Wolves Wild

I’m still having trouble getting out enough to get new pictures, so I’ve been trawling through my stock of old pictures that I never got round to posting online before.

Ten years ago this month we spent a few days on the Exe estuary, including a morning’s visit to Dawlish Warren.  It’s a long trek from the railway station (or the car park) over the scrub and dunes section of the national nature reserve to get to the bird hide. As soon as the sea front is reached, there’s views back towards Dawlish, with the natural sandstone arch of Red Rock. Ahead, there’s the view across the mouth of the Exe to Exemouth, with its long beach and the cliffs which are the start of the Jurassic Way section of the South West Coast Path.

Care is advisable on the final section of the path to the hide in case of stray balls from the gold course. But the hide gives wide views of the estuary. The extensive mud flats at low tide provide feeding grounds for the many waders and geese which overwinter here.

Included among them, this curlew, hunting for food in the mud just below the high tide mark.

More pictures of frost on vegetation in the recently-established local nature reserve in Stratford upon Avon. On a cold morning last month, the remains of unmown grass from last year.

A heron, possibly a young bird, on the lookout for prey in the Staffs and Worcs Canal near Oxley. It was fishing opposite to where there is an inflow to the canal which I think is an outlet from part of the Barnhurst Farm (Wolverhampton sewage treatment) works.

Winter aconite early last month, with the first few flowers emerging in what would later be a patch of them.

A mistle thrush pair which have had the same territory near the bandstand in West Park for several years. They can often be seen searching the lawns for things to eat.

A mass of cones at the top of a tall spruce: probably a Norway spruce.