Wanderings

Bluebells, April 2019

It's been a good year for bluebells.

Around Oxfordshire there are always bluebells around at this time of year - and I've found clumps in lots of places - parks, gardens, riverbanks, hedgerows.

Stoke Place, Headington

Mesopotamia

But this year some of the bigger woodland areas have been positively dramatic - I don't know of the freakish weather over recent weeks has pushed all the bluebells into flower at the same time (I did read that the weather had compressed the pollen season to the evidence discomfort of the hay fever sufferers).

I took the chance to visit several woodland bluebell sites over the last few days - and they really have been breath-taking. If you get the opportunity, I'm sure there will still be plenty around this weekend.

Harcourt Arboretum

Greys Court

Sydlings Copse

There are more pictures from these sites in a Flickr Album.

Best Foot Forward

Today (5th April) is Walking to Work Day, so it seemed like a good time to review how far I've walked this year.

At the start of 2018 I signed up to walk 1000 miles in 2018.

I very quickly realised that since I'd walked just over 1300 miles the previous year this wasn't a very ambitious target, so I set myself a revised target of 1500 miles, which later got updated to 2000 miles.

By year end (and I'm blaming the rubbish weather in November and December) I actually clocked just over 1927 miles.

One thing that changed during the 2018 was my working pattern. I changed from working limited hours but with a long (car-based) commute, to a few months where I had lots of time away from desks (and thus lots of time for walking) to a job where I worked more hours but I could walk to work. This meant I had more time for short walks but less time for long walks.

So how's this year going? By this point last year I'd managed to clock up about 550 miles, this year I've only got to 410.

Must try harder - or at least further.

Weather All-Sorts, April 2019

Even a quick trip to Shetland usually offers a pretty good range of weathers.

Over a few days, particularly at this time of year, you'll get plenty of offerings from the weather selection box.

You'll probably see some dry weather, some rain and if you get really 'lucky' a spot of snow too.

Sumburgh Head Lighthouse - complete with blue skies and sunshine

Spring Snow

Watching Seals in the rain, on Scat Ness

You'll probably see some sunshine, and you'll certainly see some clouds.

Dunes on Quendale Beach in the sunshine

Scat Ness waves

Watching the showers rolling across West Voe of Sumburgh

You'll probably see some still days (or maybe just hours) but you'll almost certainly see some windy days too.

Wind-ripped waves at St Ninian's Beach

But, this being Shetland, the weather doesn't usually get in the way - you just put on an extra layer (and a Fair Isle hat) before heading out.

Shag on the Rocks at Scat Ness

Running Wild at Grutness

If need a few photos from the south end of Shetland over the last few days - there's a Flickr Album.

Fog. Where was the fog? You can't claim to have had full set of Shetland weather without fog.

Well, maybe next time.

Watching the Waves, March 2019

It would be fair to say that quite a few of my Shetland blog posts could have a subtitle of “Watching the Waves”.

Often the waves are the side attraction that goes alongside watching the birds, spotting the otters and hoping for whales.

Last weekend was, however, pretty choice wave watching weather. Unusually, both for Shetland most weeks and for the rest of UK on this particular weekend, there wasn’t much wind around at the south end of Shetland. There was however plenty of wind further out at sea, so the waves when they made it to shore were pretty dramatic - and also somewhat unusually (must have been something to do with Storm Freya making her way around the southern parts of the UK) the winds changed direction, so for part of the weekend waves rolled in from the southwest and later were hauling in from the east.

Waves from the southwest (Ness o' Burgi)

Waves from the southwest (Brei Geo, Scat Ness)

St Ninians, Crowds

Calm days (Grutness Voe)

Waves from the east (Grutness Voe)

Although the weather was pretty benign (on shore at least) I did find a few reminders that it's not always plain sailing around Shetland.

In 1993, the Braer, an oil tanker, came unstuck at the south end of Shetland - eventually breaking up on Garth's Ness on the west side of Quendale Bay (and it was only by a series of extra-ordinary coincidences that the pollution was as localised as it was). Most of the wreck has over the years disappeared, and now only the mast is still visible, lodged in a narrow channel on the other side of Quendale Bay.

Last traces of the Braer

Other shipwrecks stick around much longer than the Braer has done. Over the years there have been 30 or 40 ships lost in Quendale Bay, some disappear completely, others get covered by sand and just very occasionally reappear.

West end of Quendale Bay, March 2019

West end of Quendale Bay, January 2007

So, what of the other cast that might distract me from waves watching? I certainly didn't spot any whales this time. However, the birds are starting to regroup on the cliffs (plenty of guillemots and a few razorbill, but it's still too early for the puffins). And I did get the bonus (even if it was a long way away, and in near darkness) of watching an otter in Quendale Bay searching for this evening meal.

Guillemots at Sumburgh Head

Otter in Quendale Bay

Seven Book Challenge

Just the covers. No explanation. No reviews.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Exploring with Camera

(From The Oxford Times, 14 February 2019)

Misty morning at the C S Lewis Reserve

There is probably no better time than Spring to explore the numerous BBOWT reserves around Oxford - and one of the delights of that exploration is to share it with family and friends. You can always tell them what you’ve seen, but they’ll get an even better flavour of your visit if you’ve got some photographs to share with them.

So, how do you go about taking the picture that shows the best of your local BBOWT reserve?.

When you first get into one of the reserves there is often a temptation to rush round trying to capture an image that says “I’m here!”, but once you’ve done that it’s worth slowing down, taking a deep breath and just watching and listening to what’s around. What birds or mammals are there? What flowers are in bloom? What’s the light doing - is there bright sunlight or is it a more overcast day?

The next step is to quietly explore the reserve. If it’s a reserve you’ve visited before, you might already have an idea what you want to photograph. If it’s a new reserve to you, wander around so that you can start to get an idea what photo opportunities it might provide. I’m particularly drawn to ponds and streams - so I’ll always look for some water when I’m exploring a new reserve.

Rivermead Nature Park

Once you’ve seen something that looks interesting, you can then start to think about how to frame the image in the camera (or on your phone). If it’s sunny, try and make sure that the light is behind you (so that the sunlight is on your back rather than on your face) - your eye is very good at adjusting to dark and light areas in an image, but the camera isn’t so good. If you have the light behind you’ll have the best chance of getting a well lit picture. If you’re taking pictures of other people make sure that their faces are in sunshine rather than in shadow.

Try holding the camera at different heights - there’s a temptation to stand with the camera at head-height, but there might be an even better picture if you kneel down or even (if it’s not too muddy) lie down before you press the shutter. You might want to try turning the camera sideways - people with camera phones often take ‘portrait’ pictures and those with traditional cameras usually take ‘landscape’ images - in both cases it’s worth experimenting with holding the camera the other way round.

When I’m framing up an image on the camera, I often try and imagine the story I’m going to tell about the picture once get home. In some cases you might want to zoom into the image - was it the little group of moorhens in the middle of the image that you wanted to be able to show in the picture. In other cases, it might be the sweep of the trees along the riverbank that was the main feature in your story so you would want to zoom out to show lots of trees.

If you’ve got a camera where you can adjust the settings, you can fine tune what the camera is doing. If you want to capture a fast moving insect or bird, you will need to set a very short exposure time (or some cameras this will be called a ‘sport’ mode) - that will freeze the action in your picture.

My final tip for capturing a great image on a BBOWT reserve is to visit at different times of day - the light will be different at dawn, in the middle of the day and at dusk. If you’re lucky (or pick the right day) you’ll get to take pictures in the soft light that photographers call ‘the golden hour’. You’ll also get to see different wildlife early and late in the day - and you might just capture that special image.

Still Winter, February 2019

One of the challenges - some would say opportunities - of travelling between Oxford and Shetland is not knowing what the weather is going to do when you get there. Some (for example, work colleagues) would quite reasonably assume that if the weather is cold and bleak in Oxford and if one was to travel, say 562 miles, due North you could expect it to be rather colder and bleaker.

But it just doesn’t work like that.

The seas around Shetland certainly make a difference but it seems to be more than that. In fact, generally, it seems that the simplest way of guessing the weather would be to assume ‘the opposite’. If it’s cold and icy in Oxford then it’s likely to be mild on Shetland. If it’s blowing up a storm in central England, there will be crowds on the Shetland beaches. If it’s hot and sunny in the Thames Valley, then the fog and mist will have descended around Sumburgh Airport.

So when one heads off from on a cold and icy Saturday morning from Oxford, it would be entirely reasonable to expect to need beach attire (*) when you get to the south end of Shetland.

Quendale Beach

One of the other bonuses of being of on Sunny Shetland (as opposed to Overcast Oxford) at this time of the year is that it’s always Golden Hour - that magical chunk of time sought out by photographers when, around sunrise and sunset, the light takes on a lovely warm glow.

When the time between sunrise and sunset is short (as it is on Shetland at this time of year) the sun never gets very high in the sky, so you’ve got a good chance of getting golden light at anytime during the day.

Golden Light on Scat Ness

The other (OK, maybe only) thing about Shetland weather that can be promised is that it is going to change. If on one day the seas are smooth and flat, you can be sure that there will be waves rolling in on the next day.

Calm Seas around Mousa

Waves on Scat Ness

No guarantees mind, this is Shetland weather we’re talking about.

Snow Clouds over Fitful Head

*In this context "beach attire" means one fleece plus walking boots and a woollen Fair Isle hat.

The Many Days of Wild Christmas

It's not easy keeping track of things during the extended Christmas/New Year holiday season.

Common wisdom would have us believe that there are 12 Days of Christmas (starting with Partridges and Pear Trees and rattling through to 12 drumming drummers) - but that does clash with the retail model where Christmas starts somewhere around 10th October and the Christmas party season that kicks in at the start of December. (Disclosure: my office Christmas lunch was on the 6th December this time round).

And even if you do try stick to the idea that there are only 12 Days of Christmas, who knows when they start - some folks insist that 25th December is the first day, others that they start on the 26th - meaning that the 12th day is either the 5th or 6th of January

This year it got even more confusing (in my house at least) by the introduction by the Wildlife Trusts of the 7 Days of Wild Christmas. At least the Wildlife Trusts were clear when the 7 Days of Wild Christmas started and finished. Day 1 was 25th December, Day 7 was 31st December.

However, I can now officially reveal that there were (this winter, at least) 16 Days of Christmas (mostly wild) starting with sunrise on the morning after the winter solstice and finishing on 6th January.