A few hours by the Crown hotel

Last week we decided on taking a bus trip to an area I've seen while on route to Wales for our cottage holidays. The area in question is small beach/pebbled area with some rocks and plenty of muddy for lots of waders, Geese and duck species. There were a large number of birds including Godwits a first sighting for me. There is only access via a bridge over the railway and when we arrived the tide was just coming in pushing the waders ever closer to us.

To the keep the weight down my brother brought his camera and I left mine allowing me to have more room for food supplies. As it was quite overcast and we only intended a quick visit it seemed the best plan. It was our last visit over the Welsh border till December. To make this Winter holiday more special we have decided to book a cottage with a view and hopefully if the weathers bad we don't have to leave the cottage to spot Dolphins, sea birds, seals and who knows even Whales have been known to visit the coast in December.

A little tease of the cottage below

Regards

Mike

Cheshire Badger cull :-(

Where science and facts have been pushed aside the Badger cull has once again started and has now come to Cheshire. I know a few people involved with legally disrupting the cull shooters and making sure they follow the rules where they can.

Those people out there fighting the injustice have my respect I would love to be involved but as I can't drive and the cull area in Cheshire is in the middle of a no bus area. Instead, I have decided to keep an eye on all my local setts and try to check 10 every other day including poo pits for traces of peanuts and sett disturbances as in early 2017 sett diggers were disrupted on my local patch. At nearby Blakemere I spotted these dodger diggers which I reported to Cheshire hunt monitors.

We only the second week of 6 weeks of shooters being allowed to trap and shoot Badgers and hopefully, the quota they won't be met. We will only know that once the 6 weeks are over if the hard work of the sabs (Badger defenders) who are sacrificing their time and own money pays off.

You can donate to them here:

If you can donate anything to there fuel fund they would really appreciate it!
https://gogetfunding.com/badger-cull-fuel-fund-2/

Regards

Mike

"Stay safe Badger warriors, for you are the last stand against the death in the darkness"

A suprise encounter :-) :-)

 I know I said I would not be posting but last week on the first day of my week off I got the opportunity to get something I've been trying to photograph for a while. If you have followed my blog over the past few years you will know how long I have been trying and all though the shots are not the best they mean the world to me. Last Monday I headed out early with wellies, umbrella and camera in my back pack as I left home the rain poured down and as it was very warm it was quite pleasant. I saw the Otter in an open part of the river stretched out swimming down river diving and surfacing but getting further away and not having my camera out at that point I had to think fast to get anything on my camera. I decided to run further down river to an Open spot where I new the water was shallow and the Otter would have to emerge from the water to enter deeper water. And it did I watched as it left the water skulking low using the balsam as cover it entered a deeper pool and dived for a minute then came to the surface where I got my second shot before it disappeared into the more overgrown parts of the river.

 First photograph I took from under some trees and not wanting to scare I turned the flash off

 Color close up to show this beautiful creature up close a few meters away

After this encounter I returned home elated and with the rain still pouring down I decided I had earned a few more hours in bed after finally getting this close encounter and with a few blurry shots to record the moment was a perfect start to my last week off of the summer season.

The beauty of my local patch on a sunnier morning

Later that week I went to check out some countryside an hour away from home at a town called Macclesfield which is close to some hilly and large areas of forest but we could not stay long due to having to get back to pack for a 2 day camping trip to Wales.

Kind regards

Mike