“All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey”
“I went for a walk on a winters day”
Well it wasn’t quite that bad, but we have had some awful cold and very blustery weather this last week and it has finished off all those lovely Autumn coloured leaves that I was telling you about. In addition to that I have had a bad foot so that has put paid to me and my little mate going out for walkies most of the week.
He goes back home tomorrow so I decided to give him a last walk as the weather had improved considerably.
I thought that I would post a few pictures to show the bare trees and the empty fields ready for the onset of Winter, along with whatever happened to step in front of my camera.
I fitted a tinted filter to get a bit of colour into the sky so theylook a bit on the blue side.
It was a lovely bright day and because I could park near by, I chose a stretch of the canal in Cheshire, from there you have a clear view from the Cheshire plain as it rises up towards the Pennine chain that terminates with a Victorian folly, I am sure that Goddess will know this particular landmark.
Poor quality I am afraid, but it was on full zoom and hand held.
Bare Cheshire potato fields after the harvest.
And bare trees also
As we walked further on past these trees, I was just about to remove the filter and reset the exposure when a beautiful Heron swept up the canal and upon seeing me he wheeled back to the right and flew behind the trees further down. I made a frantic switch over into Auto mode and tried to get a picture, unfortunately as it was moving fast towards me and then swooping away just as quickly, my camera would just not lock on the focus and I missed the shot, ah well, maybe another visit is in order.
I did see this years Signets and they are almost fully fledged as you can see by the following picture.
All four signets have survived and look very healthy, they will leave shortly for their Winter home.
The male Mallard ducks are in fine fettle and are squabbling over the females.
Further on as I was looking in the hedgerows to see what berries were available for the birds this winter, I spotted this little guy scoffing Hawthorn berries. Granted he was only a common Grey Squirrel, but he looked very cute sitting there.
I will skip the bit about zooming in onto the large bird sitting in a distant tree, was that a wedge shaped tail? I could just make it out as it stretched its wings in the dimming light. A Raptor of some kind? Now along with a bad foot I have crappy eyesight, so when a couple passed me by I asked "Can you see that bird over there in the tree?"
"Do you mean the pigeon?" he asked
It gets dark around 4.30 pm and my foot was starting to springe a bit, so we headed back.
I was about to put my camera away when I spotted this handsome fella, he is of course a Mandarin duck and he is the first one I have seen along this canal and as far as I can tell they are the only pair, yes! I did see Mrs Mandarin also!
So that was it, we returned about dusk and Mrs H had prepared some sausage and chicken for the little man for his dinner. He will go back home again tomorrow, after first having all the roast lamb leftovers plus a ‘doggie bag’ to take home with him.
