Nature

  • Counting the Birds

    Last year, I first recorded my garden birds for the RSPB Big Bird Count in January. In 2022, I repeated the exercise. I found I actually had more birds this year, but the distribution of species was quite different. I had more than 20 species visiting in an hour, but the RSPB only display the first ten on the chart. Small Birds The small birds are here in some number and I’m very pleased to see the siskins again, along with bullfinches, which are visiting daily. The dunnocks are showing off to the females. Long tailed tits are in and out before I can get them focussed and an elusive…

  • Banded Demoiselle

    It’s a few years since I was able to get near enough to photograph a banded demoiselle, in good enough light and with little enough wind. Yesterday, for once, my planned photo shoot bore fruit. I’d arranged to meet a fellow photographer “early” at Reddish Vale Country Park. Early for him meant arrival at 5:30am. Early for me meant I struggled to get there by 6:15am! However, the temperature was still low enough for the insects to be quite docile and we spent a good half hour with a couple of male demoiselles before they decided they’d had enough of our company and flew away. We moved on to dung…

error: © Christine Widdall - Kirklees Cousins