I’m sure there are lots of things that could be better about this picture, but hey, it ain’t easy to capture wild red deer in England — there really aren’t very many of them, and they really don’t like people. This was my best attempt. I like the way the two bucks are clearly keeping an eye out for anyone who might be messin’ with their does, so to speak.
For all that it represents the time of the year’s decline into old age there is something fine about autumn. It permits us to see the ways the cycle of life keeps itself turning. Fungi come into their own, consuming what they can before the cold freezes things up entirely.
I have this image of the bee just diving in and troughing, like it’s the bee equivalent of some Roman orgy or similar. “Hah! Gimme nectar!”
Last full day in Tanzania, with the very long (35 hour) journey home starting just after lunch. Breakfast was provided for more than just the human guests of the Springlands Hotel in Moshi.
Did not see a huge amount of fauna on Kili, though with so many people around this is probably attributable to animals’ shyness rather than depopulation as such. There were flocks of big white-necked ravens, with impressive beaks, however, and also quite a few of these sparrow-like birds. This one was pictured in the Karanga valley, which we dropped into just before the end of walking on day 4, here at about 3,700m (12,140 feet).
Wouldn’t you like your hair to be that carefully coiffed on a daily basis — particularly if you lived rough in the centre of town. I am sure this is Hebden’s original Muscovy duck, as opposed to one of the additional group that arrived last year — compare it to this shot for example. Which puts it ahead of Tara the pub dog as the first animal to appear five times on the blog (and only four people, including myself, have appeared more often).
The pigeon/duck conflict is one of the great unseen wars. Where the river comes through the town, where waterfowl meets urban scavenger, the two species battle for the prime pickings from the humans. The pigeons sent an emissary to demand more territory, but the ducks, insistent that they were there first, just ain’t talking.
A metaphor for my own day working at home? As it took this mollusc ninety minutes to cross the doorstep this morning, perhaps.
For the second Thursday in a row I went off on a trip outside England and into another nation of the UK — this time Wales, its first appearance on the blog. I am visiting a colleague in Aberystwyth, a town with more books per head of population than anywhere in the world, apparently. Later in the day she took me to a place in the hills above the town, a centre devoted to maintaining the population of red kites (Milvus milvus), handsome birds of prey. The birds gather to be fed every day at 3pm. This was my best attempt at capturing the flock as they came down and feasted on the bounty, they all move damn quickly and I don’t have the equipment to freeze their movement in the way a pro would. But I like the one on the bottom left, caught looking at the camera.
I went all the way to London and back today for no immediately obvious reason thanks to someone cancelling a meeting at the last minute. Basically I did a 10-hour round trip to have lunch in the Parcel Yard at King’s Cross. So here’s none of that. Instead, let’s feature this blackbird who was looking suspiciously at me at Hebden Bridge station this morning.
Being 42 