Swoop!

What I would’ve done for a video camera today…

Outside my office window I’ve just been watching a mother falcon teaching her two young to hunt.

Hovering over a large pond she was demonstrating how to hover, and practicing swooping down on imaginary prey. She dived down, then they copied. They all repeated this several times in different places on the pond. Then went and perched on a lamppost to rest, came back and did it again, this time from nearly twice the height.

Once they’d repeated this the mother flew off and her young followed her apparently racing one another to catch up to her :-)

Finding Nemo Tank

The Chessington World of Adventures Hotel has a fish tank in the lobby with what can only be described as a replica of Finding Nemo :) the only fish missing is a cleaning shrimp :(

Pick a Bulb

Nomi sent me to get some free daffodils from a local farm shop. When I got there I was told to fill my bag... "If there's any left". I expected to see an empty bucket... Not to have to sift through a dustbin full of daffodil skins!

Rainbow

Unfortunately by the time I could get to my phone I wasn't in a good position to photograph this. But the minute I walked out of the office I saw a double rainbow that I could see both ends of (IE a full 180 deg). First time I've ever seen a rainbow touch the ground both ends... Let alone a double one!

Feeding The Dinosaur

Nomi has a pet tortoise called Esmerelda, until we buy our own house she's staying at her mums, as she's not really down with change. That and the fact that any garden she goes to would need to be tortoise proofed. As despite what most people think they're fast and quite destructive.

Spring Robin

Whenever I mow the lawn I always put my mp3 player on full and just get on with it. It's an old mower... So it's epically noisy... Which is why I was so stunned to notice I had an audience... Of a Robin! He really seemed quite intrigued. Even when I got really close with the mower he just sat there. Eventually he flew off of his own accord.

Delicate... But Persistent

I always think of Daffodils as being a delicate flower, given that it's only abundant for a short time. To me seeing them symbolises the beginning of spring, and it's nice to see that even in a world where nature has been paved over to accommodate the ever expanding human race, such a flower will grow even in the unlikeliest of places... namely the central reservation of a ring road.

Trees

There's an old Manor House with some parkland next to my work, it's circa 150 years old.

Occasionally I have to park in their overflow car park, as a result I have a nice walk through some woodlands on the way into the office :-)

These old Oak tree's always intrigue me, hundreds of years old, and gnarled through age they reminds me of how fleeting human lifespans are compared to the rest of nature. These trees were there long before I was born, and will continue to be there long after I am dead and forgotten.

Monster Caterpillar!

Did a double take when I saw this big fella on our flowers! Wonder what he'll turn into?

Tatanka

Come on... Anyone who's seen Dances With Wolves must have done this at a zoo at some point in their lives :)

Foal

Went to get some strawberries and the field opposite had a young foal in it. Funny how their legs don't grow so much as they get older. So to eat they have to go all bandy legged to reach the ground :)

Caterpillar

How it got on a houseplant that we've had since we moved in is a mystery. I wonder what it's going to turn into?

Peacock

There's Peacocks all over Trago Mills... This one seems a little bemused at the Peacock sculpture here tho.

Pink Dove?

How on earth did this dove get this colour! Also spotted a blue and a green one too!

Crayfish?

Whilst sitting a the top of the waterfall this little fella crawled out for a look. I'm not sure what he is, but a Crayfish sounds the most plausible idea... to give you an idea of scale it's about 6" (15cm) long. We sat there and watched it for ages crawling along the weeds that were attached to the side of the waterfall... What it was doing we have no idea, but it was battling against a very strong current to crawl from the bottom of the waterfall to the top... didn't know Crayfish acted like Salmon :-)

Horses

Me and Naomi went for a scenic walk in Witney to see a waterfall that's near her house. We had to cross a meadow aptly called the "Water Meadow":



This horse seemed quite content wading through the mud to get to some sort of pond weed that obviously tastes better than grass, was quite funny watching it as it had to keep shifting it's weight to stop from sinking into the mud.

Suffice to say it was a little too muddy for us to cross, I think Naomi could have made it, but given I'm nearly 3 times heavier than her and my feet are definitely not 3 times bigger than hers my engineering brain showed me visions of sinking into the mud up to my waist!



Thankfully there was a bridge further along... horses seemed to know it was the safest way to cross too.