BIRDING THE LUNE ESTUARY THE FOREST OF BOWLAND AND BEYOND......................................................MEDITTERANEAN GULLS CONDER POOL PETE WOODRUFF

Wednesday 2 January 2013

Fighting Depression!

I looked out of the bedroom window at first light this morning and could barely see the end of the road through the mist and drizzle, a sight which persisted to dusk at least when I stopped looking and continued the fight against depression which is setting in, the result of being house bound for far too long.

Oystercatcher. Pete Woodruff.

So some time spent reading in the hope I can expand my knowledge a little more about the birds, and some searching through old records and photographs which resulted in my finding - amongst many other things of interest - this picture of the brilliant leucistic Oystercatcher which I saw many years ago at Fluke Hall. 

When I first picked up this bird in flight before it landed in this field, without noting the bill I thought I was watching perhaps a Little Gull which this waders upperpart plumage details briefly resembled. It is one of many such birds - leucistic/melanistic/albino - I've seen over the years.      

Black-crowned Night Heron. Pete Woodruff.

Another bird of many years ago was this Night Heron which turned up on one of the pools at the University of Lancaster. I remember heading off to see this bird with John Leedal and managed one of my famous inferior shots. I was never able to take this individual seriously, as I recall it had wandered near and far and at the time was suspected to have been an escapee.

Carneddau Ponies. Gary Jones. 

Another trawl on the internet had me discovering GJ's New Year wanderings - camera and all - to get these wonderful images of the wild ponies to be found on the mountains of Wales. Do yourself a favour and find out about a way with a difference of celebrating the New Year on top of a mountain....fascinating stuff HERE thanks once again Gary.

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING....Maybe - hopefully - tomorrow.

9 comments:

  1. Oh dear!
    I can understand how you feel with this horrible weather in England...
    Very depressing indeed.
    But on the bright side of it, you got to search your HD to find some interesting pics!
    The Oystercatcher is amazing, I have never seen this bird!
    I am very honoured you chose one of my Red Kite pictures as your header!
    And nice to see my Blackcap on a previous post!
    Sorry for not being as present as I'd wish, but I spend my time in preparations for photos and much time in hides!
    Keep going with your nice posts and cheer up, good weather will have turn up eventually!
    By for now!

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  2. Come on Pete,
    You can get through this crappy weather!! I think we've all been on a downward slide to depression at some point this winter, it wont last mate :-)

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  3. I have to admit to the weather getting me down a few times over the last year - the amount of walks we've done in horrendous weather last year started to get to me a bit - I'm lucky I've got my indoor hobby of painting to keep me occupied at least! We thought about you yesterday on our walk Pete as we saw a couple of stonechats up on Conwy Mountain but Gary didn't manage a shot of them unfortunately. Hoping the weather and your mood improves, chin up as they say, we all get down from time to time - hopefully get to meet at some point this year, take care

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  4. Noushka/Warren/Sharon....Careful not to take me too serious when I talk of things like depression, all a bit tongue in cheek really, though I'm truly feed up - aren't we all - of this weather and do need to get out again soon.

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  5. Lets hope this weather brightens up for us all soon, although I have to say, I don't think Findlay even notices the rain so long as he is out birding. His poor dad has come home drenched every day this week. It will be my turn again though once recovered. Lovely pictures from Gary again.

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  6. Look on the bright side Peter the days are getting longer and hopefully the sun has to shine sooner or later.

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  7. Heather/Adam/Martin....Just a big thanks to you all.

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