WALKING WITH NATURE

Walking round The Great Orme.

The oystercatchers are a group of waders forming the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, Haematopus. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and South East Asia. The Eurasian oystercatchers are considered near threatened and there has been conflict with commercial shellfish farmers, but studies have found that the impact of oystercatchers is much smaller than that of shore crabs.

This slightly wet poppy was a promise of rain to come. It didn't amount to anything and hardly wet the ground

Attingham’s Deer Park was created in 1798 as part of Thomas, 2nd Lord Berwick’s grand improvements to the Mansion and grounds. Today, around 200 fallow deer, descended from the original deer herd live in the park. There was a group of stags, of which this is one, away from the main areas towards a shadier area where there was more grass. He was well camouflaged against the tree trunks.

Mud-puddling, or simply puddling, is a behaviour most conspicuous in butterflies, but occurs in other animals as well, mainly insects; they seek out nutrients in certain moist substances such as rotting plant matter, mud and carrion and they suck up the fluid. I think these are both the common blue butterfly or European common blue (Polyommatus icarus). We'll be away for a few days. Enjoy the forthcoming week.

There were two herons on the weir. This photo shows the one that seemed to be more determined to catch a fish.

The cormorant was drying its wings sitting on a branch above the weir. Not as sharp as I would have liked unfortunately.

This relatively new bird hide was the last part of the restoration programme on the Montgomery Canal near Queens Head. It's a bit slippery in places to get to, but the view over the lake is really good. We first ventured there in the summer and there was too much growth to see anything. Now that things are dying down we spotted a heron and 2 diving ducks which might have been grebe, but I can't be sure. I had to stand up to look through the viewing window, but most folks could just sit down on the bench and look out. ;-) We'll visit again in early winter to see what's there.

Eva Cassidy - Autumn Leaves

Please enlarge to see these small fungi especially photos 1 and 3.

A misty morning in the village.