These are a few of my favourite things.
My binoculars were out this morning:
Coffee and cake were provided by Sian Moss of the Wren Cafe at Kingfisher Bridge Nature Reserve, who makes the best of both in this area, without a doubt:
The reserve is just south of Ely. That's the Cathedral looking rather Monetesque in the background:
The birdwatching was brilliant. But I was also playing with the new camera bought to make the blogs - because we decided that an iPhone is good, but not good enough. I only have a fairly wide angle lens right now - because that is what vlogging requires, and I suspect its use for photography will be limited, but it had to be tried out:
The water buffalo on the reserve showed interest - but we were playing them jazz, which always brings them over. We've tried other music, but jazz always works best:
How the second one got his wonderfully coloured quiff I do not know.
As to the birding, the highlight was avocet checks - only the second clutch ever to hatch here. And alongside that, the wonderful garden warbler singing. They are the dullest of warblers, but the sound is the epitome of summer - like water tumbling down a brook.
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More please!
The reserve may become a recording venue for future videos
We might need more than one lens
Future videos on Nature Watching???
I vote “YES”!
On green issues, more like …. Nature watching might require another channel
My son is creating his own sites for this
Lovely pictures. Thanks.
Currently watching puffins on Fair Isle… but my pictures are crap.
Slightly jealous…
Enjoy yourself
Ah, is that Stingingless Nettle? Honestly, there is such a thing, a sub-species of Urtica dioica. Also known as Fen Nettle, and apparently there’s some at Wicken Fen. It has narrower leaves and doesn’t sting quite so much!
It is about a mile from Wicken, so quite possible. I will ask….
Richard, if you should ever (and I realy hope that you don’t) consider giving up economic/political blogging, we would become uneducated. If you gave up the nature blogs I, for one, would be distraught. These are beautiful.
I admit this whole new adventure making video is really reinvigorating my thinking about what this whole 18 year blogging project is all about – and I am really enjoying it. I have no plan to give either it or birding up. It seems like I have only just begun my retirement project.
My highlight today was a goldfinch perching high up on a telephone wire as I jogged past. Topped the robin that popped down for a look as I mowed the lawn. And the keening red kites overhead while I was reading in the garden afterwards.
You have succumbed to the charm of goldfinches.
The collective noun for them is a charm.