October Already!

I'm not sure what happened to September, it's been a mad flurry of painting, flooring and finishing! I've been able to unpack all my books onto my new shelves (with my nature books taking up the top shelf and spreading to the 2nd!) and can finally sit down in my spare time. This also means I'll be able to venture out again!

Today we headed to Collingham to try and spot a Hoopoe that has made it's home around the cricket pitch over the past couple of weeks - it wasn't difficult to find, we could spot the ring of birders/photographers from the road with the bird putting on quite a show in the middle, it doesn't seem too bothered by people. We stood at the back and watched a while as it ate a lot and stretched a couple of times showing off it's crest. It's a life bird for me and the first time one has been recorded in Leeds in 40 years. 

We had a quick walk in Beck Wood nearby afterwoods, it has a picnic area by the river Wharfe and then a path follows the beck around by the houses - it reminded me our local woods and even had Nuthatch!

Of course my garden wildlife is going strong and we've added a new species to the list with a Common Frog. Not in our little pond but hiding in a mossy gap in the wall nearby, I accidentally disturbed it when I was tidying up the ivy - luckily I'm always careful as it's full of bugs and I don't like to cut too much! I didn't get a photo but it's enough to know there's at least one around!

One of our Hedgehog brought two youngsters into the garden, the first time we've been able to say for sure they had babies, no doubting it with the size of them, they have been feeding up nicely for winter. At one point we were getting 6 in the garden at dusk now we're seeing 2 or 3. 

The Goldfinch have been feeding young right into September and are now gathering in charms every day, we've had up to 27 at once, which is a record. A Greenfinch has snuck in with them on the feeders a few times too. We've had Chiffchaff and Willow Warblers passing through, they fly with the Tit flocks and always seem to pull up short in confusion at the feeders! Coal Tits have also given us a new record with 5 appearing together a few times but recently they seem to spend more time chasing each other off. 

Goldfinch

Chiffchaff - not easy to photograph, they never stay still!

Some of the many Goldfinch

One of the squirrels discovered the window feeder and sits at it like it's at a breakfast bar! They have been burying nuts everywhere including all the plant pots and even in the ivy at the side of the gate.

We've had a few visits to the Woods finally seeing a Nuthatch last month, I thought they had abandoned the place after not seeing one since December.  This past week or so there has been a lot of Fungi appearing.

A sugar water feeder by the bird screen

I saw lots of these on the nettles, i'm not quite sure what they are Ladybird larvae maybe?

Woodpigeon

Nuthatch

Robin

I'm on the look out now for Redwings, especially on my way to work, the local park is always home to a few........it doesn't seem that long ago I was watching for Swifts though.......

20 in 2020

I saw an idea on Amanda's blog here earlier this year about doing 20 things in 2020, so decided to do a variation on this with a couple of different lists.

Though I read voraciously it's usually fiction and in the crime/thriller genre, I have huge reading piles and a lot of generally nature related non-fiction in these piles so i'm making the effort to read at least a couple of non-fiction books in between the fiction! In theory this should give me 20 (at least) books this year. So far it's working well -

1) Wham and Me by Andrew Ridgeley - ok so this is not nature related, it was a Christmas gift and one i'd been looking forward to reading, Wham were my favourite band as the 80's child that I was! I won't go on about it but if you're a fan it's a definitely a book you should read!

2) Effin Birds by Aaron Reynolds - this was also a gift from a lovely friend who had received it to review and knew how much I liked my birds. It's not a bird book in the usual sense in it being quite sweary and silly really, the illustrations are quite wonderful and fun but it's not a book for everyone!

3) The Stationary Ark by Gerald Durrell - I read every Durrell book I could get my hands on at the local library growing up  (more than once) and picked this one up in a charity shop last year. Once I started reading I realised I hadn't actually read this before. It's an interesting book with a lot of very forward thinking for the role of Zoos for a time when Zoos were not into conservation and most wouldn't even entertain the idea. Of course zoos are still controversial in some quarters but there is no doubt that Durrell was trying (and succeeding) in making things better.

4) The Wild Remedy by Emma Mitchell - I've followed this lady on twitter for quite a while after she popped up in my timeline with her lovely nature filled tweets. I bought the book when it came out last year and i'm so glad I did. It chronicles a year in her life and how nature helps with her depression. The writing is beautiful and a lot of it resonates with how I feel when just watching the garden birds or taking a walk and seeing the simple things like trees in bud, hidden flowers, first Swallows. It is a really wonderful book and one i'd 100% recommend.

I'll add to the list as the year goes on, (i'm half way through my fifth book right now) i'm not a book reviewer (I'm not good at writing and expressing with the right words) but hopefully you may feel like picking up at least one of the books from my list! Plus putting this out on my blog motivates me to keep up with getting through my very large to read pile! (I've got to admit though with everything going on at the moment i'm struggling to concentrate to read anything!)

I also decided to do another 20, this one 100% nature based - learn 20 new wild flowers, I used to be so good with wild flowers when I was younger but somehow seem to have forgotten the names of even the more common ones that pop up through the year. At the moment of course Snowdrops, Crocus and Daffodils have been dominating the landscape but I have also seen my first Marsh Marigold in the woods early March, i'm looking forward to refreshing my memory and relearning things I really shouldn't have forgotten!

So far though the only one i've come across that I struggled to name was the following -

1) Coltsfoot - this was by the sea in Scarborough, in full flower and plenty of it too











It's a start, we'll see how it goes over the coming months with my world restricted mostly to the garden and the small nearby park at the moment!

On the Bookshelf

Another passion of mine is books, any book I can get my hands on pretty much, I have shelves full and until recently a loft full too. Having to part with a few books was not easy but I figure it makes way for new ones!

I'm a fan of charity shops, you can find some fantastic books and in my town with the number there are it's easy to pick up something of interest.

In addition to that as I skip around the web reading blogs and such like I have a habit of saving a book someone mentions or recommends into my Amazon basket to check out further and probably purchase. I mean how easy does Amazon make it for you.....

I read a post a few weeks back at the end of 30 Days Wild on Louise's blog and it got me thinking about growing up in Guiseley and all the walking we did around the area as children and how much time I spent immersed in books. Especially one book my parents had - Book of the British Countryside - they still have the book but it's practically fallen apart now, it still has my pencilled tick marks on the bird pages. I managed to track down a copy online and couldn't help but purchase it. I remember it without the dustjacket though, I'm sure it had one but I never saw it. I do remember how much I loved the daisies that covered it front and back. I used to spend hours looking through it and looking up things we'd seen on whatever walk we'd been on that day.

A few of the Collins guides I picked up recently also, they're handy little books. In fact I've had my Collins bird guide a fair few years now and I take it out with me all the time.

This book though is one of my favourite reads for quite some time. I saw it on blog i've recently discovered and had been reading through - Birdingfordevils - a couple of weeks ago. The book arrived earlier this week and I've barely been able to put it down, absolutely fascinating read about Kenn Kaufman's Big Year adventures in the early 70's. I'd highly recommend it (though i'm no doubt late to the party and everyone has already read it!).