Morons with copters

8 blackbirds and 6 Jackdaws are sitting  very miserably with hunched shoulders in the  Rowan trees with no berries left at the bottom of the garden.  Having said that going by all the uneaten food left in the garden they are not going short.  This year it seems more people are feeding them all  when the weather gets bad which is great news.

It is a wonderful time of the year to go bird watching along the estuary, or it was until ignorant selfish morons started frightening all the birds away with mini copters they got for presents.  The estuary is a reserve and so  is protected, hopefully these idiots will have their toys taken off them  very soon under the  new legislation rules coming in for such selfish idiots..

From the top of a double-decker bus ( when they ran) it is fascinating looking over the tops of  hedgerows to watch the wildlife and birds, so much so I often want to scream to the driver to stop so I can take a photo from the excellent elevated position.  Around New Year we get to watch pairs of foraging pheasants that have managed to evade the annual shoot.

With the weather being so exceptionally mild it has been difficult sleeping at night, so without too much effort I was able to complete the first phase of the moon cyanography project I am working on at the moment.
(check  RareHare Designs  for details) 

The moon is quite close to the earth so an ordinary camera with a zoom lens can take quite detailed images.  It is difficult to focus on a bright spot in a dark sky with automatic focus, but if you zoom in as close as you can, hold steady and  just let the lens settle itself in its own time, you can take pretty good shots.

Grey days abound but so do lots of little pockets of colour.  The Winter Jasmine has been wonderful over Christmas and this has been supplemented with soft blue Aubretia  drapped walling. The bulbs are shooting up and the first Rosemary flowers are bursting forth.
By the time Christmas arrives after all the endless hype, the glitzy colours of red and silver are exhausted and we decorate our house with bunches of early soft yellow and cream daffodils to celebrate  the coming of spring. 
 
During a  Boxing Day walk in a local park I watched a Sparrowhawk catch a lunch in exactly the same place as last year so there must be an established nest or roost.  Fortunately nature in tooth and claw is sad also

This blog is a little short as I have been housebound recently, but hope to get collecting again  very soon .