Fogey

I have been visiting friends and relations over the last week. Some shots of the visit. Backlit horse. Wells cathedral Shooting into the sun. Croquet

Close up. This bird was sat on the cliff at Bempton Cliffs and let us toggers get within a few feet of her.

Ah! I see.

Believe me it is nice to get out. After 18 months of restrictions, I'm beginning to get a wanderlust.

What on Earth is it doing here so far from Japan?

Now I like that - very arty indeed.

Yes they are cute, Clicker......... even more so when you see them scampering up and down these tall pines in a spiral. They are so fast. The problem is, where there are squirrels, red or grey, there are Pine Martens..... The smaller, lighter red squirrel can get out to the very tips of the branches where the grey squirrels can't reach and hence the grey squirrels get caught first by the Pine Martens. Research has also shown that the scent of a Pine Marten is built into the red squirrel's DNA, and once smelled, the red squirrels beat a hasty retreat. The grey squirrels don't have this advantage and fall more readily to the Pine Marten - so hopefully the trend will start to reverse. Regarding the green wire - it was probably attached to a feeder, there were a lot of them about. I was in Scotland for three weeks, and while I kept roughly to my itinerary, I frequently got lost. There was an occasion when a closed road caused me to take a 150 mile detour round a couple of large lochs and even longer glens. I didn't have a clue where I was. What really tickled me was the road classifications. This is the A838, a single track road with passing places.

Red Squirrel taken at Aberfoyle, Scotland

An excellent shot and well deserved winner.

Returning to the car......

.......... The views at the front of the hill.

Some trail views. Autumn colours. Leading to.......

Good Lord, I do believe you're right, Paul.

Snipe feeding just off island 1.

FAO Clicker, To give you an insight to The Venus Pool today. All from one hide. There are two more besides. This hide is for members only - the hide to the left of this one is for the general public and in a prime position. !sland one Island 2 on the far side of the pool. A long lens is needed for this island - also a pair of binoculars comes in handy. The island left of frame is best viewed from the general public hide. Island three

It would need a pretty strong cobweb to stop that monster, John.

......... Sunburst. Taken at Ellesmere.

And that was exactly what I was doing, Denis.

I went to Ellesmere this afternoon as I was getting tired of the garden. Panorama. Feeding the ducks. Lakeside walk.

A couple of shots taken when these spiders were re/building their webs. Both hand held.

Excellent clarity. Was that taken with a tripod, John?

Something in the region of 60-70 yards, Polly. I was sporting the 600mm lens.

I assume the name derives from its long appendage and not where it lives.

Taken at Bempton Cliffs.

I got that anti-British feeling when I was there Clicker. While the locals took your money happily enough, the resentment was coming off them in waves. It has to be said, while I was there I didn't hear any foreign languages spoken but plenty if different English dialects - I guess the Minorca mob was forced to holiday in this country as there was no foreign travel allowed. I did see a lot of people in campervans wild camping at the side of the lochs - they simply turned up and stayed at one place for the week/fortnight or whatever and acted as if they owned the place. The lochs, in some cases, resembled a seaside beach in Spain. Certainly, I travelled to a loch to photograph some wildlife - I got my wish but it wasn't the furry kind of animal that I expected. I did notice some roadside notices saying that permits were needed for wild camping which appeared to be largely ignored by the campervan brigade. There was one instance where a family in two campervans turned an access to a loch into their personal camping site, where they hogged the entire end of the loch, denying parking for other tourists.