Thin on the Ground

Shot of the Day

My shot of the day was taken on a recent trip out with Tootlepedal

My posts have been thin on the ground lately, in fact they've been more or less non existent, this is due to the fact that I've had very little of interest to write about and when you get out of the way of doing something it's sometimes difficult to motivate yourself.

After a nice lie in this morning I headed to the moorland feeder station as it was my turn to fill the feeders. The birds must be hungry at the moment as all the feeders were completely empty. The condition of the road to the feeder station is in poor condition and is steadily getting worse and with lots of surface water hiding pot holes, you have to drive very carefully.

The feeder station was looking rather deserted when I arrived.

There were a few of these clumps of fungi amongst the feeders. 

That task completed I returned home and spent the rest of the morning doing some much needed housework.

After lunch I gave Tootlepedal a call to see if he was interested in a trip later, he said he was and we arranged to meet at Wauchope Cottage at 2 O'clock. The weather was rather unsettled when I arrived but we decided to go anyway and wait out any showers that came along. 

Our first port of call was to the feeder station, stopping on the way to take a few shots. This was one of the better stretches of road.

The seed feeders that I had filled in the morning were almost half empty indicating that the birds had been very busy. We were delighted to see a Woodpecker as they have been quite shy lately.

Apart from the Woodpecker there was very little activity so we decided to move on to the Hollows. Even these apples failed to attract attention

These two shots were taken almost a year apart and as you can see the colours were further on this time last year, I wonder if the late spring has anything to do with it?

Looking south from Gilnockie Bridge

We stopped at various points on the way home

Tootlepedal lines a shot up

Irving House

The photos I've posted belie the fact there was an extremely cold wind blowing and it wasn't long before we were on our way back to Wauchope Cottage for a welcome cup of tea.  To see Tootlepedal's account of our jaunt click here.

The following are a few shots I managed to take recently but never got round to posting

As I write this post I am watching BBC's most recent natural history series "The Great British Year" which takes the viewer through the four seasons, offering the best of modern filming technology. What I really liked about the program was; Not only did they show nature through the seasons but also showed the effect they had on the British population.