The big cat leaps into the sunrise of the urban jungle…. I walk past this sign every time I go to work in Manchester, and one nice thing about doing this blog is that I can see things anew; having never thought of taking a photograph of it before, it made itself rather attractive on this Monday morning.
A day spent working at home whilst a series of bands of rain hurled themselves past outside — although the sun is briefly shining on this shot, illuminating the coming year’s seed potatoes as they start to wake up. We were all cosy in the warmth inside, not looking forward much to going out, if truth be told.
It was indeed a day spent almost entirely at home — and on such days, it is always helpful when one of the local herons turns up and looks photogenic. This isn’t the same one as has appeared multiple times — the colouring is different. And I like it’s slightly misplaced feather right on its crown.
It’s a picture of some aesthetically pleasing trees, honestly. Well, there are enough footie pictures on this blog already, aren’t there?
A male and female blackbird harvest a rare bounty in winter: the crab apples (I guess) on the tree at the bottom of Keighley Road. Not easy to get sharp on a dull grey day with all those twigs to confuse the focus, but it’ll do.
Why head west? Why not south? Well, the valley runs east-west here so I guess they were trying to work out the best route. Anyway I think Canada geese (which these are — Branta canadensis) live in the UK year-round these days, so maybe they were just commuting up-valley to Todmorden.
Back into Manchester for work-related reasons for the first time since 18th December. The Christmas holidays are over for us all. These pigeons ponder the possibility of a dip in the fountains of Piccadilly Gardens, but understandably refuse — it was a chilly day, winter has its bite back to some extent.
On how many otherwise boring and photograph-free days has a heron down on the river saved the blog post. Today was one of those days. Handsome beasts, always…. and damn, are they patient.
A beautiful, sunny day today, a welcome change from the grey crud we have otherwise had for some weeks (it feels like that anyway). To distract from the prevalent Christmas theme, here’s a curlew walking on the sands at high tide. I like this shot not only for the bird itself but the strange bubbles all around it, probably caused by some kind of marine life only infrequently covered by water; most of the time this bit of the world will be sand.
This could be the first confirmed death of an organism to be documented on the blog: unlike this bumblebee, the wasp didn’t get away. Paralysed, wrapped in unbreakable bonds and dragged away to some dark corner where its captor will slowly suck its juices out over the next couple of days. I hope your ending is not as harsh as that. Nor mine, come to that.
