Today it was Mouldon Hill Country Park and though the sky was bright red at 5:00am, it actually brightened up really nicely and by the time I got home it was a pleasant 15°C at 6:30am.
Mouldon Hill is a welly boot walk, but that wasn't enough to keep my legs dry, as I waded through 4ft high grasses in the scrubland between the River Ray and the canal. This stretch has hardly been walked along this year and the track was barely visible!
However before I got to Mouldon Hill, Dawn and I did our good deed for the day by stopping an ASDA lorry with a tyre on fire, on the A419. We had been following a trail of rubber all along the dual carriageway and then Dawn saw a piece of burning rubber fly off the lorry in front of us. We managed to stop the driver, who was quite relieved that we had done so. I'm pleased to say that on my way back south after my walk, he had a breakdown van with him changing the tyre. Boy doesn't burning rubber stink!!
Once I'd dropped Dawn off, it was down to the Country Park where I parked up and took a clockwise route. The first thing that was noticeable were the huge numbers of slugs and snails, with most of them on the umbelifers. The majority were Black and Red Slugs, with lots of White-lipped Banded Snails and Garden Snails. With the paths and vegetation absolutely sodden I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised.
Other highlights were a Roe Deer close to car park, a Kingfisher with a fish on the River Ray and 4 House Martins over the Pool.
Anyway here are a few images from this morning:
"Red Sky in the morning" though this morning instead of rain the sun came out!
A Roe Deer keeps a watchful eye on me.
A Red Slug
A Black Slug
And a Yellow Slug
A Garden Snail
There were quite a few Blackcaps still singing away around the country park.
As were a few Song Thrushes.......
........and Common Whitethroats.
On the Pool there was a family of Great Crested Grebes with some noisy youngsters.
Bird Recorded: Great Crested Grebe, Grey Heron, Canada Geese, Mallard, Pheasant, Moorhen, Coot, Black-headed Gull, Wood Pigeon, 2 Swift, 1 Kingfisher, Great Spotted Woodpecker, 4 House Martin, 2 Swallow, 1 Grey Wagtail, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, 5 Song Thrush, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Common Whitethroat, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, 2 Willow Warbler, Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Starling, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch and 4 Bullfinch.
Also:
1 Roe Deer
Black Slug, Arion ater
Red Slug, Arion rufus
White-lipped Banded Snail, Cepaea hortensis
Garden Snail, Cornu aspersum