If the start of the month is anything to go by , it could be a busy month. I achieved a photographic milestone for me, as you will see below and the village celebrated the Queens Jubilee in style, plus as an added bonus it has been wonderful bright sunny weather , for a Bank Holiday that is a miracle.
2nd.
Had to go into Perth today unaccompanied and no shopping to do, but with my camera and to spend sometime in Rodney Gardens. Here is a small stream that is a flood relief channel for the River Tay and it contains a (under non flood conditions) about a foot of water flowing slowly along it’s short run before re-joining the main river. I have in the past spent most probably twelve or so hours trying to photograph the Kingfishers that frequent the water. The reason for this is that I have often seen Kingfishers from Cornwall to here and have either not had my camera with me , or they have been to fast to capture. Well today I managed it with a display on this particular section that went on for well over half an hour, in fact (according to a fellow photographer) for at least another hour after I left. A real milestone for me and gave me such pleasure to at last achieve it.
So below is a sequence of a few of the 150 shots I captured.
First catch your Minnow.
Then kill your pray.
Swallow it head first.
Sit still for a while and digest your catch.
Now move to a higher perch and have a wee sleep.
Then become alert and look for the next meal. I loved every second of this adventure and went home a very happy chappie.
Then in the evening was the lighting of the village beacon. Lit by harold Ingram, a person who does a lot for the village.
An extra long pole to reach the wood and it was away.
A good turnout by the village in such a wonderful setting.
Going well for all to see.
3rd.
Up early and was at Loch Dunmore with my rods and lines in the water by five in the morning, after a very cold night (went down to three C.) . So as you can see the drift of mist was on the water, a fellow club member had fished all night and had only had one Tench and he was complaining about the coldness, so I didn’t hold out much hope. So that is my excuse for not catching a single fish in the next five hours, but as I packed up the sun came out and it was beautiful , so I expect the fishing improved the minute I left..
4th.
Set the moth trap up overnight and it must have been another cold night as I only had two moths in the trap, both the same White Ermine Moths, here below is a shot of one of them.
8th.
This afternoon the sheep were very close to the house and as they have just returned after their winter away, so I thought I ought to get a shot of them to celebrate the fact they will be with us all summer. Went indoors , got my camera and on my return they had decided to turn round and go away from me, so glad I had one poser amongst the flock . On the second wide angle shot you can see the size of the flock and how they were still moving away from me, the majority in one long line as though they were going into battle.
10th.
Last month we had to have three evergreens in the garden cut down, we would have prefered to have kept them but we had a bit of a tree surgeon cowboy come about three years ago to just trim the tops out as they were to near the house to be that tall. He made such a bad job of it (while we were away) that they ended up looking like totem poles and were (due to how he cut them) starting to rot . We had a proper surgeon come and cut them down and leave them in lengths that I could cut up with my own chainsaw, then split for logs. This has taken me some time and I am now on the home straight with just a few roundels to split. This wood will need to dry out and will not be used for a couple of years so I have had to stack and store the logs where ever possible. Below is a sequence of events, and eventually I will show you the completed storage.
Just a small collection of the trunks as left for me to cut up.
My storage collection so far, I must admit the first shot my storage is not exactly neat, but my excuse is the corrugated store is on a slope and stacking has ended up falling down in the past so now I just throw the logs in and keep them in with the wire fence. The next woodstore is much neater and that stack goes back four rows deep and to show the depth I have included the shot of outside and the stacks come to about the fourth upright panel on the right.
This is my last remaining wood to split and when completed I will show you the new storage area for the logs.
11th.
That is all my wood split and stored, had to take over part of next years compost bin to store it. Just got to cover this up to keep it dry and then clear up the sawdust from chain sawing, (see below) though I have swept up most days got to clear the area from that last batch of wood and I am finished. The saw dust does not go to waste SWMBO puts it on the earth paths around the garden and it suppresses the weeds.
The device fitted on that stump is a manual log splitter that one of my sons gave me as a present many years ago and is worth its (very heavy) weight in gold.
14th.
On our house I am aware of at least 3 House Sparrow nest’s all with babes and noisy parents giving off warning calls every time you go past the nests. The first two shots are of the parents of the House martin artificial nest that they take over every year before the Martins arrive, though I must admit any sign of House Martins around the house are fairly rare this year. The first Sparrow is the Male with the darker head and the second is the female.
The last photo is not a friend of ours at present. Because every year at this time this juvenile Crow, parents and many more beside like robbing our feeders, that is not to bad, but, they start at FOUR THIRTY in the morning, waking us up with their constant calling. It has got so bad this year I have to go out every night (raining or not) about ten thirty as it is getting dark and all other birds have stopped feeding and cover the feeders up.
Even so when any bird poses so beautifully for me I have to take that shot .It was sat on our single track road bridge parapet and even when a car went past it it did not move but as I approached to get that little bit closer for a shot, it was off. Must have been taught by the parents, “stay away from him, he will frighten you off”.