Category Archives: Flora/Fauna

Apr 29 2014
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

London squirrel

Monday 28th April 2014, 10.15am (day 977)

London squirrel, 28/4/14

Day trip to London today, for a meeting — left home at 6am and was coming into King’s Cross at 10. This chap was foraging in St George’s Gardens, a small public park set up by the Victorians on the site of an old cemetery, in what is now Bloomsbury (so we move from St George’s Square yesterday to St George’s Gardens). It was not as fearless as some of the squirrels in the more touristy parks, so needed a longish zoom to capture, but then again it did not seem particularly bothered by my presence either, which is one reason why these creatures do so well in London I guess.

 

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Apr 23 2014
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Bumblebee in big trouble

Wednesday 23rd April 2014, 9.35am (day 972)

Bumblebee and apider, 23/4/14

I know this is an essentially crap photo, with the focus all wrong, but it was a dramatic moment, at least at the micro-scale. I was trying to get a photo of this bumblebee as it buzzed around the plants by our front door, when suddenly it blundered into this web down by our old coal cellar, where the cave spiders live. Now I don’t know about you but if something one and a half times my size — and bumblebees, in insect terms, are not small — came leaping out at me with the intention of making me lunch, I think my life would flash before my eyes even if it was just an insect life. Three seconds later the bumblebee escaped, but I bet those were the longest three seconds it had ever known. I managed to get this one shot of the drama.

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Mar 16 2014
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Frog spawn

Sunday 16th March 2014, 2.10pm (day 934)

Frog spawn, 16/3/14

The mill pond upstream from us, from where the flash flood claim on July 9th 2012, has now mostly silted up, but there is still life in it.

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Mar 10 2014
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna, Transport

Waiting for the Manchester train

Monday 10th March 2014, 8.55am (day 928)

Waiting for train, 10/3/14

When awaiting the 8:56 morning service to Manchester, stand by the first station sign board beyond the edge of the canopy. That’s where the front coach stops and there are plenty of seats. Because it was a gloriously sunny morning, my spot was occupied by these guys today, but their cute dog caught great rim-light so I let them off.

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Mar 07 2014
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Baby broccoli

Friday 7th March 2014, 12.45pm (day 925)

Baby broccoli, 7/3/14

As growing on our window sill at home, getting itself established before we introduce it into the big, wide, adolescent world that lies outside.

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Feb 23 2014
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Golden Mantellas, Manchester Museum

Sunday 23rd February 2014, 11.30am (day 913)

Frogs in vivarium, 23/2/14

Had to go into Manchester today. Once the errand was done, Joe and I passed some time in the Manchester Museum, which is on the university campus but which I have managed never to properly explore in the 8 years I have worked there. It’s a good natural history and anthropological museum, in fact. These frogs are native to Madagascar and critically endangered in the wild. They’re toxic, though not extremely so.

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Feb 19 2014
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Cherry blossom (definitively)

Wednesday 19th February 2014, 11.50am (day 909)

Cherry blossom, 19/2/14

Now I said back in December that I thought I had seen very, very early blossom on the University of Manchester campus, but it turned out to be a winter flowering cherry. However, this, definitively, is traditional, spring cherry blossom in flower on 19th February; they are in the courtyard within my office building on the campus. Well, I said it’d been a very mild winter — unlike in North America where the Great Lakes are almost fully frozen, and very unlike last year here.

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Feb 13 2014
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Unexpected visitor

Thursday 13th February 2014, 10.00am (day 903)

Ladybird, 13/2/14

How on earth we get a ladybird in our house in February, I have no idea. Despite the mildness of the winter (and it has been very mild, with barely a frost yet), the only logical explanation is it’s been inside with us all winter. It was a bit sluggish, but alive.

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Feb 11 2014
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna, Hebden Bridge

The Hebden Water

Tuesday 11th February 2014, 4.05pm (day 901)

Hebden Water, 11/2/14

The Earth orbits the Sun with a tilt to its axis and every day of each year the light falls on us all in different ways. Today at 4pm was one of those points where it shines straight down the channel of the Hebden Water as it runs below the retaining wall of Keighley Road. Nice to be in the right place at the right time to see it.

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Jan 19 2014
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna, Hebden Bridge

The next allotment

Sunday 19th January 2014, 2.50pm (day 878)

Allotment, 19/1/14

Glorious afternoon today, with sunlight streaming onto the allotments in late afternoon. Our neighbours (garden-wise) are much more organised than us. The green netting is evidence of that alone, but look — they have poultry. Why don’t we have poultry?

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