Wanderings

Monthly Report, February 2022

Circumstances dictated that this should be an Oxford month - in many ways we were able to treat it as another LockDown month - returning to the routines and walks from the other LockDowns. The pictures of the day came from the C S Lewis Reserve, the Lye Valley, Shotover, Mesopotamia, Sydlings Copse and (most often) Bury Knowle Park.

There were lots of good sunrises to watch, emerging flowers to photograph and storm damage to mend (and photograph!).

Reporting Days: 28

Location: Oxford

Miles Walked: 104

Mile Driven: 9.7 (yes, really!)

Gardens Tended: 1 (including a little bit of fence mending)

Photographs taken: Hundreds - mostly trees (some broken)

Sunrises

Despite the challenges of not being able to see a horizon from the Oxford house (too many adjacent buildings) there are points in the year when I can see decent sunrises from my office window - February is one of those months.

Headington Sunrise #1

Headington Sunrise #2

Emerging Flowers

Early spring is a time of constant floral change as flowers appear overnight.

Crocuses

Snowdrops

Storm Damage

Having three named storms roll through in a few days - did take its toll in the local woodlands, but fortunately not too much domestically.

Storm Damage - C S Lewis Reserve

Storm Damage - Green Lane, Shotover

Walks

Dark Clouds over Bury Knowle Park

High Water at Parson's Pleasure, Mesopotamia

On the Lye Valley Boards

Blue Skies at Sydlings Copse

Monthly Report, January 2022

That was a long month.

The calendar insists that it was only 31 days - but my money is on there being more like 50-something days.

The month covered the tail end of a very relaxed Christmas time (I'm a firm believer in Christmas starting around Christmas Day and lasting at least until Twelfth Night), it's included a short (and stormy) period on Shetland and ended with spending several days hanging around hospitals back in Oxford.

Reporting Days: 31

Location: Mostly Oxford, with a few travelling days and Shetland days thrown in too

Miles Walked: 104

Miles Driven: 1426 (that's what a round trip to Shetland gets you)

Gardens Tended: 2 (assuming fence mending counts as gardening)

Photographs Taken: Thousands (a blend of sunrises, sunsets, trees and waves)

2nd January - Aston Rowant Nature Reserve, Oxfordshire

4th January - Sunset at White Horse Hill, Oxfordshire

9th January - Parson's Pleasure, Oxford

19th January - Waves, Scat Ness, Shetland

22nd January - Lighting Up, Sumburgh Head Lighthouse, Shetland

24th January - Sunrise, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

27th January - Sunset, Bury Knowle Park, Oxford

31st January - Snowdrops, Stoke Place, Oxford

12 Days Wild

The 12 Days Wild initiative from the Wildlife Trusts is always a good incentive to drag myself away from the cheeseboard for a few of the daylight hours each day over the Christmas & New Year break.

Each year we visit regular walks and try to add a very new walks into the collection too - even if on some days it's not much more than a scout round the garden to make sure that the feeders are full and that the pond hasn't frozen over.

Day 1: River Cherwell

Day 2: Green Lane, Shotover

Day 3: Checking the feeders

Day 4: Lye Valley

Day 5: Pond Life

Day 6: Parson's Pleasure

Day 7: C S Lewis Nature Reserve

Day 8: Stoke Place

Day 9: Aston Rowant

Day 10: Ivinghoe Beacon

Day 11: Uffington White Horse

Day 12: Littleworth Nature Reserve

Next stop - 30 Days Wild in June.

Monthly Report, December 2021

Another southern month - with a photographic tendency towards trees plus sunrises and sunset - and occasional ornithological interludes.

Reporting Days: 31

Location: Oxford

Miles walked: 97

Miles driven: 354

Gardens tended: 2

Photographs taken: hundreds (mostly trees)

Trees

Still hints of autumn colour at the start of the month - but definitely into full winter look by mid-month.

Green Lane, Shotover

BBOWT Warburg

BBOWT Sydlings Copse

Sunrises & Sunsets

Several fleeting but dramatic sunrises - and even the occasional sunset too.

Sunrise from the office window

Sunset in Bury Knowle Park

Birds

Lots of activity around the garden feeders - but swans and kingfishers elsewhere.

Starlings in the garden

Swans at Weston Turville Reservoir

Kingfisher on Port Meadow

That Was 2021

2021 was a strange year. In many ways just a continuation of 2020 - so how do I distinguish it from 2020?

Travel was again pretty much curtailed - still haven't been on a plane, train or bus since early 2020 - and travel has been primarily day trips between Oxford and Surrey plus a number of extended trips to Shetland (achieved by car and boat).

Having got the travel grumble out of the way, and on the plus side, I'm actually quite pleased that my carbon footprint has been so reduced and it's been splendid to have had so many days when the big decision was which Shetland beach to wander on.

I have successfully taken another 365 pictures of the day. I have successfully taken another 12 pictures of the month (see below for this years set). I've taken a bewilderingly large number of photographs (I'm blaming the auks - and the very fast silent rapid shooting function on the new cameras).

My vague target was to walk 2000 miles this year - haven't even made it to 1500 - again, I think I'm going to blame the auks, I spent far too much of the Shetland summer sitting watching them to clock up the walking miles I might otherwise have done.

And since this seems to have turned into another post about auks, I might as well point out that I've seen five species of auk around Shetland this year - puffins, guillemots, black guillemots and razorbills and, finally, a little auk - much less common around Shetland than it's cousins but no less welcome.

Auks