,
We’re due for a soak.
No idea which came first this year, I’ll try to take note for 2014.

Saturday First

Only round the pond and down to town and back.
 
 
 
 
Three of the grebe chicks. They’re training to fish now, diving under supervision from one parent or the other.
 
 
 
 

Seeds on a head of grass.
 
 
 
 

“Daddy long legs” crane fly on a nettle. Not sure what’s where on this insect.
 
 
 
 

Sunday Second

Pond, canal, Brancliffe, Lindrick, Thorpe Locks, home.
Two views of a long-tailed tit.
 
 
 
 

An (unsuccessfull) attempt to capture a swarm of midges over the canal.
 
 
 
 

CC Trust tripboat Seth Ellis turning in to Shireoaks Marina. She was up from the Hop Pole giving short trips from the Lock Keeper.
 
 
 
 

White (or is it gray?) horse doing a pretty good Stubbs impression.
 
 
 
 

Swallows at Brancliffe farm.
(Click to enlarge)

 
 
 
 

Chaffinch just inside Moses’ Seat wood.
 
 
 
 
The north side of the wood down to the river is floored with ramsons.
 
 
 
 

Brancliffe canal feeder passes under the small cliff at the edge of Moses’ seat.
 
 
 
 

Optimistic ash tree on a rock in Lindrick Dale quarry.
 
 
 
 

Cock pheasant doin’ the buggerin’ off.
 
 
 
 

Sparrow sized Little Brown Job, indeed it might even be a sparrow.
 
 
 
 

Back on the canal, the pound immediately below Thorpe Locks bridge was empty.
(Click to enlarge)

Interesting: the arch top to the towpath side paddle void.
 
 
 
 

As black as a tar barrel!
 
 
 
 

Chiffchaff(?)
 
 
 
 

Trip boat Seth Ellis again this time with St John’s church spire reflected.
 
 
 
 

Monday Third

Two days round t’pond and down to town is all.
On the pond daddy grebe taking fish to the bairns.
 
 
 
 

Female Orange tip butterfly. The females don’t have the orange tips that give them their name.

 
 
 
 
(Click to enlarge)

Tit hiding in the fork of a tree.
 
 
 
 

White duck doin’ the buggerin’ off. Wonder if they get any lift from the water like a GEV.
 
 
 
 

Tuesday fourth

Ears and one eye of a bunny rabbit hiding in a hedge bottom – about two feet away.
 
 
 
 

Sometimes planes fly quite low overhead. Here’s a French “Corsair Airline” plane heading north.
 
 
 
 

A raft of hawthorn blossom with a lone downy feather in Worksop winding hole.
 
 
 
 

Convergent flights.
 
 
 
 

Last two days of May

Thursday 30th

Walked up to the doc’s via canal, Stubbing Lane, Castle Hill.

Nothing worthy of comment really except …
… a goldfinch high up on a TV aerial and …
…who knew there was a “Queens Terrace” in Worksop?
 
 
 
 

Friday 31st

New lens arrived!
First pic out of back door:

 
 
 
And this is about as “macro” as it gets. (am I overdoing the fly pics?)
 
 
 

That log again.
 
 
 

A little moth.