Tag Archives: bird

Dec 23 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Lunchtime spectator

Tuesday 22nd December 2020, 1.20pm (day 3,407)

Lunchtime spectator, 23/12/20

This little chap becomes the latest robin to prove that members of his species really don’t see the humans as things to be worried about. He kept a close eye on us as we (Clare, Joe and I) had our sandwiches, while undertaking another County Top walk. This took place nowhere near Hebden Bridge, nor do we intend to be there for a while. Draw your own conclusions.

This is also the latest in a notable run of pictures taken at 1:nn pm: six of the last seven. Times of pictures are never chosen, they just happen; it’s a kind of random number generator, though admittedly some times (daylight, namely) are more likely to appear than others. But a run of this consistency is unusual.

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Dec 11 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Hey good lookin’

Thursday 10th December 2020, 9.20am (day 3,395)

Swan, 10/12/20

Surely swans know how good looking they are? This is the Charlize Theron of the bird world. Look at the twinkle in its eye as it poses for the camera.

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Nov 28 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Gull portrait

Friday 27th November 2020, 11.05am (day 3,382)

Gull portrait, 27/11/20

The grey gloom of life is matched by the weather and none of these conditions make for optimal photography. This day last year I was having a very fine day out in Indonesia (and photographing butterflies 5,000 feet up); two years ago I’d just come back from Germany. No similar excursions look feasible for quite some time. The local birdlife will have to sustain me today. I do quite like the correspondence between its little red legs and the chimney pots in the background.

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Nov 05 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Maris the heron

Thursday 5th November 2020, 12.50pm (day 3,360)

Maris the heron, 5/11/20

Let us ignore the rest of the world and indulge in some Hebden heron-spotting. I have no idea how long these creatures live, but I would expect a few years at least would be normal for a bird that size, and so I think this is the same bird as pictured on 8/5/17. The particularly sharp neck markings are one clue, but to be honest, the main one is those slightly comical knock-knees. Both photos show this. This is not the rather more butch-looking, and generally bigger, one that I had christened Humph (see 25/5/16, 23/1/17 for example).

So this one needs a name of its own. And I’m going to call it “Maris Crane”. You’ve seen Frasier, right?

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Sep 26 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna, Urban scene

On Richmond Street, Manchester

Friday 25th September 2020, 1.55pm (day 3,319)

Rainbow and pigeon, 25/9/20

The working week ends as it started — with a bird photo-bombing the shot.  But I like it.

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Sep 21 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna, Hebden Bridge, Landscape

Hebden heron on a misty morning

Monday 21st September 2020, 7.55am (day 3,315)

Heron over Hebden, 21/9/20

The view from my house. The picture was of the mists, with the mobile phone mast on the other side of the valley just peeking through.  The heron (for that is what it is) flying over was an added bonus.

Get used to pictures from home. The whole moronic farce is kicking off again.  If you’re an easy target, expect to be put back under house arrest soon enough.

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Sep 15 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

The robin goes incognito

Monday 14th September 2020, 10.15am (day 3,308)

Incognito robin, 14/9/20

“You can’t see me. You only think you see me. Look, I’m camouflaged, and then there’s this strategically placed twig.”

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Jul 08 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

This is how I feel

Tuesday 7th July 2020, 3.50pm (day 3,239)

Wet jackdaw, 7/7/20

Well into our fourth month of paranoia and I (and this jackdaw) can’t be the only ones looking like this. I remain just about functional in a technical sense, but I’m just pointing my camera at things at the moment rather than being creative. There is so little to appeal about the world right now.

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May 20 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

The magpie exercises

Wednesday 20th May 2020, 9.00am (day 3,191)

One leg magpie, 20/5/20

“And stretch that right leg… hold it…. hold it…. feel those calves working!… and rest.”

A shame the bird’s body is a bit grainy but this was done on a very long zoom. And on a beautiful morning, as you can see. The blog’s third magpie, according to my over-detailed files.

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May 01 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Birdwatching, again

Thursday 30th April 2020, 10.45am (day 3,171)

Jackdaw, 30/4/20

So, there went April 2020, spent entirely under a form of house arrest for reasons that I am finding increasingly hard to understand — ostensibly to protect me from a disease that I may well have already had, but really because having dug ourselves into this hole, we now have no idea how to get back out of it. And I’m not just pointing the finger at the British government here. Six weeks ago everyone panicked, and it’s now, ‘OK, now what?’. A question to which no one seems to have a very plausible answer.

Meanwhile, as we look forward with no joy at all to what is very likely to be an equally dismal May, I have to point my camera out of the window and capture the small part of the world that is permitted me. Hello jackdaw. Enjoy your freedom.

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