Amazing Photography of Nature. It really demonstrates how we need to cherish and protect this magnificent array of wonder. Some tragic most just beautiful.
Encountering nature.
When I was a boy I was surrounded with nature. My life was caterpillars, lizards, slowworms, snakes, frogs, toads and newts. There were ponds, streams and grassland, forests, moors and lakes. But so much of that has gone. I used to lie back in a meadow, among a mass of flowers, and the insects would be buzzing all around.
Unfortunately, that is no longer the case.
There are hardly any insects now and consequently, everything else is harder to find.
This lockdown has been fantastic. Every day, for one hundred and six days, I have gone for a ten-kilometre walk in nature. It has given me a real rush of pleasure. Every day I seem to stumble across something wonderful – a duck with her brood of ducklings, a grass snake swimming the beck, a barn owl swooping overhead, a kestrel hovering in the air, a fox walking up the road towards me, a hare running up the path and nearly bumping into us, a pair of buzzards circling, a family of eight stoats flowing across the road in front of me, weevils, butterflies, rabbits, warblers, red kites, tits, finches and hedgehogs. It feels like nature is alive and was expanding back into the space we’d left vacant.
Today, as I walked up my hill, in the distance I could see some creatures moving on the road, but I could not make out what they were. I thought that it was probably crows with a bit of roadkill. As I slowly went forward I saw that it was two stoats with a dead rabbit. One ran off but the other was trying to drag the carcass along. When it was about five paces away from me it looked up and saw me. It darted, sinuously into the undergrowth on the verge.
I walked passed the dead rabbit and quietly stood ten paces away to watch. Sure enough, the stoat, not wanting to lose its kill, shot across the road. I waited another minute and could see its tiny face peeping out of the undergrowth. It came back out into the road, stood on its hind legs to look all around for danger. I stood still. It went over to the rabbit and began dragging it along. I was enthralled.
Nature is amazing. To get so close to the action was like being on safari. I love it. It filled me with joy (I’m still feeling it).
We so have to look after this planet of ours and protect the wonderful creatures we have!
Now that lockdown is over it is sadly in retreat again. No doubt we will chop more trees, fill more ponds, spray more fields and continue to kill off the little we have left.
Wild Flowers in the Yorkshire Sunshine – Photos!
As I was walking along this morning I was taking shots of the gorgeous wildflowers – there were dog-roses in the hedgerows and poppies in the fields and all manner of flowers in the fields and verges. Nature was putting on a display.
What performance!! Nature surpasses itself! And that is a rare honey bee!
Today’s Country Walk – Yorkshire in Summer – Photos
Today it was bright and sunny so I chose to do a longish walk of around 12 kilometres to Lowthorpe.
Out of the village
Down the back lane.
Off onto the track
All very overgrown since Spring. Lots of tall grass and hedgerow plants. All buzzing with flies, hoverflies, gnats and midges – food for birds and their young.
Along the back lane, it was the time for dog-rose in the hedgerows and poppies in the fields.
The trees were now fully clothed in their Summer finery.
This house looks grand with its exact dimensions and precision.
Swallows on the wires and butterflies on the flowers.
Into the village of Lowthorpe.
Back out along the lane back to Nafferton.
More butterflies; more trees.
Two chaffinches singing on the wires
And home again! Sorely in need of a cup of tea!! A great walk on a superb sunny day!
The Three Peaks in Yorkshire – extraordinary natural beauty – photos
The mountains of Whernside (736 m or 2,415 ft), Ingleborough (723 m or 2,372 ft) and Pen-y-ghent (694 m or 2,277 ft) are collectively known as the Three Peaks. We were blessed with bright sunshine which made it even nicer. Walking through such wonderful landscape is uplifting!
Poetry – Global Change
Global Change
The wettest February followed by the sunniest May
As the Indian Ocean fuels the jet stream.
We’re going too slowly, with feet of clay;
We’re moving as if in a dream.
The bleaching of the coral reef.
The clearance of the forest tree.
Defies the psychology of disbelief
As levels of carbon rise upon the breeze.
The rising of the oceans,
The changing patterns of weather
Should focus all our notions.
We need to act all together!
Opher – 5.6.2020
Photos from around Salle Australia – staying with friends
Photos from around Salle Australia – campfires and wildlife
My Photos of Australian animals pt. 2
This is all the wondrous life that is being destroyed by climate change, big business and corrupt politicians.
My Photos of Australian animals pt. 1
Being a zoologist who just loves animals having the opportunity to go to Australia was paradise. I was able to see a whole range of Australian animals before the politicians in cahoots with big business kills them all off.
I saw some spectacular wildlife. A big thank you to Pete and Trudy who made that possible. I’m forever in your debt!
