Images

The sun only seems to shine at the weekends but I can’t cope with the huge number of people taking their daily lockdown exercise in our local park at that time; and so I have to content myself with seeing the world in black and white on a dull day.

A pied wagtail had no other colours to show anyway. However, the kingfisher did provide enough colour to make an impression on my camera sensor and put a smile on the face of the visitors to the park who are now getting used to spotting it on the aptly named island in the middle of the lake.

I felt like ranting and raving about the injustice of two girls being fined £200 for driving 5 miles to go for a socially distanced walk around a beauty spot in Derbyshire. I was even more furious this morning when I found that it was impossible to socially distance when walking around my local park due to the lack of consideration of other walkers and especially runners who make little or no effort to give you a wide birth as you pass. Both young and old looked at us as if we were bonkers as we continuously stepped off the path or stopped to allow others to pass. I bet there are a fair number of those who made no effort at all who are quick to blame politicians for whatever measures they take to stop the pandemic.

However, I then saw a kingfisher and I calmed down.

Reports of a pair of firecrests on The Downs in Bristol enticed us out on a gloomy cold day. We didn’t see them but we did enjoy our lockdown ration of one daily exercise.

The best of the birds we saw were a pair of redwing and a jay. It needed fairly bright birds to get any sort of photograph in the very poor light.

As we returned to our car there was a very surreal moment when we heard the very loud roar of a lion. With lockdown (and the lack of cars) we had forgotten that we had parked right next to Bristol Zoo.

It felt that this robin was giving us a special Christmas welcome as we walked around our local park this morning.

Robins are the nation’s favourite bird and have such strong association with Christmas that it seems very appropriate to wish everyone who reads my blog a very Merry Christmas by posting this picture and my header photo which I took earlier this week at Tyntesfield in North Somerset.

It was so lovely to see some sunshine in the park this morning after some very gloomy and wet days. It was unusual to see the grey heron fishing in the water. The cormorant was clearly enjoying drying its wings in the sunshine.

Health warning – photographs taken on a dismal morning in December in North Somerset probably don’t have a lot of merit or interest for visitors to this blog but for the record (and to keep me occupied) I am publishing a blog of our visit to the National Trust estate of Tyntesfield (see the National Trust website for details and better photos) and our brief visit to the nearby seaside town of Clevedon.

There were a few trappings of Christmas to be seen but, as the house is currently closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic , nothing like the fabulous Christmas decorations which we saw last year.

At Tyntesfield we saw robins, blackbirds, dunnocks and thrushes and at Clevedon black-headed gulls and a pied wagtail. Oh for the black redstart that has been reported on the pier at Clevedon!

We thought we would take an early-ish walk to Eastville Park before the crowds arrived but clearly we were’t early enough and, as the park soon became quite congested, we limited the time we spent there.

We were rewarded with a good view of a kingfisher on the River Frome but I’m sorry to say I was much too slow to get a shot.

There were three grey herons on the lake and lots of cormorants. On a small brook that feeds into the River Frome there were several birds taking a bath, including a song thrush which I haven’t seen in the park for a while.

The sun didn’t last long in the park and neither did we.

It was very dull as we walked along the Severn Way from Severn Beach to New Passage and back, but at least we got back to the car before the rain set in.

There was very little to see until we reached New Passage where there were lots of waders. Unfortunately the tide was rather low by this point and the light was so dismal that there wasn’t much joy in photographing them in these conditions. For the record though we did see dunlin, redshank, black-tailed godwits, wigeon, little egret, curlew and plenty of oystercatchers. Back at Severn Beach there were pied wagtails. All in all we considered ourselves to be lucky rather than unlucky.

In order to get some good exercise and avoid people as much as possible we returned to Dyrham Park for a morning walk. Last week I was complaining that the light was so bright I had difficulty capturing decent photos. Well careful what you wish for. Today there was scarcely any light!

Fortunately by the time we had had our coffee sitting in the car in the car park the rain had stopped and we managed a walk down to the house, around the garden and back through the deer park without getting wet.

I was not anticipating taking any photos and missed the fallow deer running right in front the house as they moved from one area of the park to another. However it did encourage me to take my camera out of my bag and attempt to capture something of the English countryside in winter.

We are finding that the ancient deer park and garden at Dyrham Park is a great place to take some exercise during lockdown.

The National Trust in its overview says “A £10-million project is underway to restore, revitalise and reimagine Dyrham Park, created in the 17th century by William Blathwayt. It is an early example of how a fortune made from empire was invested in a landed estate, transforming Dyrham into one of the most notable stately homes of its age. The 270-acre (110 hectare) ancient parkland is full of magnificent trees and breathtaking views …”

It was a gloriously sunny day but I found the harsh light was very difficult to take interesting photos and I was disappointed with most of what I took. Nonetheless, we really enjoyed our walk around the estate and gardens and were pleased to see a mistle thrush and the herd of wild fallow deer.