The clocks went forward by one hour last night and we are now officially in British Summer Time. You would not know it though, as it is cold, wet and windy here today on Easter Sunday.
In fact, only two weeks ago we had snow and I had a very different view on my walk up to the University to practice my piano:
The canal was very pretty in the snow though:
We are still persistently chasing the otter, but it is getting to the start of the season for the leisure boaters to start turning up and so the Marina is becoming busy, which I think is discouraging it. The Kingfisher is also less commonly seen and again, I think we have missed the opportunity, as it has probably flown to its breeding ground now.
Last weekend, the weather was warm and Spring like, so a huge number of boats took the opportunity to have a trip out. This left the marina virually empty. I noticed on the exposed jetties that there were fish scales and remains on many of the the struts underneath the jetties. I then opened our duck hatch and saw the same under our jetty.
I decided to set the camera up underneath, pointing along the length of the jetty. I had done this before, with no luck, despite being sure that we had heard the otter splashing around on many occasions. This time we put it on the video setting and left it for a couple of weeks. We were very excited to find that it had been triggered on a number of occasions. Disappointingly this was largely by ducks. Then we looked at the following clip. Something, (maybe the otter), was looking very closely at the camera, but it soon revealed itself. A word of warning .... do not look at the video if you are of a nervous disposition!
I have been working in the UK on and off over the last few weeks and have had a concert and some recording work to prepare for, but we did manage to visit two of our favourite bird watching sites on my days off and I managed to get some good bird pictures:
I also managed to get quite a good picture of a goosander which was swimming around the boat. They are flightly wild ducks so I was very pleased
We were out walking the other day when I heard a rustling in the hedge. I just managed to capture this little fellow before he slunk away. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a complete shot of him:
This has been quite a long blog, but there has been a fair bit to report and I have been so busy with work and other projects that I have not had time to post.
I am travelling overseas again soon, but hope to post again a few times before I go.
Al :)
In fact, only two weeks ago we had snow and I had a very different view on my walk up to the University to practice my piano:
The canal was very pretty in the snow though:
We are still persistently chasing the otter, but it is getting to the start of the season for the leisure boaters to start turning up and so the Marina is becoming busy, which I think is discouraging it. The Kingfisher is also less commonly seen and again, I think we have missed the opportunity, as it has probably flown to its breeding ground now.
Last weekend, the weather was warm and Spring like, so a huge number of boats took the opportunity to have a trip out. This left the marina virually empty. I noticed on the exposed jetties that there were fish scales and remains on many of the the struts underneath the jetties. I then opened our duck hatch and saw the same under our jetty.
I decided to set the camera up underneath, pointing along the length of the jetty. I had done this before, with no luck, despite being sure that we had heard the otter splashing around on many occasions. This time we put it on the video setting and left it for a couple of weeks. We were very excited to find that it had been triggered on a number of occasions. Disappointingly this was largely by ducks. Then we looked at the following clip. Something, (maybe the otter), was looking very closely at the camera, but it soon revealed itself. A word of warning .... do not look at the video if you are of a nervous disposition!
I have been working in the UK on and off over the last few weeks and have had a concert and some recording work to prepare for, but we did manage to visit two of our favourite bird watching sites on my days off and I managed to get some good bird pictures:
 |
| A very colourful Bullfinch |
 |
| One of our favourite birds - the Wren |
 |
| Nuthatch |
I also managed to get quite a good picture of a goosander which was swimming around the boat. They are flightly wild ducks so I was very pleased
We were out walking the other day when I heard a rustling in the hedge. I just managed to capture this little fellow before he slunk away. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a complete shot of him:
This has been quite a long blog, but there has been a fair bit to report and I have been so busy with work and other projects that I have not had time to post.
I am travelling overseas again soon, but hope to post again a few times before I go.
Al :)
