Off to Cornwall

Friday 12th April 2013

Today we set off for a break in Cornwall for a change of scenery.  We had a good drive to our cottage which is on a small estuary about 3 miles from Padstow.  The highlight of todays journey was on the busy A35 near Dorchester.  On an embankment on the side of the road very close to the road itself were two red deer, a male and a female happily munching on a patch of lush green grass!  I was stunned, there were trees behind for them to rush into if they needed to but even so, how unusual.  A bit later on the local travel news cut in on the radio and one of the reports was of 5 deer 'on the loose' on the A35 where we had seen them.  

At our holiday home we have cows, calves and sheep on the other side of the estuary, as well as the usual selection of water birds.  A couple of swans floated by on the estuary and one hissed at me, hardly friendly I thought, what did I do to deserve that other than take a photo of them?

Little Petherick Creek (off the Camel Estuary) at high tide.

Eyeworth Pond, Fritham

Tuesday 9th April 2013

This afternoon, in the rain, we went to find a new geocache at Fritham in the New Forest.

An indian runner duck.

 

Eyeworth Pond is usually busy with lots of different ducks but I think they have been a bit overfed of late (as it is still the Easter school holidays) as there was bread floating around untouched and most of the ducks seemed to be the other side of the lake.  We did see a pair of mandarin ducks though and he did look very splendid.

We successfully found the cache we were looking for and close to it was this tree with some brilliant fungi on it.

A bit further on we spotted a nuthatch on the side of a tree.  In the car park at Eyeworth there are loads of small birds, they seem to be regularly fed by visitors -  there were large numbers of blue tits everywhere as well as great tits, robins, coal tits, a collared dove, blackbirds, chaffinches and sparrows.  It's well worth going armed with bird seed or suet balls, you make lots of friends!

Swanage

Monday 8th April 2013

On the way to visit family in Swanage we stopped off at Holmebridge on the River Frome near Wareham http://www.farsondigitalwatercams.com/live-webcams/south/Frome/Holmebridge/
where we had a short walk to find a geocache.  It is a very pleasant spot and one we often stop off at. 

Whilst there we saw a Buzzard being 'dive bombed' by crows or rooks, it soon got fed up with that and took to the skies. 

On the muddy banks there were some intriguing little footprints, I had a book with me to look them up but it didn't really help, to me they all look pretty similar, we thought perhaps they were water vole prints?

We spent a lazy afternoon chatting and not doing much so in the early evening after we said goodbye to the family we headed a mile down the road to the beach at Swanage.  The sun was trying to make an appearance but the wind was still icy and people were wandering around well rugged up in scarves, gloves and hats - good old British weather!

Looks inviting, feels freezing!

Nest Building

Saturday 6th April 2013

In spite of the weather, the garden birds have been nest building, some a while ago, others have been busy in the past day or two.  Today a male blackbird, that is often in our garden, for the first time this year lined up bits of fruit suet in his beak and flew off with it meaning that he is feeding babies.  The sparrows have been taking away moss and fluffy bits of feather from the garden and a jackdaw was fighting with quite a large bit of branch a couple of days ago that it did in the end take off with amazingly. 

Spring in Romsey?

Friday 5th April 2013

It seemed even colder than ever today, the wind seemed stonger and felt really icy.  Never mind we thought let's have a walk around Romsey again, hmmmm much too cold for that it turned out, especially if you're not dressed for the weather (not me, the lovely daughter who didn't realise it was cold out apparently despite the fact it's been arctic conditions for about 2 or 3 weeks!)  

We made it to Mill Lane in Romsey where we stopped briefly on a bridge over the River Test - a different bit to the bit we went to on Tuesday.

Then we walked back past Romsey Abbey and went home to warm  up!  Will Spring ever spring this year?

Romsey Memorial Park

Tuesday 2nd April 2013

Following a dental appointment this morning we took advantage of blue sky and sunshine to have a wander around Romsey and the Memorial Park.  It was still cold with a frost first thing but what a difference the sun makes. 

The ducks must have had a bumper feed over the Easter weekend as they weren't remotely interested in the bread that people were trying to entice them with today.  They obviously felt quite content to doze in the sunshine.

The river Test flows through the Memorial Park and at the moment the water level is really quite high.

Here and there in the park are drifts of crocus (is there a plural for more than one crocus?), I especially like the dark purple ones.

Itchen Navigation to Twyford

Easter Monday 1st April 2013

Today's walk was from Hockley near Winchester under the M3 and along the Itchen Navigation to Twyford.  The bridge under the M3 is where swallows nest but there is still no sign of them, mind you I don't blame them for staying somewhere warm, it was freezing out again today and the wind was evil.  There were a fair few people out and about this morning so we didn't see much wildlife but we did see a heron, a number of moorhens, a buzzard, and a kingfisher along with an unidentified little greenish bird along the waters edge.

We walked across a couple of fields to the River Itchen and on to Twyford Church where there was a brilliant display of primroses on a bank in the churchyard.

River Itchen



Walking back across the fields we passed this small stream and it made me feel even colder just looking at it.   I'm sure in the summer it looks very fresh and inviting - but not today!

Shortly after this we saw a kingfisher fly along the Itchen Navigation and land on a tree branch.  Unfortunately it had it's back to us so we only have a photo of it from behind.  It sat for a little while on the branch then flew down into the river and back up onto another branch - still with it's back to us - whether it caught a fish we don't know but it didn't appeat to have one in it's beak.  It was lovely to see such a bright blue bird on such a dull cold day.