Flora and Fauna...

I needed some exercise and headed off for Bushy Park. I seem to be there a great deal at the moment, but with black clouds threatening I didn't want to waste petrol etc. by going further afield.

At home, I've a ground feeder close to the window. Many blue and great tits come to this which is great! Before coming down, they often land in the Acer to check the coast is clear. Taken through a rather dirty double-glazed window. Must get cleaning... :(

Out in Bushy, the usual quarrelling gulls

Whilst some just quietly preened..

Double reflection - upwards and down..

A glimmer of yellow from the Mahonia, in the shaded woods


and fungi..

Newly emerging Daffodil buds in the woods

In reflective mood..

Despite what it looks like, this tree isn't upside down - just reflected in the very still stream

The early flowering Camelias caught my eye - they seem to be very early this year!

And seeing this one of many bees, I had to remind myself it was mid-December!!

Just some exercise on a partly sunny afternoon.

Just a few birds....and a little sunshine

I haven't been out and about that much recently mostly due to very wet weather. However, I managed a couple of visits to London Wetland Centre this week. Today was much better in terms of weather than earlier in the week but - the centre is so flooded with water that there aren't many birds about. Those that are (in terms of water fowl) are too far away for pictures.

However, there were one or two that provided some interest. The usual suspects and nothing out of the ordinary, but isn't that what birding's all about?

Reflective Moorhen

Long-tailed Tit "cooooeeee"

Juvenile Great Crested Grebe having a wing stretch..

and auditioning for Strictly Come Dancing me thinks...

Quite a few Chiff-chaffs about, but dashing around and managing to avoid my camera on most occasions..

There's a pair of Little Grebes on the Sheltered Lagoon..

and around on the Wildside, were several little birds, Gold and Greenfinches and Chaffinches.

And this little wren...

who realised it was being watched and..

made its feelings very obvious but gave us a good glimpse of its tail.

On the way out, a Robin was serenading me and..

New buds - a sign of things to come.... :D

A Sussex Village

My daughter's up this weekend as her car is now ready to be collected. I went down to Sussex to give her a lift back up to Surrey yesterday (Friday) and as the sun was shining - a bit - we decided to go to Bosham in West Sussex. It's a very tiny, but "chocolate box" village and probably best visited out of the tourist season. The streets are very narrow and go down to the harbour. At high tide the water comes up into the roads and it is not unknown for unwary motorist (who don't read or haven't seen the warning signs) to return to their cars to find them under water!

We had a wander around and visited Holy Trinity Church where, tradition has it, that King Canute's daughter is buried in the church.

I was standing at the side of the raised pavement to take this picture; the water came up the narrow street.

A typical road near the water's edge

Across part of the green (National Trust property) can be seen the Church and the War Memorial.

On our way around part of the harbour towards the church..

A narrow footpath led us down between attractive cottages

This one having its own wood store.

And as we approached the Church crossing a small stream, a notice informed us that the stream had recently been restored to preserve the habitat of the resident Water Voles.

and finally, to Holy Trinity Church - which is the oldest site of Christianity in Sussex. There is some thought that the Tower was build as a watchtower.

Fancy this as a gate in your garden wall?

After a cream tea in the local tea rooms within the Craft Shops arcade, we then drove home "the pretty way".

A great day out albeit a brief one. Regrettably my daughter has not been at all well overnight and therefore we couldn't pick up her car today. Fingers crossed for tomorrow but......

Light and dark

Grey skies, sunshine, torrential rain, hail and very cold winds. If nothing else our weather in the UK is varied; but I'm not complaining - my home is dry and, since the local authority put in a flood relief scheme in the 1950's (before I lived where I do), my home is dry and not under flood water. I have a lot to be grateful for.

Last Friday I went down to Sussex to give my daughter a lift back up this way. Her car (a 1979 Mini) was ready having had some work done to get it through the MOT! It passed. When the car was being filled with petrol, the tank gave out. It's now gone back to it's carer and hopefully will be ready to come home again this coming weekend!!

I went a bit earlier and had a "walk" along the beach. I started into the wind and although I took some shots of Turnstone and Dunlin they were too poor to save. I couldn't hold the camera still in the wind! But the grey skies and very occasional glimpses of the sun made for some interesting shots.





And today, I managed to escape and get out to stretch my legs. Only went as far as Bushy Park and again, had a mixture of sunshine and very dark skies!

The wind was strong so I headed off for the Woodland Gardens; the colours are good at the moment.



It seemed, after that part of the walk, as though everything was up in the trees.
This squirrel, one of three, was eating high up

and precariously balanced..

teetering towards the end of the branch

where it sat and ate oblivious of...

being out on a limb!

A Grey Heron flew up into another tree...


I'd been attracted to it by the noise of several protesting Ring-necked Parakeets. They either start dive-bombing the Herons or they fly off. In this instance (there were about 15 of them), the 11 (ish) that are in this picture, got bored waiting for the Heron to go and left.


On the way back to the car, the sun briefly glimpsed through the cloud as this Red Deer Hind turn back to see who was there..


Got back to the car in the dry!!