Category Archives: Flora/Fauna

Dec 16 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Parakeet in Lamorbey Park, Sidcup

Monday 16th December 2013, 3.05pm (day 844)

Parakeet, 16/12/13

This blog has featured three photos taken in this park, each on one of my biannual trips to Rose Bruford College in Sidcup, one of the University of Manchester’s collaborative partners — the park and the college grounds are all basically the same place. I like Lamorbey Park, one of those ‘nice spots’ that the world still retains.  Among its interesting and attractive birdlife are a colony of parakeets, clearly escaped pets, and unconcerned by the imminent winter despite their tropical origins. I know this is another out-of-focus shot, but the light was so dull and grey today, and in the end I was happy enough with the exotic fauna to live with the picture’s technical defects.

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Dec 15 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Winter berries, Keighley Road

Sunday 15th December 2013, 2.20pm (day 843)

A fairly lazy but pleasant Sunday today. There are still things growing round here, occasionally in some profusion — which I guess is a good thing if you are the kind of creature (like a bird) who still needs to forage for their meals in mid-December. And no, I can’t remember what kinds of berries these are, I know I should know but there you go….

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Dec 07 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna, Hebden Bridge

The Muscovy duck finds a space for the night

Friday 6th December 2013, 7.05pm (day 834)

Muscovy duck, 6/12/13

This Muscovy duck now lives permanently by the canal in the centre of town, opposite the Railway pub. (The wood beneath it on this photo is the gate of the dry dock.) It has been here for nearly two years now, and this is its third appearance on the blog, making it the first animal to definitively appear on here three times (as many times as my mother-in-law, I note…). According to Avian Web, the species is native to South America but is spreading through North America. It is certainly not native to the UK, or even Europe. Either it got blown a long way from home or — more likely — it is an escaped pet. It seems to have found for itself an amenable spot to retire to, either way.

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Nov 11 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Courtyard tree, Ellen Wilkinson Building

Monday 11th November 2013, 12.35pm (day 809)

EW building courtyard, 11/11/13

The building where my office is located in Manchester (better than saying ‘where I work’… I work all over), is something of a concrete monstrosity, but it is wrapped around this nice courtyard with a highly concealed entrance, so no one ever goes there. But I have discovered it; it’s very nice, particularly at this time of year. I know it’s easy to overdo the ‘autumn leaves’ thing but it’s a good standby on days when there’s not much else to capture.

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Oct 30 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Cottage, Bowness-on-Windermere

Wednesday 30th October 2013, 9.55am (day 797)

Roses and ivy, 30/10/13

As photographed on the long uphill walk to Windermere station, as Joe & I returned from our break in the Lakes. I was back at work by the afternoon.

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Oct 27 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Fallen leaves

Saturday 26th October 2013, 11.55am (day 793)

Fallen leaves, 26/10/13

And the clocks are going back tonight. Guess that means it’s winter soon.

Also, a happy birthday to Clare, the wife — thirtysomething again today 🙂

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Oct 12 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna, Landscape

View of the Duddon estuary, from White Combe

Friday 11th October 2013, 11.50am (day 778)

Duddon estuary, 11/10/13

I have worked the last two Sundays and I’m working this coming Sunday too, so today I took the day off and made the most of a decent weather forecast. This is taken in the far south-west corner of the Lake District, looking southeast over the long estuary of the River Duddon, with the town of Barrow on the peninsula in the background. (More pictures from the day will be put on my other blog later.)

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Oct 09 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Fly agaric

Tuesday 8th October 2013, 3.35pm (day 775)

Fly Agaric, 8/10/13
Had a day’s work to do in London today, and walked through Trafalgar Square and Soho for the first time in years, but this was the winning picture today. Amanita muscaria – fly agaric – I haven’t seen one of these in years either. Sort-of poisonous, but people have been known to eat it anyway. No idea why. Taken in the grounds of Rose Bruford College in Sidcup.

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Sep 20 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Heroic plum tree

Friday 20th September 2013, 8.35am (day 757)

Plum tree, 20/9/13

Extraordinary harvest of fruit this year.  I swear we have had 14kg, or around 30lbs, of plums off this one tree in our garden this year. At one point a huge branch broke off it purely because of the weight of the fruit, and the branch you see here is being artificially propped up to ensure it does not share the same fate.

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Sep 19 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Nice weather for ducks

Thursday 19th September 2013, 10.20am (day 756)

Depressed duck, 19/9/13‘”Nice weather for ducks”, they said. “Come to sunny Yorkshire”, they said. Well, this sucks. And all my friends have buggered off to Spain this morning without me.’

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