The Forest

The Forest was shrinking, but the Trees kept voting for the Axe, because the Axe was clever and convinced the Trees that because his handle was made of wood, he was one of them.

Turkish Proverb

Red Kite, Picture of the Week 5 March 2014

Red kite photographed on 3 March 2014, soaring above a multi-storey car-park in High Wycombe, Berkshire.

Three hundred or more years ago red kites lived throughout Britain and Ireland and were a common sight even in cities. Shakespeare wrote of them as stealing underwear from clothes lines! Kites have diverse appetites, eating small birds, rodents, frogs, insects, earthworms and carrion. Where they scavenged on man made rubbish and carrion they were often welcomed as useful in cleaning the streets.

 

But one hundred years ago the picture was very different. Only a handful of red kites were left, in the West of Wales. Elsewhere they had been shot and poisoned out of existence, mainly by landowners, farmers and gamekeepers. Other birds of prey were treated with the same arrogant brutality, but most survived in larger numbers than the unfortunate kites. 

 

Today the kites are back. Once they were protected, the Welsh population began to expand. In England, Scotland and Northern Ireland they have been re-introduced in groups, sometimes using birds originating in Scandinavia. In England the reintroduced birds can be found in the Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire area, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Yorkshire, Gateshead, Northumberland and the Newcastle area and Grizedale Forest in Cumbria. The Scottish population is centred around the release sites in Dumfries and Galloway, Stirling-shire and west Perthshire, around Black Isle in Ross-shire, and on the outskirts of Aberdeen City.

 

All the re-introduced groups have formed breeding populations and the total number in the UK today is around 1,600 pairs, according to the RSPB, who keep a close eye on them. Still not a lot of birds, but where they live, they are quite visible and not afraid to fly over towns and cities. The first kite for 150 years was seen in London in 2006 - http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/shakespeares-red-kite-returns-to-london-after-an-absence-of-150-years-522771.html



The Oldest Olive Tree in the World

             - allegedly - but who cares? This ancient tree is a splendid example of the power of life!

The tree's trunk is completely hollow, it still has a full canopy of leaves and produces fruit every year.

"Olive tree of Vouves (Greek Ελιά Βουβών) is an olive tree in the village of Ano Vouves in the municipal unit of Kolymvari in Chania regional unit, Crete, Greece. It is probably one of the oldest olive trees in the world and still produces olives today. The use of tree ring analysis has proven the tree to be at least 2000 years old.^[1] On the other end of the scale, scientists from the University of Crete have estimated it to be 4,000 years old.^[2] " (from Wikipedia)

The photographs are mine, taken 13 April 2012 at Ano Vouves, Crete, Greece.

Rainbow, Picture of the Week for 17 August 2012

Sometimes you just have to take a photograph, words can't do the job.

Image with Mussels, Picture of the Week, 11 May



three types of image: reflection, imprint, photograph

Redpoll, Pictures of the Week for 29th February 2012

Male Redpoll in my garden, Grimescar Valley, Huddersfield, photograph taken this week. He is one of a group of six redpolls which seem to keep company with four siskins. He looks a bit like a linnet but I believe his small size and yellow beak confirms him as a redpoll.

lesser redpoll eating nyjer seed

The redpolls I see in my Pennines garden are very small birds, although my bird books describe redpolls as the same size as a goldfinch. My books are of course out of date, the newest is 18 years old. The native redpoll has been re-classified as the Lesser Redpoll, with visiting Common/Mealy Redpolls from Europe. These redpolls visiting my garden are certrainly smaller than the goldfinches, which often arrive at the same time. They all like the nyjer seeds in this feeder.

Redpolls are classed as finches but have a finer beak than classic finches such as the goldfinch.

This photograph shows a goldfinch on the washing line above the seed feeder, with female siskin on the left and female redpoll on the right. Male and female goldfinch have the same colouring, whilst with the siskin and redpoll the female has less bright colouration. The RSPB website implies that the Lesser Redpoll is an uncommon bird. I have once identified a mealy redpoll on the same feeder and it is noticeably larger than the Lesser redpolls. I feel quite priveledged to have these delightful little visitors to my garden.



I haven't altered or enhanced the colours in these photographs. Comments would be welcome, I am new to photographing and identifying these small birds. It's quite difficult, they live in different time to us, their lives and movements are very quick. I do also sometimes see wrens and goldcrest, haven't managed to photograph them, they lurk in the bushes and the conifers. 

The Twite is a Pennine bird I've never seen, they are rare. My friend, poet Char March, has been artist in residence at the Pennine Watershed Project, which led her to involvement with the Twite Recovery Project, to encourage this once widespread bird. The twite is slightly larger than the redpoll with a pinkish area on the lower back, no red on the head or chest.

Char's lovely book, The Cloud Appreciation Society's Day Out, was written after she found inspiration from both projects. It includes a poem called "The A - Z of Twite."  Her poems have in turn inspired me to put my redpolls into a poem, of sorts -

A Mature Garden

Missing

a Cacophony of kids

a Decapitation of frogs

a Nurturing of tadpoles

a Brazening of sausages

a Suckling of willows

an Ascension of Leylandii

a Cheerfulness of sparrows

a Murmuration of starlings

Extant

a Remembrance of rosemary

an Absence of skateboards

Tidings of magpies

an Arable of grass

a Sisterhood of cats

a Clambering of blackberries

an Eden of fruit trees

and blackbirds, bluetits, redpolls…

Norway Spruce - The Afterlife of a Christmas Tree

If, like me, you prefer a real to an artificial tree to celebrate the midwinter festival, you may agree that it seems environmentally destructive to buy a tree which has been killed for the purpose.

The advantage of buying a living tree is that you can afterwards plant it in your garden, if the garden is large enough. Otherwise plant it in a large tub or half barrel and it will live for a number of years and be avilable for re-use next christmas.

In my garden I have two trees which have been planted in the ground (there were three but one never really took root) and one in a large tub. Of course the tub idea isn't really suitable if the tree is a six or eight footer to start with! Mine has sat in its tub for ten years and is still alive, if rather stunted. I feel a bit sorry for it, but we've planted a number of fruit trees and the garden now has no space for another conifer.

Hound Tor, Picture of the Week for Friday 9 December 2011

Even though I'm an architectural photographer, every now and then I do take photographs which contain absolutely nothing fabricated by man. Some pedants may complain that of course this landscape has been altered by the human race, but I very deliberately chose to use the word fabricated.

This view of Dartmoor shows Hound Tor on the horizon, beneath a glowing sky, viewed from the much less famous (and much lower) tor at Lower Elsford, near Bovey Tracey.