A Day At Marbury Park

Yesterday I went to my Grandma's house and today I decided to spend the day with my mum at a place called Marbury Park near Northwich. There's a big lake surrounded with reeds and they also have lots of different feeding stations, but my favourite one is the one right at the very front which looks over a big lake, as you should see in the photo below.

I took this photo as a landscape shot for my blog today so the people who read it will be able to see what parts of the lake will look like. Today in the reed bed there could have been a possible chance of a bittern, but not in same reeds as the ones you see here. It was the ones at the other side of the lake which you can't see in this photo. I think it could of been a bittern because I did get some photos of something in the reeds and it definitely was a bird with the same colours as a bittern, but there had also been recordings of a bittern seen in the reeds as well. But on the other hand I don't think it was one because it was stood there for the whole time we where there which was the whole day and it never moved a single bit. So it brings me down to it could of been one or it just wasn't one.      

So after I was debating on "it was or it wasn't" I took some pictures of some birds. There was a very big noisy Mallard, so I guessed it wanted its photo taken to go on my blog and there's also proof that he wanted a picture because you can tell he's giving a big cheesy sideways grin. He's obviously been practising smiling.

  

But then of course you have to get a photo of a Robin (why not) and I just think they're really nice bird,s until they see another Robin and go all territorial, then start fighting each other. I think I managed to get a good photo of this beautiful Robin as it was getting ready to do a big leap to the feeding station. It sort-of looks like he's going to fall backwards and get stuck on his back. I still like the photo though.      

Waiting abut 10mins and a Kingfisher came shooting down the mere and then started to turn away from us and landed in the opposite tree on the other side of the lake. Can you see the Kingfisher in the bottom-left-hand-corner, but then there's a Heron as well in the top-right-hand-corner. The Kingfisher has intruded the edge of the Heronry and then all the Herons will come down and eat the King Fisher. That's just in my imagination of course.    

I only put this photo in because I was in the middle of taking a quick photo of a Blue Tit which would have turned out to be a good photo, but it got photo bombed by another Blue Tit, ruining my photo. It also looks like one of the Blue Tit's has just knocked it's self out by flying into the feeder.         

This is probably the funniest photo of today because it looks like he's just opening his mouth and hoping some fish will just fly in, but actually he's yawning. I had to climb this muddy bank to get a photo of it because there was a big stick in the way and I wanted a record shot so, yes, I did climb a muddy bank. 

I hope you all had a great day.

Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday

Going To My Grandma's

Today I woke up at 7:25 and a while later left the house with my brother, mum, dad for an exciting journey (well not that much of an exciting journey) to my grandma's house with all the land she owns. I was going over to North Wales to film some of the birds she gets and take some pictures of landscapes and things like that, but I was also there to catch up with things that happened over Christmas and all family things basically.

In this photo I was in the middle of trying to video any birds or rats (any wildlife) that came down to feed on the specially made selection box of seeds, but the problem was my grandma's ANNOYING chickens! They kept going over and pecking on the selection box I made.  Chickens do get on my nerves sometimes, but they can be very nice at times. 

    

I eventually gave up on filming the birds (more like filming the chickens) and decided to take some pictures and waited for a while standing with two aching legs, but eventually a nice bird came down to say hello. It was a coal tit. I was really happy that he came down after our agreement, because I specially talked to him on the phone about if he could come down so I could take some pictures of him perching on some different branches.  But after one photo he got a bit angry at me because I was bossing him to much on what to do and how to pose, so the bird just flew away after one photo. I still think the way he/she is sat looks really well positioned, what do you think? 

Moving on from the Coal Tit we go over to the Blue Tit. I think the Coal Tit is nicer than the Blue Tit because you I don't see them much around where I live, where as the Blue Tit is still very nice but I see them all the time. That's around where I live of course.  

Now from a Blue Tit to a Chaffinch, the last bird on this blog. I chose this bird to be the last of the bird photo for today because I wanted to have a rest and I had about 5mins to pack up my things before I had to head back to my house, so I looked around for a quick bird picture and I chose this one. I tried to get it with something in it's mouth but it never worked. At least I got an okay photo though. 

I then started walking back to the house and saw a brilliant photo opportunity. So you know what I did, I got my camera out and simple as that I took the photo and got a lovely river, hillside and trees . The water fall running down the hill was caused by all the recent heavy rain.

Hope you all had a great day.

River Walk.

I set of with my mum for a nice walk with my camera equipment and straight after we turned the corner it was extremely misty over the fields and I could think of a picture in my head as I looked over the field. So I did try and get the picture I wanted, but it took a couple of goes and eventually I got the picture I was looking for with the farm and the trees in the background. The only thing I don't like about the photo is the telegraph phone wire at the top, but other than that I think it's quite good.  

We walked down the track to the river and it was surrounded with mist just like I was. I didn't think I could get an as good a photo as this because the mist was very thick, but as soon as I pressed the button to take the picture, the sun shone through the mist and made me get an alright photo. It doesn't look like the sun shone though, but it did.

Moving on along about 20m and there were two stunning Wood Duck swimming like they do, so I got some food out to tempt them over and it worked. They came over so I got my camera ready on the correct setting and looked through the eye-piece and waited for it to get into the right angle to get the shot. I focussed the camera and as simple as that I took the shot. To be honest it turned out quite good with it's brightly coloured body. My favourite thing about this photo is the head because it's got a range of different colours. I don't think there's any thing I dislike about this photo.   

On this photo I was almost at the locks, but still it was so misty this photo doesn't look very good, but I like it. It looks like the Canada Goose at the front is the boss (captain) of the group and then the other 5 behind the one in front can be servants that get the boss it's food. 

Lastly but not least there was a brilliant Great-Crested-Grebe to finish the day off. For me they're the most annoying bird when trying to take a photo because they keep diving underwater when you try to get a photo. So all I get is a photo of water. I think to myself this is going to be an amazing photo when I realise I have actually missed the bird I'm trying to get a photo of.

A really great walk.

Thinking Out Loud

Over the last few weeks I have been recording the Ed Sheeran track Thinking Out Loud with a great singer called Tamzin. Tamzin does all the vocals on the track and I am playing all the guitar. This is the first track I have recorded with a vocal on it. I hope you like it.

A big happy Christmas to everyone as well.

Me, my Vizsla and a Go-Pro

A video I have made using my Go-Pro of me and my dog Jura. Hope you like it.

Guess the tune competition.

I have just started learning a new tune, but can you guess what it is. I've only been doing it for about half an hour so far, so it will get a lot better when I practice a bit more.

Deer Doodle

I was hanging around this morning waiting to go to Wales later, so I thought I would do a bit of doodling. Anyway, this is what I ended up with. I hope you like it.

Riff in the Goyt

Over the last 4 weeks I have been writing and recording my first piece of music. I wanted it to be something really positive and lively, but with some slower thoughtful bits as well. I was thinking about Hen Harrier Day and it is like all the energy of people coming together in the riff and then slower bits where you think about what is happening. Well that's what I think it's like anyway.

Here's a picture of my planning.

And here is my piece of music called "Riff in the Goyt". I hope you like it.

#30DaysWild River Walk

Today I set of with my mum for a river walk. I made a BTO bird track list of all the birds we saw. We also decided we'd walk down for some fresh air and to do a 30DaysWild blog.

Me and my mum began are journey down the bumpy track and unsurprisingly the first bird we saw was a Jackdaw. But then we arrived at the riverside looking out for birds especially a Kingfisher, but  instead we saw these two curious birds and thought they were just Mallards, but then I double checked (as I always do) that they were but no, they weren't, they were infact Wood Ducks. The funny thing was we were running all over the place because we were excited and at the time we didn't know what they were. We found out what they were because we asked the expert, Findlay Wilde my brother when I got home #WildeAboutBirds. Me and my mum were very wilde at the time when we saw them, unlike Findlay when we told him. They must have escaped from somewhere. 

    

When we moved on from being excited I thought it would be quite clever to get a photo of all the flowers,well some of the flowers, in this forest mixed in with the Cow Parsley and the grass. In the background of this photo you might be able to see a tree in the top-right-hand corner.  In that tree there was a Great Tit singing it's heart out, but the bad thing was there were too many people around so I couldn't get to sing my heart out unlike the Great Tit (he was lucky). 

I was quite lucky to get this shot because there were so many people walking past and there was the wind that was making my camera shake out of focus. There was also my camera lens which is a 100-300 zoom so I almost fell in the river stepping back to get this nature shot. All these problems were getting me a bit angry because I couldn't get a simple photo along the leveled out grass, Cow-Parsley and flowers.

It took me some doing to get this picture as you can probably tell.

Eventually once I took the other photo, we both strolled on a bit further and came across these two Magpies below.

Even though these birds are very common is the UK I find that it's still nice to get a photo of them where as some other birders might say "Oh look at the Magpie let's move on".  I would be the opposite and stay to watch the Magpies fight, feed or even play. No matter what I still enjoy watching them

I think this picture is really nice and I mean really nice because I've managed to get all exquisite yellow Irises, nettles and trees. I find this picture quite funny because one of the Magpies has disappeared behind the tree. Also the colours on the Magpie look alright from this distance but when you get closer you will really start to like them. Some people think that Magpies are not that nice because they steal other bird's eggs and mob raptors like Buzzards. I do agree that they steal other birds eggs, but they have got their own families to feed. Please leave a comment to say what you feel about Magpies. 

      

We had walked quite a long way by now and we were between the river and this massive lake. We had found a small gap in the reeds so we both had a look in the lake and even though it was quite windy it was very sunny so we could see right though the water.

We had a look at the rocks to see if any Dragonfly larvae were there but sadly not. Instead we saw a small Tadpole and we both went "Oh" and then all of a sudden out came a fish weaving its way out from the rocks and we went CRAZY!

I think this is so funny, whereas you might think I'm just being silly. To me this look like a grilled fish because of its black stripes across his body. Also I think I'm really lucky to get a great picture of this fish because it was moving so fast and if I didn't have my camera at the ready I would of missed that fish. Let's just hope a hungry Heron doesn't eat him or the fisher man catch him.  Thank you to Jack Perks for IDing this fish for me, it's a Perch.

    

For the picture below I was mega lucky because the geese came very close, and with the lens I had, it was alot harder to take the picture. I only managed to get one gosling and one adult. There were about 10 different families in the same place and this was one of them.

What I like about this picture is that the water looks so choppy and that the Canada Geese have still manged to stay looking calm on the water.

The different colors on the adult I find is really beautiful. The way the head is black and white and then the long black neck goes into more bright white, and finally the distinctive brown. If you look closley you can see on the young its feet kicking the water as hard as it can and I find that quite cute.
    

For this next picture, all we were doing is walking and there was a Cormorant on a wooden log floating on the water. My camera was turned off, but all of a sudden it flew and my mum suddenly told me to turn my camera on. I had to get my camera up straight away and it went straight in the view finder, then I focused and SNAP! I took the photo and when I got back this is the first photo I cropped because I liked it so much.

What I like about this picture is mainly the shape of it's wings. I also like the way the sun was shining off the underneath of it's wings against the bluish grey sky.

    

I think Coots are lovely birds, but looking at this one with the red eye, it sort of looks like they're on the dark side (but of course there still lovely birds).

If you see a Coot chick you will see that they have bright red heads and yellow fluff around their head. It's quite funny but the young look so much like little vultures. The colors of the Coot is a nice black with a white with a sort of evil red eye.

Me and my mum saw this Coot feeding it's young all little bits of pong weed and probably some water bugs as well I guess. 

The water on where the Coot is swimming is so clear you can see right though the water and on to the lakes bed. It may not look it on the picture but seeing it with your own eyes it's clear. Trust me.

      

The next picture I took was of a Carrion Crow feeding a young Carrion Crow. You can just make them out at the top of the picture below.  

I think this photo is really funny because on the photo it has a sigh at the bottom saying "No Unauthorised Access" but the Carrion Crows have been not obeying the rules of the river.

You probably can't see this but when I was editing the photo I zoomed in and saw that the youngsters mouth was wide open, but I didn't show you readers that because I wanted to make the picture funny be putting the sign in the photo.

This is were the river locks are if you are wondering what the brick walls are doing there.
  

Me and my mum were sitting on this warmed up bench while watching everything around us and then out came an unexpected Grey Heron and landed on this mossy floating log.  We both stood up and were waiting for it to fly so we'd get a photo of it taking off. It took off and I failed #Missed, but then my mum said "While it's flying, try again!" So of course I did and I ended up getting a better shot then I thought. It turned out to be alright.

What I like about this photo is the setting, because it's got the background which is the river Weaver and then most importantly the amazing Heron. In this photo the Heron looks quite old adult but infact he is actually a young Heron.  We could tell by how young and gangly it was when it landed.

I also was a bit unfortunate because as soon as I took this there was a fish that jumped out high from the river and that was really really really annoying.

.     

I think this pictures brilliant because you never ever get a photo or even see a Carrion Crow fishing with a Heron AMAZING!.

What happened was, we were both taking pictures of a Heron that was flying in and then he stumbled his way on to the river bank and started to have a look around. He got closer to the edge and looked over the water as you can see in this photo, and then a Carrion Crow came on to the grass very close to me and my mum.  The crow then started to move on a bit closer to the Heron and at the same time, we both said  "If that Crow goes right next to the Heron we are so lucky. And guess what, it did and we were both laughing our heads of it.

I also like the track that blends in very well with the grass and suddenly dips down in to the river.

By the way can any one spot the bottle bird. I'll give you a clue it's on the right-hand-side. Leave a comment if you see it.
    

This is the same Heron that's in all the other photo's on this post because this Heron just wouldn't leave us both alone, which was really quite strange. It was like having a pet Heron. That would of been good because we could of studied it for a while. #BestBuddys.

This Heron is very young and we could definitely tell because it was so clumsy. On this picture, I like the way he is standing on the log, strong and tall.  Also I like the way the background's set out with the half of the pipe, the water (which was very choppy) and of cause some of the reeds in the background.  I find that one half of the water is very bright and the other half is a lot darker.

I think this Heron's a bit lost because he didn't seem to know what he was doing.
    

I haven't seen one of these this year so I was very happy to see my first Damselfly, but it's a shame it wasn't a Dragonfly because I think they are even more stunning.  We were coming back from a day out walking and then this insect flew in front of us and we were amazed.  It landed on this long bendy reed and sat right in the middle of it luckily.

I like the way on this picture is the background is blurry and then the rest is in focus.
   

I hope you have enjoyed his blog. It was just one day out of the 30 Days Wild the Wildlife Trust are doing. It's not too late to join in.

Wild Bird Wednesday

Guess The Moth

It has been raining all day so I have been drawing moths. Here is the one of the Garden Tiger Moth.

And here is the next one that I have drawn, but can you guess what it is? I hope you have a go.

A Day at Llyn Brenig

Last week we had a trip to Llyn Brenig moors in North Wales and we were of course hoping to see a Hen Harrier, but there were lots of other great things to see as well.

Here are some of my pictures from the day.

The Eclipse

On Friday we were all allowed outside at school to watch the solar eclipse.  I wanted to see it from the start, so I got to school early and set my camera up ready.

I had a special filter on my lens and I managed to get a few different shots. It was amazing to watch. I felt it go colder as the moon blocked out nearly all the sun. 

Here are a few of the pictures I took.

A Lapland Bunting

On Sunday I went to Cemlyn Bay on Anglesey and saw this lovely Lapland Bunting. It's the first time I have ever seen one. They are usually found more on the east coast so it was really nice surprise to see one over in Anglesey.

I also took this bit of video of it.

The Big Jump at Ramp1

I got a new scooter for Christmas, it's a really good one called a Sacrifice. At the weekends Dad has been taking me to Ramp1 in Warrington which is an amazing indoor skatepark with massive jumps and lots of different areas.

This is the Pro-Rhythm section:

They also have this massive ramp that you go down and then take off over another ramp to practice tricks and land in a big air bag. This is my first try today, and you can hear that it was a bit scary:

The video doesn't really show how steep it is, but when you are at the top looking down, your heart really starts thumping a lot. I tried to do tail whip in the air on this next one:

It really is good fun.