Unusual for this month as by now we have normally had snow on the peaks of the Munro’s, so far nothing, but the weather is very unusual for November. The first and second day are prime examples as I will now show you.
1st.
Starting at the top of this sequence, when I drew back the curtains this morning it was daylight because the clocks had gone back, so the birds were already active. The first thing I saw and heard was this male Chaffinch singing his heart out trying to attract a mate?? Then I looked at where the noisy Sparrows were on the garage roof. There were in fact seven Sparrows and they were fighting over their hotel nestbox sites, in fact one was even taking dry grass into one of the holes as though they were nest building??
We then had a morning in Dunkeld in temperatures up to twelve Centigrade, sun out gorgeous sunshine and I went off to Loch of Lowes to see if anything was about to photograph. Nothing more than a bunch of Mallard, but decided to show you the empty Osprey nest across the loch (centre of the shot) if you zoom in you will see the cctv camera that you can watch live all day and night when the Ospreys are here.
On the way home spotted this herd of Fallow Deer next to the road just enjoying the warmth and good grass.
2nd.
What a difference a day makes overnight the temperature went down to minus four and a crisp sunny morning, proper weather for this time of the year, but I expect it was a wake up call for the Sparrows and Chaffinch of the previous day, no sign of nest building today. The sun soon burnt the frost off, but it remained a cold day. As you can see even Mr Mole felt the chill.
9th.
The photographers curse, I heard this flock of Geese coming from my left to the right, grabbed my camera (which for once had the correct lens on) tracked them in a straight line for about one hundred yards, expecting them to head a further one hundred yards to Blair Walker pond. What did they do, turn their backs on me and head off to a distant field behind the trees on the left. Typical.
10th.
Today was that kind of day, sunshine and showers, sometimes delivering the two at once to enable me to get this great rainbow shot from our garden.
15th.
You drive the thirty miles into Perth for a morning’s shopping in misty cloudy conditions, a s soon as you get there, down comes the rain. The wife also has a haircut due, so you had planned a trip down by the river for a bit of photography looking for the Kingfisher. But the rain gets heavy and the wind gets up, so I sit in the car reading my book instead.
A thoroughly miserable morning with even heavier rain all the way up the A9 to home. But when you get out of the car the sight in the two shots above great you, our Pyracantha hedge and the Azaelea hanging onto their beautiful colours and the world is okay again, especially when you have unpacked the shopping and got the log burner roaring. Sorry about the rain spots on the lens but it was still pouring down (the things I do to provide you with photos)