Sunday 4 December 2011

Snow!

The Safari had a Peregrine over the garden early this morning while we chomped into a bowl of Shreddies (other flattened malty square shaped cereals are available), no bacon butties today as a hearty pub lunch was in order after a bit of a wander through the woods at the northern end of Safari-land. The motorway drive up there gave us six Buzzards and three Kestrels. When we arrived our friends pointed pointed out the snow on the hill tops over the estuary - Yikes hadn't seen that on the drive up. It wasn't quite like this pic from this time last year but there was a heavy smattering down to about 2000 feet.

There is a dang fine, yet fairly easy, scramble you can make out on the crag on the right running diagonally bottom right to top left.  See this googled pic of the crag in summer for the route.

And this pic, again stolen from Google Images, of a typical bit of the exposure to expect, it's only about a 500 foot drop to the lad's right down to the tarn...wouldn't hurt til you hit the bottom!
OK in summer but a really different kettle of fish to attempt in snow and ice.
Frank met up with his chum young Benny, who has the cutest ears but is a seriously bouncy dog...

All the excitement got to Frank in the end and he got a bit tired and tried to squeeze himself into Benny's bed...


with a bit of difficulty as he didn't really fit...

Not a lot was seen on the walk as we we chewing the fat and catching up on all the local goss. As we walked we kept an eye out for plants in flower for Dean and found Ox-eye Daisy, Bush Vetch, Yarrow and Meadow Buttercup which is perhaps less than we might have expected. Another Peregrine was seen have a right old go at a Woodpigeon that escaped by diving into the woods.

We'll leave you with an autumnal puddle we managed to keep Frank out of.
Where to next? Back to the thrills and spills of Patch 2; what might the blow have brought within range of our scope?
In the meantime let us know who got sleepy in your outback.

1 comment:

Blackpool Nature said...

You're at it again with those seriously cute photos of Frank - though he has some competion with Benny - are you trying to corner the market in cute pics - must say they brightened my morning !
May I say though they don't count as wildlife shots !

Still no signs of the Otter on the Mere - and it's getting really cold on the viewing platform at teatime

Take no notice of me - keep putting Frank on the blog !!!!

Cheers

Peter