Tuesday 30 September 2014

Battling Kingfishers

Kingfishers fighting, Alcedo atthis
On Sunday morning I joined my metal detecting club and found a few Georgian halfpennies, a pig ring, some buttons and a corroded square coin weight. Afterwards I visited Warnham Nature Reserve where I enjoyed watching a pair of Kingfishers, which engaged in aerial combat at one point. There were also Herons, Little Egrets and Great Crested Grebes.
coin weight 14.9mm, 3.41g
military button 26.4mm, 7.1g
pig ring 41.7mm, 10.1g
Brown Rat, Rattus norvegicus
Great Crested Grebe, Podiceps cristatus
Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea
Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea
Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea



Kingfishers fighting, Alcedo atthis





battling Kingfishers

Monday 29 September 2014

Sheffield’s Fat Cat, Western Park Museum and Winter Garden

During our recent trip north we visited some old favourites in Sheffield
Cathedral Church of St Marie
Cutlery sculpture in the Millennium Gallery
Norfolk Street
Winter Garden



Tudor Square
Tudor Square
Endcliffe Park
Ollie
Fly agaric
We have been visiting The Fat Cat since it opened as an independent pub in 1981. Their Kelham Island bitter is still superb. It is still one of our favourite places to enjoy lunch in the snug, which was the first no-smoking room in Sheffield. Their apple crumble is still excellent.


 Western Park Museum:


Woolly rhinoceros
Wildcat, Felis silvestris

Rats and a Kingfisher

Brown Rat, Rattus norvegicus
On Friday I visited the Brookfield Park lake and watched a couple of juvenile Brown Rats feeding and running around the bank. On Saturday during a visit to Arundel WWT I watched a Kingfisher from the Sand martin hide.
Brookfield Park:
Black-headed Gull, Chroicocephalus ridibundus 
Brown Rat, Rattus norvegicus






Wasp, Vespula species 

Arundel WWT:
Black-headed Gull, Chroicocephalus ridibundus
juvenile Black-headed Gull, Chroicocephalus ridibundus
bracket fungus
Common Darter, male, Sympetrum striolatum
Gadwall, Anas strepera
Herring Gull, Larus argentatus
Kingfisher, Alcedo atthis
Kingfisher hovering above the lake
Kingfisher emerges from a fishing trip


Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus
Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus
Mute Swan, Cygnus olor