Tuesday 12 February 2013

Oot and Aboot

Haven't had time to do my usual diatribe so here
is a few pretty pictures from the last few days
in no particular order

A first for me at Big Waters - 4 Grey Herons in view at the same time

Plenty of stuff on the pond at Big Waters but the only bird missing was the White-fronted Goose which we saw in the North field when doing our Sunday walk.  Graeme B was in the hide when we arrived and had seen it from the top hide but when he moved for a better look it had taken off and headed elsewhere.  Anyway a good tick for the patch


The Mandarin at Wallsend Burn taken with a dinky little camera
(which allows the bird to come right up to me and can still focus)


My first Bramblings of the year in Northumberland



Siskin and Greenfinch sharing a feeder


Bullfinch were constantly ground feeding


Finally for those of you who actually read this Blog instead of just looking at the pretty pictures you might remember me talking about "cold hands".  Well at last I have obtained permission to publish the following picture

"The Blue Hand of Death"


This is what it looks like after it has been in a glove for at least 15mins so imagine how cold it is when he only wears one of his many 1 handed sets of gloves (he tells us he always buys them in pairs but keeps losing the right one but we think it walks away, would you want to be touching that hand) although he does wear 2 lefties on lots of occasions.  As he sometimes touches our bare skin (ooohhaaaa) we have all clubbed together and rescued a pair of heavy duty ones from a charity shop bag and presented them to him in a small ceremony in the Car Park on Sunday.

3 comments:

Johnnykinson said...

I'm sorry but you missed one there John. CHARITY SHOP !!!!!!!! i don't think so.........SECOND HAND SHOP more like. Although you probably thought of that one and thought...."Nah, that's pathetic."
Anpother constructive point of critisism. I know you don't mind as it broadens your photographic horizons. There's a lot of grass in front of the Mandarin. Could you not get the bird to sit on some nice tarmac. No distractive grass and a nice plain background to highlight it's colours. (You can have that one for nowt. I might have to start charging soon.)

HowdonBlogger said...

Thankyou for the constructive criticism which I always copy and paste into my Personal Information Supplementary Suggestion Office App (PISSOff), cant remember what its original name was but you find it on your desktop (its whiteish with a couple of green arrows on going in a circular direction). I passed on your tip to a friend of mine whose picture I might have showed in my previous post and he said he would try it out and Walla http://www.flickr.com/photos/72287961@N07/ is this any good. His shot was taken at the same time as mine but he must have found some of that blurry grass you mention.

John

ps. Need any tips for directions or map reading, just ask

Johnnykinson said...

You're a pal.