Beach bits and bobs

It's the 1st October and this afternoon I spent a very pleasant couple of hours down on our little strand out here in West Cork. It was just like summer, what with temperatures being in the 20s (I really hope this settled spell will still be with us in the middle of the month when the guests arrive for my West Cork Photography Weekends!) I sat in the sunshine and listened to the gentle swoosh of the calm sea as it lapped onto the sandy low-tide strand. I watched as the stonechats and the little wren hopped along the scrubby back cliff and the assorted corvids flew back and forth to their spot on the old watch tower on the Head.

I just love the time to escape and soak up the beauty of this world at the furthest south west corner of Ireland, and it is just this which I want to share with those who will be coming along to these exclusive photography weekends in a couple of weeks time. As well as the special opportunity to go looking for the big guys on a whale watching trip (and I'm pleased to announce that the fin whales arrived back in the West Cork waters this morning!) there will also be the chance to take an extra special close look at the little things that can often be overlooked.

As well as the more recognisable beach bits and bobs, I will be actively encouraging the keen photographers to search out the unusual. Finding things they have never seen before, photographing them then coming back to look up what they have discovered. Even I never stop discovering new things. Today I came across these squishy amber balls - some full of liquid, others deflated and dessicated. All I had to do was photograph it, leave it undisturbed on the shore and then do the ID when I returned to my special little reference library. In this library collection I have a superb little book The RSPB Handbook of the Seashore by my great tweep friend, the marine and coastal ecologist, Maya Plass. In no time at all I had found the answer to my puzzle Colpomenia peregrina or the Oyster Thief (also known as the sea potato)

So not only will there be much learning of photography techniques, there will be widening of knowledge of the natural world too. Oh, and spotting slightly more common things such as these crystal-clear common jellyfish Aurelia aurita.

If this appeals to you, then you are in luck as there are still two places available in a twin/double room on the weekend of the 25th October

However, have no fear if getting down and sandy is not completely your idea of spending a weekend with your camera, this is just a small part of the whole scheme of this taster weekend. Landscapes or people and place more your scene? They all will have their turn!

National Nest Box Week

With a brief respite from the appalling weather this weekend, many of us managed to get back out into our soggy gardens, albeit for just a few pleasant hours. Prompted by a friend who mentioned he had cleaned out the nest boxes in his garden, it reminded me I really ought to get around to re-installing a special nest box which had been sitting on a shelf for the past five years. It had been brought from a relatives home when they moved as it was too special to leave behind. I may have mentioned this box before as it is no ordinary nest box. This is a box with a birds-eye view - well, sort of. This box has an internal camera fitted and so any bird taking up residence isn't allowed to be camera-shy.

It was possibly the logistics of the cable run which delayed the setting up of this potentially absorbing piece of kit. However, after five years of thinking about it, the route indoors has become quite obvious and with just enough cable to spare, the connectors are now ready to be plugged into a monitor, situated in the warmth of the house. With a few minor adjustments to the set up, we should be up and running to watch out for the first couple to take up residence - hopefully very soon.

I have written about this today as we are currently in the middle of National Bird Box Week which began on Valentines Day, the day when it is traditionally said the birds start pairing. Certainly it is around now that the blue tits start investigating suitable nest sites and so I hope we may be able to follow a family of blue tits if they choose this as their new home. If these little beauties don't like what is on offer, then maybe another year we will open up the front of the box, which will be an invite to another garden favourite, the robin. It is surprising how birds can be quite choosy when it comes to setting up home. Just a couple of years ago, a blue tit decided to take up residence in this upturned water hopper - not a good move when rain can come straight in through the front door! Needless to say, the nest was abandoned before too long, probably helped along by a visit from the local feline patrol, who sadly are the usual avian bailiffs in our garden.

Whatever, if I do get any interest in this 'CBB' studio nest box I will be certain to keep you updated. In the meantime, it isn't too late for you to go and put up a nest box or two!

Winter Murmurings

For the first time in days, the afternoon had been sunny, and for the first time in weeks, that coincided with a time when I was able to shoot off to a local RSPB reserve at Fen Drayton Lakes a winter home to starlings.

Over the past few years, I have tried to get there whenever I can during the murmuration season, some years being more successful than others. So it was with reserve that I took to the road late this afternoon in the hope I might just catch this spectacle. As I drove, I feared I might just be too late, knowing that once the starlings are down for the night, they really are down. I was a little worried when I saw a small swirling mass already busy in the sky when I arrived at the lakes. Would I have time to get parked up and get my camera out before it would all be over?

To be fair, it is getting quite late in the season for the best of shows, and so to see anything would be a bonus.
Then way over in the distance, beyond the bank of trees, they were spotted. A huge swirling mass of starlings on the horizon and it was clear they weren't going to move in our direction and fly directly over us, as I have experienced there in the past.

No sooner had I trained my lens on them and - bam! They were down. That was it.

So, I was left with the beauty of the sunset. A feint single shaft of sunlight shooting up into the sky as the colours developed. Just so beautiful.

And, with a little patience there is usually an encore, and I wasn't disappointed. Around 15 minutes later, the sounds of the rooks and crows began to get louder and before long, the sky was full of the corvid homecomers. For around fifteen minutes, the sound of these birds masked the sound of the traffic rumbling along the nearby A14, as they all plummeted down and vanished into the darkness of the trees to the east of me.

And now I was just left with the beauty of the blue night sky as it blanketed the warmth of the sunset.

Stunning.

Snow = Birds

The snow may not be my favourite weather condition but the one benefit it does have is to bring the birds into the garden. (Pity they didn't turn up for the RSPB Big Garden Watch the other weekend!)

It is always a delight when the goldfinches come to visit. Have had twelve descend on the seedheads on one occasion but only four today, and unfortunately had to catch them this time, through the undesirable 'double glazing filter'.

Birdwatch Weekend

This weekend is the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, so naturally I thought I should enter into the spirit of things with some garden bird images.

I would love it if someone could explain to me why it is, after years of having to fill the nut feeder on a daily basis, the very same nut feeder now hangs full for months on end? This is an observation made over the last couple of years. Either there just aren't the birds around any more or there is an outside factor (feline perchance?) that declares this particular avian cafe as a no-go area.

Thankfully, due to my thoughtfulness (or rather, laziness) in not stripping out all the expired flowers in the Autumn, one bird species does return to our cafe on a regular basis. Goldfinches choose the slightly damp days to flock to the teasle and evening primrose seed heads, when extraction is clearly much easier. On occasions, there have been over a dozen at any one time and it makes for a spectacular display, with flashes of red and gold at this moving feast. Hence my choice of images. Not the usual portraits, which have a merit of their own, but instead, an abstract interpretation that highlights the busy habit with the grace and beauty of these colourful little garden visitors.