Friday 10 April 2020

Contrails and photo fails

With the ongoing lockdown and what is effectively a zero hours contract to be a key worker, I was in a bit of a dilemma as regards transport. My firm's van was overdue a service and my own car (which I use for Shetland trips, so as not to be confused with a similarly-liveried firm up there) was in need of an MOT certificate. After much rumination, I contacted a garage to see if their virus precautions would allow for the work to be done. Not a problem, I was told, so now the 'fleet' is stamped and certified as appropriate.

On the way back from the garage yesterday morning, I spotted (as did just about every other resident of these isles) some tell-tale contrails in the sky to the south east. We don't often suffer from contrails, and I mean that in an aesthetic sense rather than any conspiracy theory sense. From the look of the pattern, there had been some RAF refuelling drills.




I would imagine that it is a very intricate manoeuvre which has to have pinpoint accuracy, so as the saying goes, 'practise makes perfect'!

This morning, Our Lass and I were gazing out of the window at Starlings foraging on the lawn and House Sparrows collecting nesting material in the borders, when I spotted a Brown Hare heading in our direction across a ploughed field.

Nipping outside for a photo was not an option, as the animal would have scarpered as soon as it sensed me, but unfortunately, due to the angle, our windows didn't open to allow a clear view in the hare's direction. So, sadly, I had to make do with shots through glass. To compound my frustration, the hare had an uncanny knack of placing gate posts, fence posts and a dry stone wall between the two of us or in the shot. But it was lovely to have such an extended view of the creature going about its day.








I managed to crop out the gate posts, but the jauntily-angled fence post was often in shot. As it is in a farmer's paddock, I don't feel justified in attacking it with a saw! 

2 comments:

Katie (Nature ID) said...

Feedly showed all these images with the grey circle. But directly on your site, I can the photos.

Imperfect and Tense said...

This was definitely one of the posts with missing photos. It's ok for me directly on Blogger, now that I have reloaded. I guess the critical test would be if I edited/updated it again and then see what happens. I'm not that bored of lockdown... yet!