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A largely botanical day today between home and Colchester North Station, but started with the mallards still occupying a front lawn a very long way indeed from the nearest water. How she will get her ducklings down the hill to the River Colne, I just can’t imagine, even with the assistance of her two male companions. I can see duckling chaos ahead… (as usual, click on image for full view and browser back arrow to close image):

 
The greater stitchwort (Stellaria holostea) has been forming white drifts in the shade of woodland margins for a couple of weeks now:

 
The meadow buttercups (Ranunculus acris) are now tall and in full flower:

 
A magpie, looking as though it has come off second-best in a fight with a crow or a pair of jays, was skipping through the daisies:

 
Growing out from the base of someone’s wall, the amazingly hardy herb robert (Geranium robertianum) manages to flourish where almost nothing else can grow – it forms deep crimson patches in the loose dry ballast between the railway tracks at Colchester and Stratford Stations:

 
On the grass verge leading up the Colchester North Station, the common field speedwell (Veronica persica) now forms bright blue buttons of colour amidst the grass sward:

 

A mixed bag of things from yesterday and today.  Emerging from the house this morning, I was confronted with a pretty wild sky – cirrus going through the spin cycle
(As ever, click on image to see full size, then browser back arrow to close):

 
Yesterday, the sky began with fair-weather cumulus on the Abellio Greater Anglia train journey from Colchester to Stratford, as here, over New Hall School just to the east of Chelmsford:

 
…but things clouded over towards evening, so as I was waiting at Galleon’s Reach DLR station, things were rather grey, but then the male kestrel turned up – and a close examination of the photo suggests that it has a wire or something tangled round its leg (I don’t think this is a falconry jesse from an escaped bird) – so, animal welfare concerns!

 
Today, despite the wild morning sky, things remained blue and calm all day, so the views from the train of the Marks Tey oil-seed rape fields, the oak tree pair just after Hatfield Peverel, the view up to Galleywood and the oil-seed rape field looking towards Billaricay, all looked full of the joys of summer. Even the wind from the train window wasn’t too chilly today:




 
Once on the DLR from Stratford, the bright sunlight lit up the DLR carriages in the glass walls of the Newham Council offices beside the Royal Albert Dock (with a little bit of help from Photoshop):

 
Then the large mirror on the platform end at Galleon’s Reach DLR gave lovely swirly images without any help from Photoshop:


 
Standing waiting on Platform 10 of Stratford Station for the train to Colchester, a goldfinch was twittering and warbling for all it was worth while perched on the overhead lives above the commuters, giving them all a subliminal sense of pleasure, I suspect (in Japanese metro stations they play birdsong), but not one of them looked up at the bird just above them:


 
Just a sunset over the oil-seed rape fields at Marks Tey to finish – again, rather a wild cirrus sky but this time streaky rather than swirly:

 

Bank Holiday weekend, so visited Munnings Art Museum and Garden Cafe in Dedham, mainly for the Cafe and the Gardens, as we’ve visited the Art Museum before (all are very good and well worth a visit).
 
Settled onto an outside table at the cafe, daughter was most excited about seeing the ponies again:

 
Entertained for a while by jackdaws picking up horse-hair for nest-lining:

 
Then a buzzard flew over but I was too engrossed in stealing some of my daughter’s cream tea to catch even a half-decent photo.
 
Finally a mistle thrush started quartering the field, stopping, listening, digging, and generally collecting a goodly supply of worms for its nestlings:





 
A wood pigeon feather caught my eye as we wandered round the gardens near the amazing lime tree:

 
Then later, while driving over to SeaPets to buy Daphnia for our goldfish – Michael (Fish) and Sam – I spotted this distant anvil which was probably dumping rain on far-away Braintree, but it just sort of smeared and dissipated:


 
The waste ground where I pulled over had a few nice things too – pale version of red campion, and bluebell (the bluebells are currently creating a gorgeous blue mist over the floor of High Woods, Colchester, the woods on the train line as it runs just to the west of Colchester, and the woods just to the east of Shenfield:


 
Spring…!!!

Working much of the day so I largely missed some ‘crazy skies’ – according to my daughter. A brief trip out towards the end of the day caught the tail end of these huge cumulus congestus and cumulonimbus calvus, although by then they had largely drifted off to Brightlingsea and the coast (as usual, click on images to see full size, then browser back arrow to return to blog).
 
The last of the cumuloninbus drifting eastwards towards Brightlingsea from Myland:

 
The tree-top gives a sense of scale to these massive clouds:

 
A gull rather than a plane this time (see previous blog 26th April 2016):

 
A hedge sparrow, or dunnock, instead of being its normally shy and secretive self, was pretending to be a robin by singing lustily from the top of a cherry tree – producing a rather Japanese effect:

 
 
Heading off the the fields as the sun finally disappeared below the horizon, there weren’t enough clouds to create a golden sunset, but there was still enough to give some interest to the sky:

 
Coming across a dandelion seed-head it seemed worthwhile trying a few close-up shots together with the sunset:


 
Final view of sunset before heading home:

 

Another busy day, starting with a big surprise (as usual, click on blog images for full view – and on a computer it is worth looking at the larger views, use browser back arrow to leave image).  Walking down to Colchester Station from Myland I pass a set of large bushes and small trees which are always bursting with the sound of sparrows, though the bushes are so dense that only the occasional sparrow is visible.  Today it was silent.  Very strange.

Then as I walked past, this bird that definitely wasn’t a wood pigeon burst from the bushes over the nearby rooftops.  By the time I’d grabbed the camera it was soaring above me, rapidly gaining height – a sparrow hawk:

No wonder the sparrows were silent. One of them had probably been providing breakfast, so to speak.
 
Having put the camera away because I was nearing the busy station, I suddenly found myself surrounded by another blizzard of goldfinches (see previous post 26 April). They were scrambling all over a horse chestnut tree:

…digging into the large knot-holes – for insect grubs, I suppose (unless they were seeking tree sap):

 
The grassy bank on the approach to the station was covered with the tiny purple flowers of common storks bill (Erodium cicutarium):

 
Finally on the train, the sky was fair-weather cumulus all the way into Stratford:



St Andrew’s Church, Marks Tey, looking particularly fine with all the willows, poplar and ornamental plum bursting into leaf.

The fields of two poplars to the west of Marks Tey.

The oil-seed rape field between Marks Tey and Kelvedon.

The conifer copse just to the west of Witham.

The fields between the railway line and the Hanson Aggregates tower (just hidden) to the east of Chelmsford.

Fresh ploughing over fields near Ingatestone.

Oil-seed rape fields looking towards Billericay.

The Lone Oak to the east of Shenfield (actually opposite Mountnessing) coming into leaf.
 
Finally arriving at Galleon’s Reach DLR Station from Stratford, I thought these next two were each worth a picture:

Not waves on the sea, but very high, very fine cirrus, rolling on waves in the upper atmosphere.

…and a delightful set of dragon’s teeth drawn out from an aeroplane contrail.
 
Meanwhile London City Airport was as busy as ever, with planes taking off towards the O2 Dome and Canary Wharf:

 
In the evening, heading home, I was waiting on Galleon’s Reach (elevated) DLR Station platform when a kestrel started hunting over the waste ground near the station:

The light was pretty dim by now, but there was just enough to catch the key colours- a male kestrel, with chestnut back and grey head and tail. Then the DLR arrived and chased it off:

 
Just one final picture, of the O2 Dome at dusk, from Canning Town DLR/Jubilee Line Station:

Working from home yesterday (Wednesday), stuck in the house all day, but the wildlife came to the window to make up for it…

My wife called me, saying, “There’s a bird with red on it! In the oak trees!”  So we both peered out of the living room window at the oak trees and for a while all I could see was oak tree, then something moved and there was a flash of red:

 

A greater spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) was methodically working its way around the tree trunks and thicker branches:

 

 

 

It was able to cling on almost upside down thanks to its two sets of opposing toes, as it explored the underside of large branches:

 

But the most surprising thing was the fact that it obviously terrified the pair of jays occupying the oak trees. They fled to the very top of the oak trees as the woodpecker advanced towards them, raising their crests and fluffing out their feather to look bigger, but still fleeing whenever it came close, and generally looking most put out.

Very funny.

…and then today brought a most unexpected but very pleasant surprise on the walk down to the station – but more of that tomorrow (as it’s now late)…

We certainly had weather yesterday.  What a day…  In the end, there was so  much going on that I had 283 photographs after the failed ones had been deleted (a typical day is around 60-100 photographs in total).  No sooner had the camera been put away in its bag than something else totally unexpected appeared.  That said, by far the most spectacular thing of the day proved impossible to capture on camera…  (as usual, click on images to see larger versions).

Things started fairly quietly on the way down to the station with a greenfinch rasping and whistling on a TV aerial – and looking very much like an ‘Angry Bird’.  I hand-reared one when I was at school.  it was called Scruffy and lived in my bedroom when it wasn’t out teasing the local cats:
Heading down to Stratford from Colchester courtesy of Abellio Greater Anglia, the clouds over the oil-seed rape fields to the west of Marks Tey had the promise of fair-weather cumulus, and by the fields to the west of Witham they were looking even more promising:


However, a big bank of cumulus congestus approaching the fields just east of Chelmsford, then thickening into fat rows of cumulus mediocris over New Hall School, Chelmsford, suggested that there was a fair amount of energy in the lower atmosphere (and energy often means trouble):


A brief respite and more blue over the poplar fields near Ingatestone hinted at clearing skies:

But by the Lone Oak east of Shenfield the cumulus was becoming congested again:

By Stratford, things were starting to become interesting, with signs of cumulonimbus calvus developing (and cumulonimbus is a signal to check for your umbrella):

By the time I arrived at Galleon’s Reach DLR station the view westwards to Canary Wharf was becoming decidedly chaotic:

Then it became that classic spring weather – ‘sunshine and showers’, with one particular bank of cumulonimbus capillatus apparently stuck on the western edge of Shooters’ Hill, which sits across the Royal Albert Dock and the Thames from the University of East London Docklands Campus:

The showers were mostly rain, sleet and hailstones and the towering cumulonimbus capillatus was indeed towering:

Meanwhile the planes continued to land and take off from London City Airport:

…while above them the planes to Heathrow were heading into the midst of a great bank of cloud drenching Canary Wharf:

Suddenly it was very dark and it started snowing outside – yes, blizzard snowing – for at least 2 minutes. As the light returned I grabbed my camera to see what had caused winter to return. The view from Galleon’s Reach DLR Station seemed almost apocalyptic:

Trotting down to the Thames at Galleon’s Reach an hour or so later at the end of the day, I had another blizzard, but this time of goldfinches, diving in and out of the buddleia and fence netting:

To the north, a huge cumulonimbus capillatus anvil was drifting eastwards towards Barking and Dagenham, and planes heading east from London City Airport were doing their best to avoid it. The view from the plane must have been extraordinary:

Then a kestrel flew overhead, squealing with indignation because it was being chased by a couple of crows:

Arriving down at the Thames at Galleon’s Reach, I could see the monster that had turned our day into night and our spring into winter, drifting eastwards towards Dartford:

Planes coming in to land at London City Airport were having to fly round, over, or even in some cases through this monster, and the scenes out of the windows from these planes must have been incredible – or incredibly terrifying:



They weren’t the only things coming into land. A shellduck flew past and plonked down onto the Thames in a flurry of wings:

Meanwhile the towers of cumulus and cumulonimbus continued to dump rain, hail, sleet or snow on random parts of the landscape:



Still the planes struggled into London City Airport through it all:

Finally heading to Galleon’s Reach DLR and home, and having put the camera away, an angry altercation between a heron and a crow (they’re a rough lot, the crows of Beckton) above the station had me scrabbling for the camera again:

Finally on the train back to Colchester from Stratford, the most enormous cumulonimbus capillatus turned a stunningly beautiful peach colour, lit up by the rays of the setting sun as we emptied passengers out at Chelmsford, but the train then immediately headed straight towards this huge cloud so it was impossible to photograph. All that was visible was the northern margin of it, and my usual tricks with lens shades couldn’t stop the reflections of the carriage lights, so here’s the result (of just a small portion of that beautiful cloud) without all the tricks of the trade:

Passing under that cloud and on to Colchester, there was just enough light to catch the sunset over oil-seed rape fields at Marks Tay:

Busy day – plus work!

Trains chaos today so I was working at home and assumed that there would be no photography – especially as the weather was so grey and wet – but the wildlife came to me..!
I was just having a coffee break when I heard all sorts of screeching and swearing outside. Peering out of the living room window I saw two jays having a battle royal with a magpie – again!…(see previous post, along with robins, yellowhammers and all sorts…. Myland wildlife, Colchester 21st April 2016).
By the time I’d grabbed the camera (as usual, click on images to see larger versions) the fight had stopped and the jays were sitting in the branches of the oak trees opposite us, peering down at their tormentor, while the magpie strutted around looking as though it owned the small green around the oaks.


The magpie had a good poke around and found something edible:

Then a couple of wood pigeons came crashing down onto the green and proceeded to do a ‘Lambeth Walk’ beside each other before piling into each other with no holds barred, then doing the Lambeth Walk again – really quite funny, although I’ve never seen wood pigeons act with such venom before;



This was too much for the magpie, who flew off to taunts from the jays.
One of the jays then started poking around in the ivy covering one of the oaks, apparently finding something juicy:

The other jay stalked along the ditch at the foot of the oaks, tossing leaves aside:

Then it hopped up onto the green and started looking intently for something:

Eventually it started digging furiously with its bill, tugging at something, and I assumed that it had found a juicy worm or beetle:

Then with an almost audible ‘pop’, the jay pulled out an acorn from the soil:

It flew up into the oak tree and spent a few blissful minutes gorging on its un-buried treasure.


It seems that there are no such things as quiet wildlife days in Myland…

After the blue skies and high cirrus of early morning (see earlier post), things steadily clouded over during the morning.  The journey down to the station was enlivened, however, by the fact that the time of year has come for mallards to be choosing bizarre places to think about nesting. Note that she doesn’t entirely trust her male guards to alert her to danger (click on images to see larger versions):

The sky was still streaked with high cirrus as we swept past St Andrew’s Church, Marks Tey courtesy of Abellio Greater Anglia en-route to Stratford from Colchester.

…and there was even still a fair amount of blue sky over the oil-seed rape fields as we headed towards Kelvedon, although the cirrus was thickening into bands of cirrostratus:

Towards Chelmsford, however, a truly weird bank of cloud developed, looming over New Hall School, just east of Chelmsford. It looked as though it couldn’t make up its mind whether to be threatening stratocumulus, pannus or full-blown mamma:

After Chelmsford, the view south towards Galleywood and Billericay had a sky full of cirrostratus blotting out all signs of blue sky, beneath which were thickening bands of stratocumulus with praecipitatio giving everything beneath a good shower:

Things just remained grey and damp for the rest of the day…

Up early again last Thursday, though not before dawn this time.  The sky was looking rather interesting so it was a case of grabbing wellies, coats and cameras and heading off out into the fields.  The sky was streaked with high cirrus (click on images for larger versions):

It feels distinctly as though the birdlife is more casual about human presence early in the morning. Blue-tits, blackbirds, great-tits all seemed largely un-bothered as I walked past:

Then I became aware that I was also being watched – by a normally-timid woodpigeon attempting to look like an ivy leaf:

Walking along the farm track there seemed to be a great deal of activity associated with a hedge up ahead, while the sky continued to do its cirrus thing:

A robin seemed to feel that it owned the hedge:


Meanwhile I was being scolded by a blue-tit who was busy hunting insects in the blackthorn flowers in the bushes behind me, although it decided against outright confrontation:

…when a flash of colour in the corner of my eye caught my attention. A jay flew into the same blackthorn bushes. It soon became obvious that it was flying back and forth between the field behind the blackthorn and a location some way down the hedge in front of me, carrying twigs for nest-building. Eventually I realised that there were two, operating in relays, and it was fascinating to watch the fact that they flew through the air like swimmers through water, giving a flap then gliding with wings against the body before flapping again. Approaching the nesting hedge they always did a spectacular braking flare:










Then suddenly all hell broke loose. The jays started screeching like a cockatoo with laryngitis, actually jumping up and down with anger, and I realised that a magpie had sneaked into their hedge from the far side, to investigate their nest. There was a huge amount of flapping, barging and swearing, until eventually the magpie fled into a nearby tree-top, chased by the jays. Eventually one of them looked down at me as if to say, “Well, what do you think of that? The cheek of it..!!”

Then to round off a thoroughly exciting early morning stroll, a pair of yellowhammers leapt out of the hedge as I was heading home and perched on the hedge-top, providing a lovely view of them:

…and so, home past the fields of sprouting wheat, then off to work…