Paddle boarding takes an usual Tern

Summer is nearly here for me well my summer weeks off are just around the courner but at my paid job my hours have been slightly reversed for a couple of weeks from mornings to nights. This change of working hours has enabled me to get out more in the mornings.

One morning I decided to headed to the river and I love to kayak/Paddleboard depending on my energy levels and what the rivers condition is dictates the craft I use. On this day I used my paddle board with no chair to save on carrying to much weight basically the set up above without chair.
On my way down river I spotted many Grebe nests and on branches next to them were Black backed gulls waiting for there chance to feast on the eggs which looked like it had happened as there were a few failed nests including a few flooded out. As I approached the bank where I pack up I heard that sea side sound I only normally hear on the coast in the summer and only noticed when I was right next to them, I jus wish I had my DSLR to photograph them well maybe sometime soon.

Common Terns pair on the river weaver

After doing a test night shift I finished at 6.30am and after 10 hours work I decided not to waste my day sleeping and headed off up into the Macclesfield hills to get some fresh air.

I love warm misty mornings and the new growth coming up by the canal

On my bank holiday walk to work I found a culvert by the canal where I could rest as its about 5 miles from home and on this day I found some Otter spraint which I've not found there before.

A few photographs from my brother at Ryan Mottrams wildlife as he has had a few encounters himself one being one of his friend has a swan nest in there garden every year and the owner has a bench nearby to there nest so mybrothergot some wonderful photographs of them hatching.
One of my favourites

Wild in his friends garden he alsospotted this escapee an Australian ringneck feeding in his seed feeding table. Not a clue where its come from maybe Chester Zoo and my brother is currently looking for the owners.

Stay wild and enjoy as it's the best time of the year for British Wildlife

Mike

A very wet few weeks and Wigg island

Sorry for not blogging I've been ill and lost some of the past 3 months of photographs thanks to a broken hard drive. Well, it been a long wet mixed bag month with a few new places visited and as the green shoots and leaves are beginning to appear. Locally birds are preparing their songs to defend their territories with nest building to begin in the next week or two. One Saturday we visited a few new places including Frodsham and Wigg island where we found the lost lagoon and the cool thing was that the Tufted ducks there seemed unbothered by us and came quite close to the small lakes the main bank which allowed for a few close shots of these normally shy birds.

 The views from the island are beautiful and plenty of greenery and the calls of waders on the sandbanks make it a wonderful place to relax even if they have just built a massive bridge over it.

I have discovered a few new interesting products I want to use this summer relating to renewable energy because I hope to film lots of clips from my adventures and encounters but being wild camping there's no way to recharge my cameras from a mains and the product below claims it can charge batteries using wind, water, and manual crank features. 

I am currently waiting for the inventor and supplier to send me a unit but so far after reading the reviews, I'm not sure if it will fit my needs or not. I'm off to Anglesey soon and I am streamlining my gear. I have spent a few hours practicing setting up my wild camping gear including my homemade hammock, which will feature heavily this summer as I will be watching and photographing from my hammock 

if I can find two trees in the area of Badgers, Otters and the sea.

 Me getting comfy in my sleeping bag in my hammock, I thought about hanging some feeders to watch the birds from my hammock bed.

 My favorite view especially when the sky is navy, the reeds are brown and the green grass is all lit up by the winter sun

 View of the estuary on our 20 miles walk from Warrington to Wigg island then to Northwich via the River Weaver

After I had a couple of warm days paddling the rain came out in force and  we had a few flash floods which

cleared any river blockages down river plus the sticks were pushed onto paths.

 The river actually dropped to very low levels and I got a couple of days to paddle board in the sun

I am really excited for the next few months as I'm back into my camera trapping and as I hope to do lots of wild camps by the rivers and lakes plus in woods so I'll be setting a camera on me and a camera on mammal paths nearby but Otters are my main mammal this year as I really enjoyed my time in and on the rivers last year.

A future blog photograph as I forgot to post about this little encounter over the Autumn in 2018

A very quiet month really between hibernating and prepping everything for the warmer months but I have had two interesting emails this week one from the one show about being part of a short film about Moles and me having a particular love for them but having only taken one lucky photograph of a Mole 10+years ago emerging from its hole so as I don't have any other experience with them I have kindly rejected the offer. The other email I received was from a wild camping/glamping site in Powys on the edge of Snowdonia called the Cledan valley, they have offered me a few nights stay in2019 so I can review there wildlife credentials and attractions to see if I can maybe offer a few nights as a prize for a competition through www.Gowildlifewatching.co.uk but that's still to be worked out as I am not sure I can get any more time off as I've just booked this years weeks on Anglesey.

Some very interesting and exciting offers at the beginning of this year and I cannot wait to see what's around the corner in the exciting world of being Wild and free.

Thank you for reading and make time for Nature 

Regards

Mike