News & Updates from Clare Walker-BoundingSquirrel · Page 8
Like a lot of people in the UK, hubby and I have been adoring the beautiful (and unseasonal) sunshine and warmth this week.
We spotted this cormorant by the river Lea at Walthamstow Marshes. In the photo, it looks as if he is enjoying the sunshine.
In fact, he was beating his wings, as if, even in February, he was feeling just a tad too hot and needed to fan them.
But however he was feeling, it was lovely to see him, closer than either of us has ever seen a cormorant before.
Thought you might like to hear news and see a picture of the newest visitor to the garden below our building: an urban fox.
He stayed for about 20 minutes in total, in the middle of the afternoon.
And he came so close to the house that we could even hear him sneezing. We suspect that the timing of his visit was no coincidence: the refuse people had just been to collect the bins...But our new furry friend was lovely, and both hubby and I hope our urban fox will call again.
A few weeks ago, I fulfilled a life-long dream, of seeing red squirrels in their natural habitat, scampering around freely.
Before this point, Id seen them, but usually only fleetingly, and/or beset by over-eager observers (of which, I admit, I was one).But our trip to the little hamlet of Forest How, in Cumbria changed all that.
Here, they were scampering around, playing in the woods, and even peering in as we were eating our breakfast. It`s not often that a trip sounds amazing as you plan it...and then turns out to be even better. Thank you Forest How, and the cute red squirrels.
This week, thought I better explain why have not been around the site. The long and the short of it: I had a birthday.
Not even a landmark one, mind you, but for some lovely and pleasant reason that I didn`t plan and am so grateful for, it seems to have lasted for days, between trips, family visits and parties.The flowers in the picture were from my husband (carnations were a wise choice in the heat!) who also took me stargazing at a designated Dark Sky Reserve (ie theres little man-made light there, so you can see a wide range of stars much more easily there).
It was a wonderful experience I`d recommend to anyone and definitely want to repeat...But we both need to learn how to take better photographs of stars, as there`s absolutely nothing in the camera from it except completely dark and blank photos.As other gifts included a new desk chair and a set of watercolour pens though, this is a clear sign I now need to get back to work!
It`s amazing that something so small can be so spectacular.
In this case, I`m talking about damsel and dragonflies, which we were lucky enough to watch in their several hundreds one afternoon last week, by a lake/very large pond in Epping Forest.Individually, they were, literally, shining examples of fast, manoeuvrable flight.
So fast, in fact, that I despaired of getting anything like a good photo of them. Until one damselfly was most obliging, and landed on my husband`s T-shirt (as you can see in the picture).Collectively, they were a stunning, shimmering and enchanting wonder.
Yet the strangest thing of all was that this all still took place within Greater London. And out of that city of 10 million people, we were the only people watching this. Which seemed like a miracle in itself.