Patching Again

Another nice earlyish morning walk around the patch, started off quiet ,for the first time snice we started doing this walk ,there was no bird song in the first field, definitely a slightly Autumnal feel to things. First bird of note was a Hobby which piled by quite close however by the time i got the camera on it, it was spiralling up into the sky, so distant record shots only! Margie had found some interesting things to take pics of, was notable how many airplane vapour trails were, scattered across the sky as we go back to polluting the planet.

Hobby

Hobby

Vapour Trails by Margie

Vapour Trails by Margie

Not sure what has done this By Margie

Seed Head By Margie

We did the usual route, a few bits and bobs in the bushes but hard to get a picture of, the sheep field was more productive, with a fairly confiding Song Thrush, a noisy family of Buzzards and quite a few Swifts and Swallows knocking about.

Common Buzzard

Common Buzzard

Very Pale Common Buzzard

Song Thrush by Margie

Sheep by Margie

From here we walked up the hill to the vineyard great views all around of Wolstenbury Hill, Devils Dyke and north the the Weald, Red Kite, Kestrel and more Buzzards but realistically to far for pictures.I think the white "daisy" type flowers maybe Camomile but could be wrong!

Camomile?

View by Margie

View by Margie

View by Margie

View, including Hurstpierpoint Church by Margie

We walked down through the vineyard nothing much here, Woodies, Corvids and a couple of Stock Doves about the best of it, at the bottom through the gate into a much better area could immediately hear a couple of singing Yellowhammers, the field had a lot of thistles pretty much everyone had a Gatekeeper sat on it!! Butterflies in general seemed less this week apart from the Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns, we only saw one Marbled White, one Red Admiral and one Small Tortoiseshell. Several Goldfinch flitting about including some Juveniles and a few Chiffchaffs lurking in the bushes and a Buzzard flew up from the field into a small dead tree and posed well although the cluttered background didn't make things easy!!

Goldfinch

Gatekeeper

Yellowhammer

Common Buzzard

So a nice couple of hours some good stuff seen and not many people !!!!

I only sing when we’re winning (Marching on together) 😁😁😊⚽

Well with the Mighty Whites, finally back where they belong, I thought it would be a good time to blog about my support of Leeds United! At this point it should be noted that Margie often states when we talk about such matters, that I’m not a proper supporter as I’ve never been to Elland Road. This is blatantly untrue as I have driven down it twice although I will concede I’ve never been into the stadium. However we can safely ignore her opinion as she is an Ipswich Town supporter and as such knows nothing about football, apparently “Tractor Girl” isn’t yet recognised as a Mental Health condition but it surely can’t be long 😊at which point we can get her the help she obviously needs.

I have however seen Leeds play live on a few occasions, though I’ve never seen them win!! The worst was my first back in 1970 something when Leeds were on their record breaking undefeated  run ,I as a young boy was taken to Layer Road to watch them play lowly Colchester and they lost 😥,therefore establishing me as a Jinx so from then on I have done my best to avoid going as it never ends well, Indeed on one notable occasion in the early eighties on leaving Portman Road after another lacklustre display, I only escaped a well-deserved beating from a gang of 50+ (numbers may have been exaggerated for added peril!!)  of Yorkshires finest supporters who, while  rampaging through the town, had spotted me scarf less walking home from the match, because of my in depth knowledge of the Leeds Utd 1972 cup winning team, surrounded, my claim to being a Leeds supporter, despite the lack of scarf, was only accepted when I reeled off the names of the glorious boys of 72! 😊 😊

 I actually prefer watching football on TV from my armchair, allowing a much better view, replays etc, and allowing me to impart my brilliant tactical knowledge and punditry, which Margie really appreciates. At one point we thought that our TV was bugged as literally every statement I made was repeated 20 seconds later, pretty much verbatim by Glen Hoddle who is no doubt paid millions for his views! Indeed, had Hoddle, Capello, Sven Goran Eriksen, ET AL, listened to me England would have won every major trophy since 1978! 😊

So how, did it all begin, the first match I remember watching, as a 5 year old, was the Leeds-Chelsea FA Cup final of 1970 ,(where incidentally Leeds were robbed by a dodgy ref and cheating opponents, a scenario which has occurred again and again down the years🥵) I don’t know the exact reason or date it happened but my choice was made, my heroes were Peter Lorimer, Jonny Giles, Mick Jones, Alan “Sniffer” Clarke, Terry Cooper, Norman Hunter, Paul Madeley ,Paul Reaney, Eddie Gray etc etc Great players in a Great Team (allegations of an over physical approach were grossly exaggerated and were mostly inspired by   jealousy). We won it all ,great days and then there was the 1973 where Jim Montgomery produced the greatest goalkeeping display of all time to deny us back to back FA Cups!!

Time progressed Leeds fortunes waned somewhat as did the enthusiasm of my support although my interest in footy in general faded through my youth, distracted by a hedonistic lifestyle of Drugs, Sex and Rock & Roll ,ok was mainly Beer and Thrash Metal with very little sex, ,ok no sex but the principle’s the same!! 😉

Then came Howard Wilkinson’s boys of 91,when the greatest midfield line-up ever to lace up boots, brought us back to the big time ,Mcallister, Strachan, Speed and the inimitable David Batty swept all before them and took us to the last Title before the Premier League era, great days!.

Some reasonable years followed, George Graham produced an excellent young team, before  the stupidity of the O’Leary years, since then there have been some dark times notably a trip to the 3^rd tier after the disgraceful points deduction, unfortunately this period coincided with my employment at MGC, where my colleagues, Mr G, Scotchy  and DJ were merciless in their piss taking, can’t tell you how humiliating it is, to have to take that level of abuse from Ipswich Town supporters and unbelievably a Huddersfield Town fan!! (look where they are now,Ipswich languishing in the arse end of Division 1 and Huddersfield desperately hanging on for survival in the championship ,must be extra galling that there result sent us up!😁)  However, I stayed strong and our inevitable rise back to greatness has borne out my faith, (you would think that I would learn their lesson of not taking the piss as the tables may turn and it could be us down there again soon, but I haven’t). This abuse was to be expected of course coming as it did during Tea Wars, Tea Wars II (this time it’s personal),Tea Wars III (Armageddon) and Tea Wars IV (Final Victory)  and of course the travesty of the inter-departmental Come Dine With Me , my dentist still winces when he sees the havoc created by MR G’s Duck Breast!!! Anyway I’m not bitter at all, back to the footy!! Though Elmlea is not real cream!!! 😊 😊 😊 and more than one Mushroom is just Greedy!!

 Anyway as the golden years of LUFC’s future lie before us I fully expect us to be competing for the title next season, and the Champions League the year after, indeed we are only 3 or 4 players away from being a great team, I imagine the likes of Messi, Ronaldo ,Van Dyke etc will be knocking on Marcelo Bielsa’s door begging for a place in the team as we begin an era of domination the world will not believe!! My fantasy football team will be unbeatable, filled as it will be with white shirted heroes

I believe it was Bill Shankly who said, “football’s not as important as bird-watching, but it’s something to watch on a rainy Saturday afternoon” (quote may not be a 100% accurate)😂😂

We have lost a lot of Leeds legends recently, hopefully Big Jack and “Bite ya Legs” Hunter will take a break from kicking George Best in heaven and have a little smile knowing Leeds are back in the big time!!

So 50 years of support, 50 years of highs and lows, never a dull season ,here’s to the next 50 years, perhaps on my 106^th birthday I will take a seat in Elland Road to watch Leeds live and finally get to see them win a game in real life!!!

                                                                  

Marching On Together!!!!

Patchwork

After yesterday's trip west, we decided to stay local today and pay a visit to "the Patch" . Last visit the field near the Lay-By where we park was full of White Butterflies and the Sky was full of Swifts and Swallows, well what a difference a week makes, a couple of Whites and no Swifts at all, However did manage a Speckled Wood ,what I think is a Common Blue, a flock of Linnets, a flock of Goldfinches, a family of Whitethroats and a very showy Yellowhammer although he could have picked a more aesthetically pleasing perch!

Speckled Wood

Common Blue

Yellowhammer in unpleasant setting

Plenty of Woodies about

We decided to turn left at the crossroads for a change and headed up the hill, a very distant Red Kite circled and a couple of Green Woodpeckers flew over calling, some great views from up here could be a good VisMig spot in a few weeks time. The Moon appears to be following us around as well, saw it at Church Norton yesterday and here today hmmm coincidence?😀

Extremely Distant Red Kite

Moon

Oak Tree

We headed down the hill more Green Woodpeckers eluded me, another couple of Yellowhammers, we went up and through a Vineyard quieter here, but some spectacular views at the end, and a very curious cloud formation that I Christened the Swordfish!

Scenery By Margie

Scenery By Margie

Scenery By Margie

Swordfish

Scenery By Margie

Nice Trees shame about the wires By Margie

Yellowhammer in more Appropriate foliage

We had looped around back into our regular patch now, the Swallow family still near the Church, still refusing to sit in the Gnarly Tree for a photo op! Last weeks Purple Hairstreak tree was Hairstreak free, but plenty of Butterflies and Bugs in the grass and several of them decided to bite me, note to self bright blue T-shirt may not have been the best of ideas! Goldfinch and Wren posed ok in this area as well, The noise of the Grasshoppers was incredible but very hard to see Margie did well to find one and get a pic! The Butterflies were mainly Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns ,Marbled Whites, with a few Peacocks, a couple of Commas and a single Red Admiral as well as a few Large Whites.

Meadow Brown

Goldfinch

Wren

Marbled White

Skipper

Marbled White

Gatekeeper

Gatekeeper

Peacock

Hoverfly by Margie

Roesel's bush-cricket By Margie

Plenty of birds about as well, with views of lot's of Whitethroats, Chiffchaffs, a couple of Blackcaps, a Green Woodpecker family were in the very productive dead tree, this tree has had something good in it on every visit so far!! This particular Green Woodpecker must have been very preoccupied as I actually managed to get an ok shot of what is usually a very elusive species!

Green Woodpecker

So with the weather warming up and clouds of midges appearing and Margie's swearing at the various critters biting her becoming an issue, we decided to call it a day and head home!! Another enjoyable walk around the patch, looking forward to seeing what comes through in the autumn I reckon the dead tree looks a cert for a Wryneck, he says with the optimism only Birders will understand!!

Church Norton

An earlyish start saw us get to Church Norton at about 7.30, the main reason to go was to see if I could get Little Tern on my year list, but it's also a very nice place for a walk, only a few cars, in the small car park, a few Goldfinch and some Greenfinch were in and around the area as we headed towards the harbour.

Goldfinch

Greenfinch

We came out into the harbour with it's stunning views, the Tern Colony obvious, the noise deafening.

There seemed to be a lot of young birds about which is encouraging, very large numbers of Black-headed Gull chicks, Lots of Sandwich  and Common Terns and I eventually found a couple of Little Terns on a mud bank, whilst I tried and failed to get any sort of decent picture of any Terns, I blame the distance and the light, which was horrendous , Margie had better luck with the excellent vistas, although I did manage a couple of flyby Herons and the Moon! There were quite a few Curlew knocking about, some Oystercatchers and a few Redshank but the seabirds were the stars, nice to see quite a few pairs of Med Gulls in among the Black-heads.

Flyby Herons

The Moon, nearly all of it!

View of Pagham Harbour By Margie

View of Pagham Harbour By Margie

View of Pagham Harbour By Margie

So basically after being pretty much blinded by the light, we decided to relocate to the beach, it was clear that the Terns were, flying out to sea to fish, then bringing their catch back over the spit into the harbour. I decided that a bit of judicious  positioning and even I might be able to get a reasonable picture of a Tern!! The walk around to the beach produced little although a Linnet posed well and we had brief views of a Whitethroat family.

Posy Linnet

So we arrive on the beach and wander along, a Little Egret was fishing along the shore line and some Terns were fishing, quite a few fishermen as well, presumably fishing for Bass, some had waded miles out! I walked up towards the fence line that protects the breeding birds and put my positioning theory into practice, nice to hear a Skylark or two singing and another Linnet posed on the wire. Well my theory paid dividends, although it was hard to spot the birds coming in off the sea and I have numerous pictures of half a Tern and several of blue sky where Terns used to be!!😀However with a bit of practice I managed a few ok shots! Good to see that most Terns seem to be bringing fish in, the number of fledged chicks would suggest that fish numbers have been good this season.

Common Tern

Sandwich Tern

Sandwich Tern

Sandwich Tern

Little Tern

Little Tern

Little Tern

Little Egret

Sandwich Tern

Sandwich Tern

While I was happily involved doing this, Margie had wandered off, as she is prone to do and was indulging her habit of trying to get pics of "interesting stuff" as if Terns with fish aren't interesting enough!! Anyway she had found several sorts of seaweed which she gave the treatment! She also managed an atmospheric pic of a Fishing Boat as well.

Seaweed by Margie

Seaweed by Margie

And again

my favourite Seaweed by Margie

Yes you guessed it Seaweed by Margie

More Seaweed by Margie

Some dry Seaweed by Margie

Fishing boat on a shimmering Sea By Margie

So after, half hour or so I put the scope up and scanned the harbour the light was much better from this angle, a flock of nice Summer Plumage Dunlin flew in ,couple of Ringed Plover in with em, but to far for pics, Little Terns were fishing in the harbour, the furthest mud bank had a multitude of Terns and Gulls resting on it working through them I counted 25 Little Terns and with the ones fishing ,means good numbers about, hopefully they will have a good breeding season, certainly seemed to be catching plenty of fish! There was also a nice Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly fluttering about! 

Lounging Med Gulls & Common Terns

Little Tern

Small Tortiseshell

At this point I realised that a bit of my tripod had fallen off, so we decided to retrace our steps ,predictably, small piece of plastic,500 square miles of pebbly beach, we completely failed to find it, not  helped by the Med Gulls flying around distracting me from the task with their delightful calls!! So anyone in the area if you come across it give us a shout!! It's the bit you loosen of to lift the Column out from the legs!!

Med Gull

Med Gull

So we gave up looking and headed back to the car, after a bit of nifty manoeuvring in the now full car park, with at least one person who has no clue how to park, we relocated up the road to RSPB Pagham Harbour, after a revitalizing cuppa ,from the flask we finally remembered to fill with tea, we went for a wander, the Ferry Pool held 5 Godwits and a few Lapwing and the Long Pool even less, so we amused ourselves with Butterflies ,mostly Gatekeepers and another Small Tortoiseshell, were a couple of Large Whites, a few Peacocks and Red Admirals about as well. On the bird front a Blackcap showed ok and a Kestrel had a fly about.

Small Tortiseshell

Gatekeeper

Blackcap

Kestrel

Kestrel

Gatekeeper by Margie

The Long Pool by Margie

Gatekeeper By Margie

On the way back to the car we had a diversion to the lovely pond, on hearing Marsh Frogs ,we put a bit of effort into getting some views, pretty hard to see considering they are bright Green, other highlights here were Whirly Gigs, Pondskaters and I think Blue-tailed Damselfly but happy to be corrected!

Marsh Frog

Blue Tailed Damselfly

Whirly Gig

Flower by Margie

So that was about it, with the crowds gathering it was just about time to head home, a successful trip, in good weather and excellent company. Home in time to make some delicious Chelsea Buns, see previous Blog post. 

All pics by me except where stated!