Monday 24 October 2011

AutumnMunch

The Admiral and I have been on a boys' weekend in Devon, ostensibly to attend the British Dragonfly Society's Members' Day 2011, this year held at the Dame Hannah Rogers Trust's Seale-Hayne campus, near Newton Abbot.

During our journey south on Friday, we were fortunate to spot an Osprey flying over Dyrham Park, a National Trust property near Bath. The return trip was even more eventful with a visit to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve at Slimbridge. I've undoubtedly whinged before about this being nothing short of a duck zoo, but it came up trumps on Sunday, with some proper wildlife in the form of a Spoonbill, a Peregrine Falcon and flocks of Black-tailed Godwits and Barnacle Geese. Shame I didn't have Very Wrong Len with me, really. Oh, and three Migrant Hawkers, for good measure.

The staff are also creating an imaginative wildlife garden, of which I was able to capture a few images, before I was enthralled by the siren song of the tea shop.

Excellent use of a redundant shipping container
Ingenious bug houses/wildlife stacks

6 comments:

Iain Robinson said...

I applaud the re-use of the shipping container- excellent. Like the bug houses, too. They look like an architect's model for a sustainable housing scheme.

Imperfect and Tense said...

It wasn't until this morning, when I picked up the latest WWT magazine, that I realised it was a reconstruction of an award-winning rain garden from Chelsea Flower Show. I don't suppose you have much trouble with drought in your neck of the woods :o)

Katie (Nature ID) said...

So, does the osprey sighting meet your 1 a year quota? I'm digging the use of the shipping container.

Imperfect and Tense said...

It's my second of 2011! We had a sighting back in May over in Norfolk. Whoop, I'm up on the deal :o)

Yeah, I'm really wishing we had room for one of those containers :o(

Joe said...

Those "bug houses" are incredible! Inspiring, to say the least. I'm so glad I found your blog! :D

Imperfect and Tense said...

Hi, Joe, and thank you for your kind words. Yep, those bug houses are both great for insects and aesthetically pleasing for us humans. I'd been searching for something a little bit different along those lines, as the usual wildlife stack is housed in a pile of wooden freight pallets. Not quite as nice to look at.