Thursday 30 May 2013

AUDIO: A FEW BIRD SONGS

No idea what these are but one sounded quite unfamiliar to me.

http://www.wuala.com/allnights/Evidence/Evidence%20MP3/BirdSONG.wav/

http://www.wuala.com/allnights/Evidence/Evidence%20MP3/BirdSONG2.wav/

Answers on a Post Card...actually just on here will do just fine, lol.

Recorded in Lea Valley in Waltham Abbey.

Monday 20 May 2013

THE ORCHID CONUNDRUM

OK well I finally get around to typing this one out?!

In my last couple of posts regarding the Common Spotted Orchid (Datylorhiza fuchsii), Marsh Orchids (Dactylorhiza genus) and Bee Orchids (Ophrys apifera), taken on the same day, and wile at the second site with the Common Spotted a man walks towards me before he stops and says ...

'not much about!'

This is the second time this has happened on this particular spot and I remark how we can always identify other enthusiasts despite never having met before.

We stop and chat and he informs me he has enquired about the site with the Lea Valley Park Authority and they said that the sites are slowly dying out. I replied 'well yeah but did they give a reason?' and he says that it is the fungus they need and I reply 'the microrrhiza?!' and he mentions about the ash being used up.

I then say well yes but its not the fungus and how come they are able to chop down dozens of trees when we are not supposed to be chopping any down and yet they are unable to take away tin cans and rubbish while being unable to bring down and dump more ash?! He agrees and then points out what I had previously highlighted in that someone has been down there digging?! He states he does not know why and I say I noticed this and put pictures on here and that I am at a loss to know why too.

I chat about the Bee Orchid site and he is unaware of its existence nor of the two Southern Marsh Orchids yet knows the rough area and visits the Orchid Meadow we are standing on every day.

I then tell him about the magically appearing several hundred Primroses the four different colours and he looks concerned as well as mystified before I say its a big con and he says 'yes your right, I should have realised that MONEY was behind all this!'.

I also say that the Common Spotted Orchids I have...spotted (groan) are not where I usually see flowers and on the opposite side of the meadow. Indeed I have only ever seen ONE single plant on that side but normally a dozen or more on the other. Today it is the complete opposite to what I normally see.

This chap remarks about all the trees they have cut down near the lakes shore and maybe its to let in more light and I say something along the lines of too little too late and he nods.

We end up parting ways before I make my way to the location of the very last site I found two years ago I have yet to see a single Orchid in, despite the saying stating three or four species their and one I have yet to see being the Common Twayblade Orchid.

Sunday 19 May 2013

COMMON SPOTTED ORCHID - DACTYLORHIZA FUCHSII

I do not normally expect to see these in flower until end of My to early June anyway but as the Marsh Orchids have not yet flowered I wonder if they will flower together?!

Oddly enough and further to my previous postings about Lea Valley Park Authority I had a chat with someone the day I took these photos.

He was an Orchid enthusiast and as usual we recognised that in each other and he told me that he had been told by the park authority that the site were...'SLOWLY DYING'?!

But then I have been witnessing this for years anyway.

More about this in my next post...THE ORCHID CONUNDRUM.








Saturday 18 May 2013

SOUTHERN MARSH ORCHID - DACTYLORHIZA PRAETERMISSA

May 17th 2013 and the Southern Marsh Orchids placed here artificially but they state are natural have not even flowered...STILL?!?!

This is by far the longest they have taken to emerge in 6 years of visiting this particular site.

Hoping they all make a show?!

Oddly another site I have been visiting for two years I have YET to see one single Orchid?!

I did put up some pictures recently of what I THOUGHT were Orchids MAGICALLY appearing on the site I refer to but have to confess I think I misidentified young Bluebells as young Marsh Orchids?!

Too desperate to see ... SOMETHING?!

Conundrum post and Common Spotted Orchids coming in next 24 hours.

LMAO.



BEE ORCHIDS - OPHRYS APIFERA

Well this is s surprise?!

Due to an unexpected burst of appearing Orchids and albeit late in the year it appears that not only will I get my first photographs of Bee Orchids in flower, after trying for three years or more, but there will be quite a show too?!

I say surprise as I did a post about this exact location not very long ago and may have even posted pictures of these exact spots.

Now I have noted something about this location for a third time and I am still trying to convince myself there is nothing in it but I know there is.

Do you know what that means?!

Another 'Conundrum' post is coming and these have been popping up throughout my different blogs and everything suspicious to me will now and henceforth be known as the Conundrum Series.

Did not put all the pictures up and very few would be pictured twice, if at all except for wide shots ... err if I used them.





















Saturday 11 May 2013

THE CROP CROSSING WILL BECOME GOLDEN

Well here is a surprise I did not expect?!

Now my little secret get away, or should i say one of them, which is not only the closest but also the quitest by far as spring up a bit of a surprise for me. When i found found this a few years back it was full of golden colours of Corn or Maize and looked unbelievable breathtaking if I am honest.

The fact that there was hardly anyone around only added to the beauty of this place and even with quite a breeze blowing, as it was when I took these pictures, it REMAINS tranquil astonishingly.

Indeed it was discovering this place right under my nose, well almost, and yet so remote and quiet that got my noggin making noodles on all manner of things...err got me thinking, lol.

As much as I had sought after more tranquil settings for the last ten years or more never has the contrast between piece and the hustle and bustle of human activities been more pronounced than it has to me since finding this ... place.

Almost like visiting a place that is diseased, and it IS in a manner of speaking, to something more natural and untouched and the stark contrasts between the two are staggering. This might seem obvious to most but it is not until you have been somewhere similar.

This is peace in quite in totally and the only thing you MAY get to here man made is a high flying Jet Plane albeit faintly or a crop dusting light aircraft!

As I said even with a fair breeze blowing, which normally prevents me form cycling, it is STILL tranquil.

Now I have realised that this year I may get a spectacle than the Golden Browns when I first discovered it by Golden Yellows this year, 2013! RAPESEED!

Well that is unless this topsy turvy Spring has not done in the crops like it has a great deal of late?!

Fingers crossed for this farmer!!








You see here this road has a slight incline, well if you are facing the other way lol. This incline continues on this private road for some distance, about two mile at a guess but I will gauge it better when next up there.

It also carries on for several miles too and even though this is a point I stop for a breather when I am fit enough to cycle further STILL this has not much on the way of sound from human activity at all. The road is private and has strict restricted access and n cars whatsoever are allowed down here.
 

Wednesday 1 May 2013

DARK WINGED MALLARD

I always take pictures of odd coloured Mallard Ducks of which I see a fair few..

Thought this male, or DRAKE, looked rather splendid with his all white colour dark wings and dark areas on his face.




LINNET SINGING VIDEO

I forgot to post this up ages ago, what happens when one blog that I should not have been able to create and keep going as long as I have gets too much of my time, lmao...

Corruption in the UK. Things get...FORGOTTEN, LMAO.




RING NECKED PARAKEET VIDEO

Little video of a Ring Necked Parakeet a few hudred yards from my house.



PIGS (THREE DIFFERENT ONES)

Roaring with laughter as there is a little joke in the title and you hear me say it while not managing to hold back a chuckle, lmao.



And now TWO different ones lol


WALLEY THE WASP VIDEO

Here is a video of Walley the Wasp...though he seems minus a stinger but maybe it was chewed off in a fight lol.


PEACOCK BUTTERFLY VIDEOS

Triple set of Peacock Butterfly...

Will be a great deal more on different butterflies and moths from now on for all you mad entomologists out there.






CHAFFINCH VIDEOS

Some more on Chaffinches..

Taken just North east of Fishers Green among ploughed fields with Yellowhammers, Goldfinches and a few other things twittering about.




COLLARED DOVE VIDEOS

Couple of videos of a Collared Dove in my garden.

How coo is that?! GROAN!




LITTLE EGRET VIDEOS

Three videos of that Little Egret looking rather splendid and dapper!

LMAO!