Gavin Johnson's photos
Autumn sunlight
| |
|
|
|
HFF - late afternoon sun shining through a stand of oaks, which are still not showing much autumn colour.
Shaggy Inkcaps
| |
|
|
|
Spotted on a recent walk. I've never tried them, but apparently they're good wild mushrooms to eat.
It seems you have to be quick - once they expose their gills, they dissolve into an inky black liquid within a couple of days; much faster if harvested.
Lions
| |
|
|
|
HWW - one from the archives, this was a decoration in a temple in Sri Lanka (I think it was the Dambulla Cave Temple)
The weir at Severn Ham
| |
|
|
|
This is the Upper Lode weir on the River Severn, adjacent to a 70 hectare floodplain near Tewkesbury Abbey.
The weir features a 'fish notch', a channel adjacent to the riverbank to allow migratory fish to swim upstream.
Where sheep may safely graze
Cormorant on final approach
| |
|
|
|
HFF! A cormorant at our local reservoir staying out of the water and attempting a tricky landing on the fence instead.
It was a little clumsy, but successful!
Autumn Colour
| |
|
|
|
We seem to have moved from hot, dry summer to autumn wind and rain very quickly, and the leaves are being blown off the trees before they can give us a proper seasonal display.
This tree is doing its best to put on a show before the next storm comes along.
Downward dog
| |
|
|
|
One of the rabbits on the warren got up from its camouflaged position and had a long stretch and yawn before hopping off to eat.
(There's a wider shot, pre-stretch, in the PiP)
Two chough and two rabbits
| |
|
|
|
I managed to catch both of the chough pair and two rabbits in the same frame. If you look really closely, there's a small bird, possibly a Wheatear, in the shot, too.
(level with the lower rabbit, about a third of the way in from the left).
Chough and rabbits
| |
|
|
|
I finally managed to complete my photographic collection of UK corvids, when we spotted a pair of Chough digging for food around a large rabbit warren on the north Cornwall coast.
Here's one of them, with distinctive red bill and legs, together with a couple of well camouflaged rabbits.
Sea view
| |
|
|
|
HBM - we stopped for a rest along the Cornish coastal path to enjoy a sunny view over Carlyon Bay.
A tunnel of trees
| |
|
|
|
Trees arching over the Camel Trail in Cornwall - a 30km cycle / footpath running from Padstow to Wenford Bridge.
The trail was a railway line between 1834 and 1983. Passenger travel ended in 1967, with the line still being used for freight and china clay transport until it was finally closed.
There are still signs of its past life at various points along the trail, including old station buildings.
The Malvern Hills
| |
|
|
|
HFF - The rain has cleared the air a little, and when it let up for a while we got a clear view of the Malvern Hills on the horizon.
Sulphur Tuft mushrooms
| |
|
|
|
It's autumn, so woodland fungi are popping up. These Sulphur Tufts have colonised a decaying tree stump near the river Fowey in Cornwall.
According to Google, they contain fasciculols, which can cause severe gastrointestinal distress, vomiting, diarrhoea, and other symptoms if ingested, so are best admired from a distance!
Gavin, in his natural habitat
| |
|
|
|
Can I jump that high?
| |
|
|
|
HWW - a little drama from the local neighbourhood: one of our local cats patiently stalked the woodpigeon that was enjoying some autumn berries.
The answer was that the hedge was far too high, and the pigeon lived to peck another day :-)
Water droplets
| |
|
|
|
The autumn rains seem to have set in this week, so hopefully our reservoirs will start to refill a little.
Here are a few of those raindrops on a Giant Honey Flower plant.
A bench in the greenwood
| |
|
|
|
HBM - another example of nature getting itself confused: on the left of the image, a rhododendron is flowering in in Cornwall in October, and there's hardly an autumnal colour in sight.
