Shades of Autumn and fat badgers

Down on the canal all is quiet - the excited laughter and shouting of summer visitors a distant memory.

But some old friends return - drifts of long-tailed tits pass by. 

Out in the back garden badgers numbers are down. Most nights just one big fat female visits, although sometimes she is joined by a younger one. The others (the gang of eight) seem to have dispersed back to the fields and woodlands to the south. (We have cut the snacks back a little!)

Badgers don't fully hibernate but they do become much quieter in the winter and, in this part of the world, spend far less time above ground.

Here she is enjoying a little left over pizza off the lawn. She looks in good shape for winter.

And here is what happens when she finds a very tasty morsel:

Evidently, something as tasty as this choice little item is too good to eat in public and needs to be carried away to the safety of the hedgerow. (She did not come back until thirty minutes later - it was that tasty and, no, I don't know what it was.)

The starling flock that visits the same little patch of lawn seems to have done OK this summer. It is difficult to know if the flock has grown or not but now all the juveniles have full adult plumage and,  whilst they remain very nervous (a lasting effect of attacks from the local sparrowhawk and cats), they seem in good shape.

And here's an unexpected visitor - a lovely lady pheasant:

Autumn Reflections

These are all images from one perfect Autumn day when the weather and the trees conspired to make a little transient magic.

Most of the deeper hues come from artfully planted maples here in Stourhead garden but even the humble ubiquitous oak offers some striking yellows (along with the ginko trees).

Cygnets are caught on golden reflections and thousands of people have come to the gardens today to take in the Autumn. This is a landscape made for a aristocratic few now enjoyed by all.

Autumn Red

Some images from central London on a sunny Autumn day. 

Most images are from around the Serpentine Lake in St James Park but the last shows the view down The Mall towards Buckingham Palace where the red flags of China fly alongside the UK's 'Union Jack' - marking the state visit of the Chinese Premier.

View along the Serpentine towards Horseguards

A solitary grey heron among the fallen leaves

The view towards the Palace

View towards the Palace along the Mall hung with huge flags.

A small whale comes ashore.

A report came in whilst I visiting the Dolphin Centre in Spey Bay on Sunday morning that a whale had stranded not far away. The report included photos and a position on a map. A swift car journey followed by a scramble on slippery cliff paths - initially in very much the wrong direction - eventually leads us down to a complex shore of multi-coloured boulders, pebbles, rocks and sand. 

The whale is lying almost right side up high on the shore but below the strand line.

Her eyes are shut and her double blow-hole firmly closed. This is miniature baleen whale. She has an immaculate series of parallel pleats below her chin. (In life these pleats would have allowed her throat to bell out and take in water and prey.) The immaculate white stripes on her nearly tucked in pectoral fins say clearly she is a minke whale. Almost the smallest of all the baleen whales reaching only 7-9 metres when fully grown and this one is small even for this species, maybe only 5 metres. Hardly bigger than the bottlenose dolphins for which these waters are better known. And she is very skinny. 

Her back is concave to either side of the massive ridge of her spine.She is freshly dead. She smells sweet; there is no hint of decay. In fact for a few moments I fear she is only in repose, holding her breath and denying signs of death as only a whale can do. Some gentle probing confirms no sign of life and then careful examination also shows the marks of scavengers mixed with the scrapes to her black skin which has been scored in places as her body had been carried on the waves through the rocks to where she now rests.

Her mouth on the side slightly twisted down is gaping slightly, and fine white baleen shows inside.

There is no obvious wound to help explain her death, although we do not turn her to look underneath. The expert pathologists from Inverness will inspect her fully in due course.

Whilst I have talked about her species a lot over the years and I have seen her kind fleeting pass by and under boats, this is a rare opportunity to look at one up close.

So I admire how immaculate and streamlined she is; the beauty of her simple symmetry.  I note her pointed rostrum, her triangular head, her beautifully crafted bifurcated tail fins and her immaculate coat of black (above) counter-shaded through grey to pure white (below), and - of course - it is also sad.

Sad because she is broken and we are too late to help.

her tail

Her pectoral fin with its stripe of white

baleen inside her mouth

the pointed tip to her jaws

a small minke on the shore 

Along the River Spey on a lovely Autumn Day

The point where river meets sea

Scotland's most important salmon river, the River Spey, meets the sea at Spey Bay. Its brown tannn-stained waters enter the sea through a narrow channel that winds through banks of pebbles and shingle that are reshaped each year by winter storms. Currently the banks form a lagoon-like area of flat sluggish water where swans, ducks and gulls forage off to one side of the river moith and away from the gentle surge of the sea.

Finest Scottish Shingle

Looking towards the sea across the 'lagoon'

Mute swans in the lagoon in the foreground - the Speybay settlement behind 

The Tugnet Icehouse at the mouth of the Spey

A humble dwelling on the shingle bank - would suit DIY enthusiast

The stained waters of the Spey 

Grey herons on the Spey

The old Garmouth Railway Bridge - now part of the Speyway cycle track

Giant Hogweed

On the old bridge

Silver birch

Rose hips

Where river meets sea and sky on a fine Autumn day

Signs of Autumn - the Rut

Young fallow deer buck

Here be Autumn:  new colour comes to deciduous tees as they move nutrients elsewhere before they shed their leaves; fruits and berries abound and many animals put on fat and build up stores to help them through the cold months soon to come; and for Britain's naturalised fallow deer it is a time of high drama: 'the rut'.

The males have grown palmate antlers - bigger in the older males - and, by early October, these big bony spiky structures have lost their protective velvet. The males' adam apples are bulging (helping their throaty roar) and their necks and shoulders ripple with muscle.

As autumn deepens, the bucks initially form bachelor herds and hone their fighting skills by bashing the local trees about and play fighting. Then they become more solitary and the oldest and best antler-endowed will fight for access to the females. This goes on for about three weeks before they return to their quieter lives.

Some tree bashing and leaf nibbling.

A small group of younger males

A buck with bulging adam's apple

A fine large set of antlers here

Reaching up to accost a tree

Take that, tree!

 

Antlers adorned

The rest of the herd - does and fawns and a few young males

Does and fawns