The Road to Work

The poison put down a few weeks back has done it's job and made parts of the road look pretty shabby.This left hand side was full of nettles and wildflowers originally.

Still life goes on, you can just see here the leaves are starting to turn yellow on the trees at the end of the road, autumn has arrived!

The recent sunny/foggy mornings have made for some nice moments.......

Rodley Nature Reserve

Spent a few hours at Rodley this morning making the most of the dry weather. It was a little quiet on the water, we saw Gadwall, Black Headed Gulls, Mallards, a Little Grebe, Moorhens, Mute Swans and a beautiful Black Swan. It made for some peaceful moments in the hides.

We spent a while chatting to a couple of lovely guys after following each other around the hides, which was a bonus for us all when a Water Rail appeared across the water, unfortunately my photos did not turn out well, but it was great to see!

There were a lot of Herons flying about the reserve, we saw them in a few places, one of my favourites.

The meadow was flowering nicely along with a fair few flowers dotted about around the paths too

At the visitor centre the Buddleia was attracting a fair few butterflies including Red Admiral, one i've not seen around much this year.

One of the guys there asked if we'd seen the Little Owl and pointed out a scope helpfully set up to view it through. A new bird for me so I was quite pleased to watch it sat on the wall for a while.

A cuppa and a snack in the centre by the window lead to us seeing a Kestrel fly down the field followed shortly after by a Jay, which landed in the field for a while. A feeder outside the window had a Robin, Dunnock, Great & Blue Tits and a couple of Goldfinch.

We took a walk up to the managers garden and again stopped a while to chat to the guys from earlier. The feeders had a couple of flurries of birds, but they kept being frightened off by something, not sure what. I'd heard a Woodpecker before we got there but it never made an appearance. We did see Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Wren, Dunnock, Jackdaw, Magpie, Stock Dove, Great Tit.

A few other photos from round the reserve

Another great day at Rodley!

In the garden

My climbing rose is showing off it's last flowers of the summer, we'll be cutting it right back this year, there's a lot of new shoots around the bottom and a lot of deadwood around the middle.

This was taken at the beginning of August.

These are from Sunday

There was a brief visit from a Coal Tit but still the birds are mostly absent.

A couple of other images from Sunday

Mint

In the garden

The garden has been lacking in birds a fair bit recently to say the least. We've had the odd visit from hedgehogs, squirrels, bats and foxes. A Sparrowhawk still lurks overhead now and again and the Swifts left early this year.

Tonight I heard tweeting and recognised the sound of Long Tailed Tits, a half a dozen of them flitting around the gardens, with a lone Blue Tit. I only managed a few shots before they were off again.

They are birds we get often but after a bird dry spell it was almost exciting to see them! 

A Walk in the Park

I made the most of this mornings early sun (the last rays of summer maybe?) and took a walk in the local park, where the only people around are dog walkers and the odd jogger with it being so early. It's best to get there early especially on a Sunday when it gets busy with football and children in the play area.

It's usually full of birds and squirrels and a great place to see both Song and Mistle Thrush, of course today there were none in sight. There was plenty of Blackbirds, Wood Pigeons, Magpies, a lone Blue Tit and a few Dunnocks including a couple of juvenile ones. They were all a bit camera shy today though.

I love the blue on this feather, from a Magpie I think? 

Juvenile Dunnock, I only managed a quick shot before it was off 

If you look close enough you can see a couple of Magpies that flew past!

This park is well looked after, in fact the local council parks depot is based here, there are flower beds that are regularly planted along with ones mostly left to their own devices. It makes for a nice combination with plenty of variation with the flora across the whole park including a nice 'secret' garden away in a corner. It means there's always something going on no matter what the season.

Such an array of colours

The steps to nowhere