Birds, wildlife and travel
A last post for 2018, continuing from the previous one, with a photo of one of the local Herdwicks that finally stood near a camera in vaguely acceptable light. On a gloomy day, photographing anything smaller than a sheep was pretty much impossible.
Our last moth trap of the year on Boxing Day caught only one moth, but it was a new one for us: a Mottled Umber.
… that is the north of England.
After 25 years down south my influence is obviously starting to work. On my Friday afternoon walk on the South Downs behind the house I’ve been encountering sheep that are a long way from home. As well as a small flock of Herdwicks that should be in Cumbria, there’s also a large flock of Swaledales that make the Downs look a bit more like the Yorkshire Dales
Alas, the full Yorkshire influence isn’t quite there, as the Swaledales have flown south for winter from Penrith in Cumbria: the wrong side of the Pennines, which is probably why they’re too soft to cope with winter up there.
Happy Christmas to both of my regular visitors…
We haven’t done much birding of late, and that we have done has had very few photographable birds.
Finally here are a few: a nice Goldcrest in the garden, and a few nice birds from a long walk around West Dean Woods on Tuesday. Why are Ravens always strongly backlit?
