Hello Crabbies
Is that the correct name for more than one or am I trying out for a headline writing job at News International?
C’mon I can take the lot of you
We saw these wee critters just over the sea wall at Playa Blanca in Lanzarote.
Sex rears its ugly head
They want to be careful, they are but yards away from the very tasty seafood restaurant Bodegon Las Tapas
Photos copyright QueenMab/Shipscook Photographic. contact simon.ball3@btopenworld.com for commercial reuse
All five of Epping Forest’s Terra(pin) Island residents have survived into another year
Terrapins Epping Forest
Five is the most I have seen in one go, there may of course be more lurking in the depths, One lady I have spoken says she has counted eight.
Photos copyright QueenMab/Shipscook Photographic. contact simon.ball3@btopenworld.com for commercial reuse
One of our most welcome garden visitors is a green woodpecker who enjoys probing the lawn for ants. The other weekend he or she turned up with a recently fledged youngster.
Woodpecker and Son
The juvenile is on the left. As you can see unlike the adult it has a speckled breast, a bit like a thrush. I did manage to get a slightly better shot of the youngster a bit later. Unfortunately they are quite easy to spook so the pictures were taken at the extreme range of the camera’s zoom and through a window.
Juvenile green woodpecker hunting for ants
We took a trip to Bristol last week and London Underground got us to Paddington with time not only for breakfast, but a brief walk along the Regents Canal before our train left.
The smog full of dust from North Africa imposed a hazy kind of light, but I was delighted to find a couple of red headed pochard dabbling in the murky depths.
They are pretty little ducks and not that common. Even their eyes are red.
It had been a long time since I was here last and the area has had a bit of a makeover with some nice looking bars and restaurants, not to mention the odd sculpture.
This one is called Standing Man by Sean Henry.
However we couldn’t hang about, a really tasty breakfast at the Sloe Bar in Paddington Station beckoned, £8.75 for full English with black pudding and a cafe late included, knocks spots of airport rip off joints.
Down by the water’s edge there was a flurry of white
It was a white egret and he had caught something.
We were not the only people with a fish supper in Playa Blanca that night.
Photos copyright QueenMab/Shipscook Photographic. contact simon.ball3@btopenworld.com for commercial reuse
We took a walk around the lake at Chingford’s Connaught Water on Saturday. I was just remarking that we hadn’t seen as many species of duck as we had in the past when I noticed this chap.
Pintail
He’s a pintail and I was dead chuffed to get a snap of him as I have not seen one in the wild before. Of course being so handsome takes a lot of work.
keeping up appearances
Other species spotted at Connaught Water that day included: loads of tufted ducks, mallards, mute swan, Canada geese, Greylag Geese
Greylag goose
moorhen, coot, black headed gull, magpie, carrion crow, wood pigeon.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore —
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visiter,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door —
Not a Raven after all
OK it wasn’t the Raven, but a pheasant sitting on our window sill at the Alton Towers Hotel last weekend.
‘I’ve never been so close to a pheasant before’ quoth the Powder Monkey
‘you were when we ate one’ I replied.
I made sure the window was well fastened I didn’t want to come back and discover he’d invited his mates round to scoff the complimentary biscuits.
Party room 105 everyone’s invited.
Out by the River Roding on Monday evening we spotted a snowy egret. Unfortunately it also spotted us and took to the wing before we could get a snap. This is the first time I have seen one of these visitors to the UK so close to home although I did spot one up in Walton-on-the-Naze in 2009.
Snowy Egret – Walton-on-the-Naze (shot in 2009)
While the egret eluded us I did get a snap of a pied wagtail fledgling, which I was quite pleased with as these are normally quite busy little birds who rarely stand still,
Pied Wagtail fledgling
Other birds spotted included: mute swans, Canada geese, mallard, moorhen, coot, great crested grebe, jackdaw, magpie and wood pigeon.
Photos copyright QueenMab/Shipscook Photographic. contact simon.ball3@btopenworld.com for commercial reuse
The mallard ducklings at Earl’s Path Pond in Epping Forest are still going strong.
Mallard ducklings
There are at least eight of them and they are quite bold, even when mum isn’t about.
Mallard ducklings
In the forest the thistles have finished flowering and now the seeds are waiting for a draft of wind to see them on their way.
Thistles
We have a new visitor to our garden., excuse the quality of the shot, it was sneaked through the kitchen window as I was hiding behind the chilli plants.
Scraggy
This is Scraggy and he’s a recently fledged magpie. I put some breadcrumbs out for him most days, but he is very nervous and spooks easily.
Photos copyright QueenMab/Shipscook Photographic. contact simon.ball3@btopenworld.com for commercial reuse
The recent good weather and flowering of the Buddleia has attracted some lovely visitors to our garden.
Peacock butterfly
The Nikon is usually rubbish at close up work so I was dead pleased with this shot of a peacock butterfly from our front garden.
Photos copyright QueenMab/Shipscook Photographic. contact simon.ball3@btopenworld.com for commercial reuse
shipscooksstuff 