Napoleonic & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Thursday 1 March 2018

Hooptedoodle #295 - A Walk with the Beast from the East

It's been snowing here now for three days. By other people's standards, considering the severity of the current storm, our conditions are not bad at all, but we rarely get any snow here, which is probably an indication of what it must be like for the more exposed bits of the East coast.

The Contesse took her camera out for a walk on the farm this afternoon - she had some trouble holding the thing steady in the freezing wind, but here are a couple of her pictures, to prove there is still life here.

Cock chaffinch hanging on for grim death in the easterly gale, he has his eyes
fixed on our feeders
Down on the beach things are a bit rough; when we get strong easterly winds,
combined with the Spring tides, it is not unknown for the waves to wreck the
harbour of our nearest village
He's hiding, but still recognisable - in the hedges near the Old Adam field, the
Contesse spotted a male Yellowhammer [emberiza citrinella] - not so rare in these
parts, and they are here all year round, but we've never seen one! - not in all the
years we've been here. So, he's not in our garden, but he's still a bit of a star guest.

4 comments:

  1. Nice photos! I envy your proximity to the beach.

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    1. We can't see the beach or the sea from the house, but the good news is that this is because there is a wood between us and the see, which protects us from the icy blast and cuts down the noise when it's stormy.

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  2. Nice spotting! I flew wing man for with a Bald Eagle for a few seconds yesterday. I was driving down the road when he took off just the other side of the ditch, maybe 10 feet away and flew parallel with me at car window height for about 30 seconds before he gaining altitude. Close enough, long enough, to see he wasn't actually bald...... Now if I'd had a passenger with camera in hand.....

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    1. Bald Eagle is fantastic. Biggest things we get here are buzzards, but they are either flying at great height or sitting on a telegraph pole waiting for a road crash (or something). I've occasionally found myself driving down the farm lane at night with an owl flying in front of me - weird articulation of the head when they fly - like a robot.

      The eagle didn't have a toupée?

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