At Last ! - A Dry Clear Day ! - on 4th January, 2013

The weather forecast for Friday was "dry and sunny", so I planned a relatively early start at Calke Park, as I'd never before been there in the early morning.

It was looking rather cloudy as I left home just after dawn, and it was still cloudy when I arrived at Calke Park.

I soon spotted the Little Owl (my Site No.31), but it was a good 80 metres away.

I spent about two and a half hours watching the other birds here, occasionally going to check on the owl but, although it was mobile, it never got closer than about 60 metres, and then it was mainly obscured by twigs. I sat and had my lunch whilst watching the owl from a convenient picnic table, and then went for a walk for a couple of hours or so before returning for some more static watching.

Here are some of the other birds seen - nothing very remarkable in the way of species, but I'm relatively pleased with some of the images obtained. The sun even started poking though in the early afternoon. It's relatively easy to get a nicely diffused background here - the danger is sometimes it's a little too plain!

Greenfinch (female) - Calke Park

Blue Tit - Calke Park

Goldfinch - Calke Park

Sadly, I've not seen the Marsh Tits during my last two visits.

I know it seems as if I'm a bit addicted to Calke Park. There's no getting away from it being a very pleasant place to visit, take photos, and chat to people. The real draw for me at the moment is the hope that one day I'll get a good LO image from Site No.31. For the most part, however, I have the frustration of a high deer fence between me and the owl. I did get some images that pretty-much duplicate ones that I 've taken before. This is a bit different however - if you can find the bird!

Little Owl - my Site No.31

Music

In my last post I included a clip by The Birds, noting that Ron Wood was from a musical family. Ron's older brother, Arthur, had his own band, which enjoyed some success - The Artwoods. I have one single by them from 1965 (I also have quite a few by The Birds on vinyl), and I still like this number, although the lyrics are a bit dodgy!