#the redstart was a complete surprise

[bitsandbirds]

Ok, so I was taking a walk with my family down by the local harbour, to get fresh air and all after the holiday frenzy. Great Northern Divers (common loons for you Americans out there) were on my mind as we were passing by an ideal spot to look out over the sea and there has been reports of them nearby in the county recently.

We are coming back from the pier, and on the grass, I see a little bird foraging. “Oh it’s just a robin,” I think, as it had a very robin-like silhouette and movements. I look through the bins and I’m immediately ecstatic, because it was not a robin, but a Black Redstart! Uncommon in Ireland, but not an unheard rarity. There were many walkers there too, completely unaware of the little guy, walking as normal. To think that there was a unique little guy right there under their noses and they just don’t know… My family were almost indifferent, kinda bamboozled cuz i just gasped like I had seen a celebrity out of nowhere lol. They showed some curiosity at home tho. :)

The way she jumped up to catch some bugs and showed the rusty orange rump and tail, and the dark streak down the middle, all on a slate grey little bird. What a pleasant holiday surprise, and a 3rd lifer of the week! Might post the pics later today.

Additionally, there were also some black guillemots out on the sea, where some of them had the snow white winter plumage. Also a very lovely thing to see after the 25th, especially since it’s been maybe a year since my last Black Guillemots. A late Christmas present indeed. :)

[narniaandplowmen]

The Wild Returned

Fandom: The Witcher  Pairing: Geralt/Jaskier  Also on AO3 6773 words.

General Audiences / No Archive Warnings Apply Complete

When he arrived back at the foot of the mountain, Geralt most decisively went in the complete opposite direction of Jaskier’s smell. He didn’t hear the animal following him at a safe distance.

* * *

Jaskier didn’t necessarily plan on following Geralt. They just happened to be travelling in the same direction, that was all.

[Read the first chapter here]

Please note that this chapter mentions suicide, though no characters actually commit suicide.

CHAPTER 2 - The Wild Returned

He had thought it had been a misunderstanding, a mistake, some sort of error. Surely Jaskier would be teaching in Oxenfurt, or flirting with Countess de Stael, or gracing the court of some king or other with his presence and performance. But as time went on, and village after village and city after city and person after person confirmed that the famous Jaskier had indeed disappeared, Geralt started to panic.

His first instinct was to travel back to the last place he had seen Jaskier, to trace him from there. So that was exactly what he did. He asked for information in the villages he passed along the way, some of them more helpful than others. He didn’t fail to notice that every place seemed to have at least one citizen who, though eying him suspiciously, was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Geralt knew that Jaskier’s songs were widespread and popular, but he had never truly appreciated their effects until now.

It wasn’t till the first rain of stones landed on him that he had realised just how long ago it had been since the last time anyone had chased him away like that. And what had he said to Jaskier the last time he had seen him, maybe the last time he would ever see the bard? Something about ‘if life could give me one blessing, it would be to take you off my hands’?

He didn’t want to admit it, but the pressing silence without the ever-chattering bard on his side got to him. He didn’t even talk to Roach anymore, his tongue too heavy to fill the unfamiliar quiet around him. In the past two decades, he had grown accustomed to telling Roach what he wanted to tell Jaskier but couldn’t, but now there were no more words to say. What did Roach care that they would rest in an hour, that they would reach a village before nightfall, that the bird whistling in the distance was a rare black redstart?

The wolf still followed him, and still refused to accept any food. Instead, the creature occasionally left freshly-killed prey for him to find, like some invisible guardian, as if Geralt were some young pup unable to take care of himself.

* * *

They were a day’s travel away from the mountain when Geralt addressed the wolf for the first time since leaving Kaer Morhen.

‘I don’t-’ the words sounded broken in his untrained throat. ‘I don’t know when exactly you started following me, but we’re near the mountain range where I first noticed you. Well over 200 miles west of there, but still.’ He stared into his small fire for a while before speaking once more. ‘I’m here to find a-’ he fell silent once more. How could he even begin to describe what Jaskier was to him? ‘A- a friend, I suppose. Although I never told him that. Instead, I was a dick.’ Now that the words were coming he couldn’t stop. ‘I blamed him for everything wrong with my life, even though none of that was his fault. He didn’t tell me to claim the law of surprise, that was my own stupid fault. And I made the wish that almost made him die. And- And I can’t even count the number of times that the money he earned allowed me to eat, allowed me to bathe, allowed me to sleep in safety. And what did I do to repay him? Chase him away, like I do with every mortal that comes too close. I’m an idiot.’

If he wasn’t terribly afraid of chasing away the one thing that voluntarily stayed with him, he would have screamed.

The next day, at the bottom of the mountain, he decisively walked into the forest, towards the place he had run away from what seemed like so long ago.

When he didn’t hear the steps of the wolf following him, he pretended it didn’t hurt.

* * *

The forest floor revealed no footprints. The flowery cover of Jaskier’s scent had long since faded away, although the distinctive autumn pinewood smell that had followed him for two entire decades had not ceased to tease his nose ever since the fateful day he had cursed the man and left him for dead. Geralt knew it was foolish, knew that there was no way of knowing where Jaskier had gone, but he trudged on anyway.

The forest was filled with caverns and caves, some leading to long, dark, winding underground mazes, others leading to deep, endless pools or fast-rushing waters. The small relief that no monsters - save for himself - seemed to be roaming these woods was undone by his rapidly growing anxiety that Jaskier could have gotten lost anywhere. One wrong turn, one misstep and the bard could have fallen to his doom, or gotten lost in the tunnels carved out by centuries of streaming water. If Jaskier was truly gone, had truly disappeared into these woods never to be seen again, then-

Geralt didn’t dare finish that thought. Instead, he entered yet another cave and yelled the bard’s name, desperately wishing he wouldn’t find a rotted skeleton clad in red leather.

He continued combing through the forest and its caverns as the sun set, using the light of the waxing, almost-full moon as his guide. He was considering taking Cat when a sudden bark disrupted his search. In the distance, he could see the silhouette of a large wolf. It barked again, before disappearing into a cave, reappearing moments later as if to see if Geralt followed.

Muttering to himself that he was going mental, Geralt grabbed Roach’s reins and followed.

* * *

The cave the wolf had disappeared into was surprisingly light. Although the edges of the quiet pool would have been impossible for humans to see, the moon shining through the web-covered hole in the ceiling brightened the slippery stone and dark water more than enough for the Witcher’s eyes. More than enough for him to see a tuft of bright fabric poking out of a slit in the wall. More than enough for him to find sure footing whilst rushing towards it, more than enough for him to grab it, to touch it, to feel, see, smell, know that the shirt he was cradling, still smelling faintly of flowers through the damp, cavernous scent, was once Jaskier’s.

Geralt’s feeling of dread grew as he found more and more possessions of the bard hidden through the cavern.

Songbooks, lute strings, some coins, a comb, a dagger and an ornate ring.

And, as the angle of the moon slowly changed during the night and something glittering in the pool caught his eye, the freezing temperatures of the water was not the only reason Geralt shivered. Perfume bottles, a bag filled with clothes, rusted jewellery, tiny rotten wooden statues, various nicknacks and trinkets picked up during their travels, ones he had always teased Jaskier about when the bard complained about his heavy luggage.

It was sunrise when Geralt finally left the cave and rejoined a nervous Roach. Next to her stood a large, grey wolf with piercing blue eyes reminiscent of the man who must, had, couldn’t possibly be otherwise than at the deepest bottom of the underground lake, deeper than he could dive.

It was then that Geralt collapsed and cried.

They had been travelling for three weeks when Jaskier realised where they were heading. He had no idea why on earth Geralt would want to go back there, what there was to gain from visiting that cursed place where he had ripped Jaskier’s heart in pieces as if it were a loaf of soft bread served alongside a bowl of stew. Jaskier huffed. Living in the wilderness without his human body or talking companions had really taken away his more poetic tendencies.

He still followed, though he lingered wherever he could. That aching emptiness that had taken hold of him the moment Geralt had revealed his true sentiments, the void that had slowly started to mend itself as time went on, was torn open a little bit further with every step he took, every day they walked, every week that passed. Jaskier knew that if Geralt would climb that mountain back to the rock where it had happened, he would not be able to follow.

If Geralt climbed the mountain, Jaskier would turn and join his family for good.

For a moment, Jaskier feared that Geralt knew, that he had unmasked his disguise and was travelling to the mountain on purpose, as some sort of cruel punishment for continuing to follow him, against the man’s deepest wishes.

With every step closer to the mountain, that fear grew.

A day before they would arrive, the Witcher spoke, and Jaskier feared no more.

* * *

That night, as Geralt lay asleep, Jaskier slipped away in the direction of the forest where he had left his belongings. He wasn’t quite sure what to do next.

It was midday by the time he heard a familiar, rough voice call his name in the distance.

The sun had set by the time the Witcher came even remotely close to the correct cave. Jaskier stood and watched as the man methodically entered, searched and exited each cave, yelling a name he hadn't heard in almost a year. The forest, the caves, the chill in the air, the memories of the words spit in his direction not that far away from here tore through his heart as the voice breaking through the silent forest became more and more desperate.

When Geralt moved to step into a cavern Jaskier remembered lead to a steep drop into rapidly rushing water, he barked.

And immediately cursed himself for doing so. But it was too late, the man had heard. Of course he had, and now Jaskier had no choice but to act, but to point out the cave in which he had hidden his possessions, to lead him away from the danger Jaskier himself had almost fallen in. The gods only knew what would happen.

Jaskier closed his eyes and tried to be thankful that he at least got almost another year of being with Geralt.

Besides, Jaskier was pretty sure he would be able to outrun and outhide the Witcher in this environment, if worst came to worst.

The outcome he didn’t expect was the man coming out of the cave soaking wet, collapsing in front of him and crying.

[dansnaturepictures]

The third of my 10 wildlife/photography highlights of 2020 blogs: My year in the New Forest

I do this post every year now and as I felt it worked well last year I’m structuring this post like this again. I will roughly talk through notable New Forest walks and trips we had this year in chronological order, but then introduce thoughts about subsequent walks at the same place, a similar or nearby one or one that featured the same or similar wildlife next so it does flip around back and forth around the months a bit. It was another special and varied year visiting our beloved national park, even if coronavirus meant there was a hiatus where I really missed going to the forest during the first lockdown as has happened before for a different reason a long time ago for me.

It all started with an early winter visit to Denny Wood to help build my bird year list early on, for the first time since 2015 we didn’t visit here alongside Lakeside on New Year’s Day to see woodland species but still made it here early on and I had a little look at the heath between it and Shatterford on 3rd January. As well as taking in a really nice landscape as it got sunnier and sunnier that packed day for me I was happy to watch the feeding woodland birds spending precious moments with them seeing my first Marsh Tit, Coal Tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Dunnock, Nuthatch and Treecreeper of 2020, with my first Rook and Mistle Thrush of the year on the way driving in and on the way home nearby respectively.

Blashford Lakes was our location of choice on 4th January getting memorably lots of year ticks of bird species beginning with G. Standout birds I have seen at this rich reserve this year have included; Goosander, Goldeneye, Goldcrest, Great White Egret and Siskin. A standout visit to Blashford Lakes this year was my second of the year on 1st March which was one of my most special days of photography this year. I took some of my pictures I am most proud of this year as part of a high amount produced that day, including ones of a Robin one really closeup one that was one of my favourite ever pictures to take an early favourite of mine that I’d taken with my new camera that I got for Christmas, rainbows especially over Ibsley water, general landscapes, a Great Spotted Woodpecker one of my favourite birds and the nice bit of red fungi that there was so much of in the woods in the early days with my new macro lens which I got for my birthday shown in the first of my pictures in this photoset.

I had another strong year at other New Forest reserve Lymington-Keyhaven on the coast. Key species I saw there this year included; Kingfisher, Spotted Redshank, Spoonbill, Peregrine, Marsh Harrier, Slavonian Grebe, many Bar-tailed Godwits on multiple visits this quite special bird became a regular here this year I thought, Greenshank, Ruff, Knot, Whitethroat, Yellow Wagtail which I took the second picture in this photoset of at Pennington in early September, my first Sand Martin of the year in March and many more seen well in June, Common Tern seen fishing really closely that day too which was great, Little Tern, Sandwich Tern and Reed Warbler those three for the first time in 2020 on the same day on what was a memorable late spring return in May to here and the sea after two months away from this habitat during the first bit of the lockdown which was really a sweet and special day for us, Avocet, Shelducks and Little Ringed Plover well with offspring in the spring lovely to see in great numbers in some cases, Black-tailed Godwit, Eider Duck and the lovely Grey Phalarope and its rarer cousin the Wilson’s Phalarope on one amazing October day as I mentioned in my first highlights post. Many lovely Cetti’s Warblers’ calls heard here was great too and it was even delightful to see two Black Swans here in late January. The day I saw the lovely white headed Ruff and another later on stood out for visiting here in late February I saw the white headed and another Ruff there again in October in my best ever year of Ruffs generally this year as I took a large amount of photos and ones I was very proud of that stood out this year of flying Mute Swans, lovely sunny beautiful landscapes, Rock Pipit and more. I had an equally as high yielding photo day I was happy with on 5th September producing photos of Knot, the Yellow Wagtail, Mute Swan and Little Egret flying, young Shelduck, Turnstone up close, many landscapes, flowers and some autumnal sights which I liked a lot. I got a delightful moment on a June Pennington visit seeing two Mute Swans with eight cygnets my first seen anywhere this year cross the footpath and go down the bank into the sea to swim. I enjoyed seeing flowers such as sea aster at this reserve a lot this year too. I enjoyed other flowers at this reserve this year too including common toadflax and broad-leaved clover.  On the way back from seeing those three species at Lymington on 31st October it was atmospheric and brilliant on Halloween to see a gigantic full moon in the sky over the lovely forest landscape on the way back.

Another really pivotal day in my year which I already mentioned in my bird highlights of the year blog was a January visit to the Whitefield Moor/Holmhill area of the New Forest as part of one of my biggest weekends of the year. The Great Grey Shrike was an absolutely rare and mega bird to see one that had been widely seen by many that winter and a largely reported bird in the forest it was true joy to finally see it after a few attempts, as was the Hen Harrier very likely the same bird that had been my 200th of 2019 here on my last day of birdwatching/photography that year. My all-important first Bullfinch of the year completed a golden hat trick of bird year ticks with my first Fallow Deers of the year seen from the car on the way in at a part of the forest and some seen on the walk, and I took once again so many photos and some I was so proud of. The weather was amazing and sunny and the day felt part of something important for me. The Great Grey Shrike was only my fourth ever time seeing one (all in the forest over the years) but I soon got my fifth as on a trip to Milkham in the New Forest in March we were surprised to see one far away fly high into a tree. It was a sensational sight and made me really happy after a quieter period of birdwatching when coronavirus uncertainty had just started to hit I could be seeing a really rare bird and one we’d sort of found too it was smashing. I took the third picture in this photoset of this bird. It was generally an amazing day at Milkham a real rising star of a New Forest location wildlife wise for us as we are starting to see so much there where I also got my first year tick of March seeing my first Crossibills of the year late on. A fantastic and classic woodland New Forest species always an important one for me to see in a year this was my sixth straight year list I recorded this species on which I liked. That day I also saw Hawfinches in woods near Broomy Walk on the walk, a Grey Wagtail unusually on the path and got great views of two of my favourite birds the Buzzard and Great Spotted Woodpecker. Like I said in my highlights post about my favourite birds generally this year I’ve had brilliant years for both these species. I also took many landscape pictures I was happy with that day. It was a classic New Forest day in rich and varied habitat it has so much of and with iconic forest species.

I had a sensational day back at the Whitefield Moor/Holmhill bog walk on 11th July right in the summer especially for insects. I saw my first Common Grayling of the year one of my favourite butterflies always a top one to see in a year and Common Darter dragonfly of the year that day. I also got cracking views of an Emperor dragonfly flying over a pool right beside us it was fantastic to see such an intimate moment, and I saw male and female Silver-studded Blues on the heath on a sunny and hot day two species I had an especially good year for. Butterfly wise I managed to submit some sightings to the Big Butterfly Count that day from a small patch of the walk. Large White 10, Silver-studded Blue 6, Peacock 3, Brimstone 2, Meadow Brown 2, Red Admiral 1 and Ringlet 1 were the results great to chart them at this location. There was also so many Keeled Skimmers one of my favourite dragonflies out on the heath especially lots of golden females which was great I took one of my best photos this year of one with my macro lens it unusually staying still enough for long enough for to get a closeup picture. Buzzard, Jay two of my favourite birds, lots of Redstarts, Stonechats, Greenfinch and Chaffinch completed the highlights that day. As well as common red soldier beetle a species I saw so much those few days and Black-headed Gulls in the car park which I’d not seen here before. It was also amazing to see a Spotted Flycatcher on the way back at Football Green on the edge of the forest and get some nice Song Thrush views.

In late January myself and my Mum participated in an arranged walk with two lovely New Forest seasonal assistant rangers at Kings Hat as a result of a micro photography competition I had entered late last year. On quite a dark but lovely day walking in nice light rain it was great to go about the precious landscape and learn about the amazing work being done to manage the forest and how the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme works and its benefits. I especially liked learning about the iconic and unique to the New Forest rare tadpole shrimp, the important commoning, history of the forest and the work being done to recover the area from the impacts of verge parking. We also met like-minded people on the walk that day and it was a very polite and satisfying time. It was very memorable and a day I looked forward to a lot. Later that day we came back into the forest with the dogs and enjoyed a walk around Eyeworth Pond one of our top forest spots. As I said in my first highlights post the next month I saw my first Mandarin Ducks of the year in a call in there. In early March we were back there for another call in after a walk elsewhere and it was nice to see Mandarins, a Goosander up really close and enjoy some Mallards in a bit of sunlight on the pond on a day that had been showery that the sun brought out its colours so well. I took the fourth picture in this photoset of a Goosander.

Nearer to the outskirts of the New Forest at Badminston and Badminston Common I began my February by seeing one of my birds of the year when we managed to spot a Hoopoe that had been seen there, only my second ever. It was so amazing and perfect to get to spend a few minutes watching this esteemed, iconic and in some ways ultimate bird species moving about in horse fields. One of my best bits of the year for sure I was proud to have this experience and I took a record shot the fifth picture in this photoset of this remarkable bird. It was a beautiful new spot to discover in the forest too whether it be one offs or regular species birds often lead us to discover New Forest locations. We had a nice walk at nearby Calshot afterwards on the day where it was nice to see Brent Geese and a Little Grebe. aAs February went on a string of wet New Forest walks would provide us an outlet to still get out with the dogs and walk through named storms Ciara and Dennis. This included woodland walks at Acres Down and Hawkhill. It was quite something to see nature’s full force with trees swaying in the wind and that rain a moment in the year as such that will stay with us it defined those few weeks and what better place to observe this than the forest. This little period of time culminated in a walk at Blackwater where the weather wasn’t so bad throughout it eased off rather and it even got a little bit sunny, as the landscape my sixth picture in this photoset shows. I took a good few more photos that day after a slight drought for them with the weather and I got a surprise when at a strong place for them and a place we only discovered for them we got a distant view of my first Hawfinch of the year late on in the arboretum. Always a big moment for this strong forest species for me.

To end February on Leap Day at Pig Bush we had another classic New Forest day for us at this my favourite forest car park and walk. In the height of my boom period of photos at that stage where I’d regularly produce around 20 per trip and it became the new normal for a bit the new normal would be even higher later in the year of course I took yet another high amount of photos and some I was so happy with wildlife and landscape. I also got some top birdwatching done with views of my first Lesser Redpolls and Jack Snipe of the year in the woods and a boggy area respectively. It was great for the first time ever for me to see redpolls out in the wild sort of so not at a place where there were bird feeders. Obviously Blashford Lakes is where I usually see them in this setting and I’ve had some amazing up close views of them there especially last year but seeing some in the open like this shows another side to the species really. Like many of my walks this year there was a brilliant supporting cast of other species seen on this walk including Treecreeper, Redwing, Goldcrest, Nuthatch and Great Spotted Woodpecker and Buzzard again. Both the February Pig Bush and March Milkham visits gave me huge senses of being in a wilderness and both stood out for months to come. The weekend after this before the March Eyeworth Pond call in I referenced above in another sunny patch of the day we had a great walk at Hawkhill again seeing the duo Buzzard soaring against a brilliant bright blue sky and Great Spotted Woodpecker flying high into trees again and I took some memorable landscapes including the seventh of my pictures in this photoset showing its distinctive grassland.

On a grey Friday off work on 20th March I spent part of it at Acres Down where I got a brief view of a Goshawk flying in the sky, only my second ever of a top bird we first discovered this place partly for. One of my standout birds of the year again. There were also a lot of Buzzards around in what became a day of raptors with Peregrine and Sparrowhawk seen at Winchester Cathedral later in the day and Buzzard at home too. Alongside a Pennington visit the next day where I saw my first Sand Martins this year these were to be my last New Forest trips before the Covid-19 enforced hiatus in the first lockdown. What a way to sign off for a bit. When there later in the year I was happy to see my first Tree Pipit and Redstarts of 2020. Both exceptional species especially the former that I felt so lucky to see this year. I’ve had a great record for seeing Redstarts down the years especially in the forest which I was proud I could carry on with but the Tree Pipit I didn’t manage to see last year at all after a three year run of seeing them before so I was happy to see it on a hot and sunny day singing a bit too these two are among my birds of the year for many reasons. On a showery but quite humid July Saturday it was great to see a Red Deer in the New Forest on our way to nearby to Acres Down Millyford Bridge. A pretty nice view of it through vegetation. The second Red Deer I’d seen this year at that stage, quite unusual for us even more special that it was a New Forest sighting though as they’re such a key part of the biodiversity of the forest a key mammal there and I’ve not seen them here nearly enough in truth. On the walk at Millyford it was nice to see quite a few Song Thrushes and some foxgloves that appeared to have been knocked over but the flowers had started growing upwards from a sideways plant beside the river in woods it was beautiful to walk in that day a really sweet habitat I find which the New Forest hosts well which was interesting. It was also good to see a tree with mushrooms on that day too. We came back to Millyford Bridge later in July seeing more mushrooms, as well as Robin and cow both with young which was great, lots of Grey Wagtails it was lovely to see a great bird in this watery habitat, New Forest ponies, some Fallow Deers running through, lots of little moths and a Large Red Damselfly on a very relaxing Monday and tranquil walk on a Monday I had off work.

On the way back from Martin Down in May it was great to see a couple of adorable New Forest pony foals and Canada Geese with goslings by Janesmoor Pond. On the way back from Martin Down in July it was good to see some Fallow Deers and get great Stonechat and Goldfinch views in a layby on an ice cream stop by Stoney Cross when the forest landscape looked nice and atmospheric on a rainy day after seeing Goldfinch well before and after the walk at home. I had an astonishingly good day’s wildlife watching on a walk from Fritham to Cadman’s Pool in the New Forest on a very beautiful, hot and sunny second May bank holiday Saturday. On it I saw two beautiful Cuckoos and heard them on the walk my first of the year and I got second views this year and pretty spectacular ones too of Tree Pipit and Goshawk with two each seen. One Tree Pipit view was classic Tree Pipit with it singing loudly on top of a tree which was brilliant. On that day I also saw my first Southern Hawker and Keeled Skimmer dragonflies of the year, many Fallow Deers, many House Martins and Chaffinches, Redstart, Mistle Thrush, Buzzard and a few Small Heath butterflies. What a late spring day!

On 6th June I had a brilliant walk on a dry patch of a grey and showery day from Turf Hill to Deadman Hill. I felt a strong sense of wilderness of hearing the trees swaying a bit in the wind and smelling a summer heath. I also saw a little bit of early purple heather coming out and one of the habitat’s star species my first Silver-studded Blue butterfly of 2020 an amazing moment to see this precious species so nicely an early sighting for it in a year really on a mostly grey day slightly hunkered down on the slopes of Deadman Hill. A view of Yellowhammer, a young Stonechat, some Fallow Deers really closely, bog cotton grass and an adorable New Forest pony foal completed my highlights that day.

On a scorching Sunday at the height of a heatwave at Cadman’s Pool on a brief walk after another elsewhere in another national park the South Downs I was so happy to see my first Golden-ringed Dragonflies of the year flying over the steam here. Classic New Forest wildlife on a vintage summer wildlife day for me always a beautiful and well-marked dragonfly I aim to see in a year. I also got great Southern Hawker views of a female and did my last of many Big Butterfly Count surveys there seeing 8 Large White, 4 Gatekeeper, 4 Small White, 1 Holly Blue and also 1 Peacock which was nice adding some real variety of habitats for my butterfly counts this year. That day I was also thrilled to see like Golden-ringed Dragonfly a summer New Forest speciality two young Siskins, Bullfinch over a period I saw them a lot and lots of New Forest ponies on a hot day including foals after seeing adorable baby donkeys on the way there and a pig. The weekend after the weather had changed and it was a wet day the Saturday but on it I discovered a new place and had my first ever walk at Matley. It was nice to photograph a view here I had seen lots of times from the car on the way to and from other car parks we walk at very nearby and could never photograph I took the eighth picture in this photoset of this. The walk and on the way in was the first time I saw heather gloriously purple and at its peak this year so I thoroughly enjoyed seeing and appreciating that and getting photos I especially loved seeing it and photographing it when it rained hardest looking very atmospheric. A sight I adore in the forest especially. Wildlife wise it was great to see on that walk a Kingfisher briefly flying along a stream, Swallows quite late in their season over the heath, moths and lots of Robins. Lots of autumnal sightings that day too as I address early on in my autumnal highlights blog. The heather at its purple I expect of late summer but the autumn really was seeming to have come early in this strange year.

The heather looked glorious on a walk at Ashley Walk in the New Forest to the Leaden Hall area and back it was so purple and carpeted the landscape so nicely. I saw some top wildlife that day including another Common Grayling butterfly, Wheatears including young, Linnets, Stonechats, Meadow Pipits, Mistle Thrush, Buzzard, many Fallow Deers out on the heath two herds which was so nice to see it was particularly a great day for grazing animals with cattle calves, donkeys and New Forest ponies both with young also seen very well and included in my photos a few taken that day. In a great bit of flower action alongside the lovely heather I loved spotting my first ever devil’s-bit scabious a wonderful flower to see which I took the ninth picture in this photoset of. I identified it using the plant net app photo identification a kind Twitter friend suggested it to me and it became invaluable in my best ever year of flowers which I speak about more in my two butterfly related highlights posts. Other autumnal colour in the landscape and nice sky scenes on a showery to start the walk but mostly very nice afternoon stood out that day. We were back at Ashley Walk for our now annual October walk from here up to Leaden Hall of an afternoon to try and catch the Ring Ouzels coming through on their outward migration and we were so delighted to see at least two of these beautiful thrushes really well that day. It was a brilliant afternoon watching this truly special bird it was special to see them for a fourth time for me, and get views as I did of them they really were my best ever views of these birds for the length of views time wise and how clear I could see them in binoculars and landed the birds showed well and did exciting flyovers which I loved and make out the differences to the very similar Blackbirds which were about namely the white bib on the plumage of the male, the lighter and quite creamy underwings when flying and how much bigger they are which I particularly noticed that day. One of my best bird species seen this year too without doubt and it makes me so proud of the New Forest having these birds around they really are incredible. I also heard one make its nice “tak” noise that day and in the rich berry bushes with them and the Blackbirds was a Song Thrush. I took the tenth and final picture in this photoset of a Ring Ouzel that day. That day I also enjoyed seeing Buzzard flying over, get stunning Kestrel views of one right beside the path and with Meadow Pipits and Stonechat get brilliant clear views of a delightful Dartford Warbler one of my favourite birds flitting around at the tops of bushes. A famous New Forest species that I’ve had such a good year for them this was however the first I had seen in the forest this year which really matters to me as for such a rare bird the New Forest is a key refuge for them and it’s a key bird of the habitat and where I fell in love with it. We also took in great mushrooms, landscapes and sky views. And as I mention in my seventh of these posts about my autumn on the way home by Bramshaw I saw my first pigs out for pannage of the year which is always a memorable moments and some Fallow Deers during their rut at Leaden Hall.

I had a brilliant walk at Blackwater on 4th October when as I mention in my seventh of these posts about my autumn in which I mention the New Forest quite a bit as usual in also seeing a herd of Red Deers and red fly agaric mushrooms. But on that day I was so happy to see a cute, fascinating, beautiful and shy mammal a Muntjac Deer briefly it was a fantastic view of only my third ever and first of the year. It took my mammal year list to 17 making it my second highest ever after last year’s. It also meant for the first time ever after the Chinese Water Deer sighting in Norfolk meant I’ve seen all six wild British deer species in my life that I saw all six of them in a year quite special following last year seeing the five deer species I’d seen in my life this took it a stage further nicely. I also loved seeing another Lesser Redpoll on this fairly wet walk yet another I’d seen in the open forest this year which felt very satisfying to see this beautifully marked bird again I did enjoy seeing it as well as Coal Tit and two Treecreepers. The wildlife I saw on this day made me so proud to know, love and live so close to the New Forest and I enjoyed some great atmospheric views on a mostly wet day which I always love at Blackwater.

On 24th October one of my best days this autumn and ever for two autumnal features as I wrote about in my seventh of these posts about autumn we went back to Pig Bush for a third time this year. Alongside the autumnal bits it was a classic Pig Bush visit as on a pretty wet day it was interesting and beautiful to see the rain showers move through the big landscape. I also enjoyed seeing a second New Forest Kestrel in as many Saturdays quite close after the one at Ashley Walk, a dragonfly quite late either Migrant or Southern Hawker, lovely New Forest ponies and cattle with calves too. There were also lovely flowers around some nice yellow ones and scabious probably small scabious. This was a special day as our annual October Pig Bush visit as that’s when we first ever went there one of if not the favourite individual spot in the New Forest for me so it reminds us of how it looked that day and it was actually 10 years on from when we first went there. It was a fitting top afternoon for that occasion. I wrote about Pig Bush in my autumn as I have said and week off in June highlights posts in this year’s thread of blogs. The next day at Rockford Common I really liked seeing a rainbow over the heath and being the backdrop of New Forest ponies this was very beautiful, especially lovely with what rainbows came to mean in honour of our National Health Service this year. Other highlights were Roe Deer seen quite closely, Stonechats in the sun which was quite nice to see and some other autumnal things as I wrote about in that highlights post later in this thread of blogs. Also that day the day after the clocks went back this autumn as the sun came down over the heath walking through fairly dark woods we heard a loud barking noise. To my delight I looked up to see a smashing looking Raven fly over with its big beak and I got some great views of it. A really fantastic wild moment, as it had done before elsewhere it epitomised the wilderness of the New Forest for me, beautiful. A fitting end to what was a thrilling and packed wild New Forest weekend for me.

I wrote a little bit about the New Forest in my fifth highlights blog coming up in this thread about my week off in June this year, during which I saw my first Spotted Flycatcher of the year at Pig Bush which was a great moment for me. The New Forest gets mentioned in and indeed began with me seeing devil’s finger and the very rare and New Forest speciality nail fungus near Bolton’s Bench my bonus 11th and final post about my November and December.

[yasbxxgie]

Ofer Tchernichovski was waiting for a train to Manhattan when he heard a faint chirping. Looking around, he spotted a robin, fluttering on the platform. “His feathers were dull and he was all puffed up,” Tchernichovski recalls. “I don’t think he could fly. It wasn’t immediately apparent that he was singing—but he was.” The song was quiet, but elaborate. Given the bird’s condition, Tchernichovski thought that the bird might have been dying. But that didn’t seem to stop him from singing. “It was kind of touching. He was definitely focused on singing, even though the song was not directed at anyone.”

To most of us, birdsong is background, a part of nature’s soundtrack. But as a professor of psychology at Hunter College in New York City, Tchernichovski pays more attention than most. He slows down bird songs in an attempt to see what kinds of vocal tricks are up their sleeves. He prods birds to see if they’ll deviate from traditional tunes. Then he tries to put himself in the bird’s head. “We’re trying to understand these songs more intimately,” he says. “What about the song is getting them in a sexy mood?”

Scientists began researching birdsong more than a century ago, and everyone pretty much agrees that birds use it as a sexual selector—that is, to find a mate or to protect their territory. But there may be more to it than simple reproduction. “I haven’t heard a reasonable explanation of why birdsong is so complicated,” says Jeff Markowitz, a graduate student in computational neuroscience at Boston University.

To us, birds’ singing isn’t unusual. But the ability to sing is actually quite rare in evolutionary terms. Plenty of animals can make sounds, but few in the same way birds do. What’s more, only a small subset of animals is [are] capable of learning vocalizations when they’re young by imitating other members of their species. That puts songbirds in very rarified territory along with other big-brained animals, including humans, dolphins, and elephants. In fact, structured vocalizations are so fundamental to being a songbird that they have a brain area called the high vocal center that is almost entirely dedicated to singing.

“That’s not true of brain parts, generally. They usually do a bazillion different things,” says Elizabeth Regan, professor of psychology and neurobiology at Cornell University. That dedicated region of the brain not only makes songbirds a curiosity in the animal kingdom, it also provides scientists with a unique opportunity to study how groups of neurons collaborate to produce melodic sounds. “Birdsong is a great example of a behavior that’s interesting and complicated, and one where you might be able to figure out how the brain is actually producing it.”

That’s why Tchernichovski, Markowitz, and a number of other researchers are working to unravel why birds sing and the cognitive processes that underpin it. Along the way, they’re trying to answer another, deeper question: Is there some element of creativity in birdsong—some ability to think flexibly, to break from the script and rewrite an age-old tune? Or is birds’ apparent artistry just an accident of biology?

Crafting versus Composing

Birdsong isn’t the only evidence we have that some birds are preternaturally intelligent. Many pet owners have parrots that are clever escape artists, deftly unlatching the door to their cages. Ornithologists and psychologists have taught trained ravens how to master multistep procedures to obtain a treat. And other wild corvids have been observed bending sticks into spears—using tools, in other words. But these examples are all physical puzzles, more akin to building a Lego set or assembling some Ikea furniture. Birdsong is something else entirely. It’s a structured form of expression, similar to writing a poem or, more directly, composing a song.

For many birds, singing means following a script, the successful reading of which results in mating. Tunes are handed down generation to generation—most species have a characteristic song that they learn from their fathers early in life. Like infant humans, young birds imitate sounds when their synapses are still malleable, what scientists call a period of high neuroplasticity or, more colloquially, a “babbling stage.”

This period of exploration is like a child learning to play the piano—she will explore and press down on the keys randomly until she picks up on scales and other musical conventions from her teacher. Unlike humans, once most birds reach sexual maturity, song patterns are cemented in place. But that doesn’t mean they’re all the same.

Learning to Combine

The study of birdsong structure is a delicate balancing act. Scientists need to analyze simple songs in controlled environments before moving on to more complicated scenarios. The domesticated zebra finch makes for a perfect starting point—its song lasts for only a couple seconds, and you only need to monitor a few neurons to get a reasonably accurate portrait of what its brain is doing.

That’s why when Tchernichovski and his colleagues from New York City, Israel, and Japan wanted to understand how birds combine and arrange the units of sounds known as “syllables” during their youth, they turned to zebra and Bengalese finches, another favorite species. The scientists trained young birds to do two things—incorporate new syllables into their songs and swap others around. To do so, they played a recording of a song that’s outside of the birds’ repertoires and tallied each bird’s progress as it learned the new tune. Researchers documented the syllabic order of the transitions and how many times the birds repeated each part of a song before they could master a new one.

Tchernichovski and his colleagues found that all of the birds completed both tasks in steps. For example, if a bird is taught to switch its song from ABC-ABC to ACB-ACB, it starts by learning one transition, say CB, by repeatedly singing ABC-BCBC, often several thousand times over a period of days. Then it learns another transition, AC. Once the bird learns the third transition BA, it’s finally able to sing the new song ACB-ACB from start to finish.

The finches’ stepwise learning pattern is sort of like learning how to play solitaire or chess. To get your cards or pieces arranged the way you want them, you might need to make two different moves. To do that, you may have to master one move first before doing both together. Speech in infant humans develops through the same process, too—Tchernichovski’s team found that for babies, the process of adding a new syllable lasts up to 20 or 30 weeks. But unlike zebra finches, we continue to rhapsodize and explore our entire lives.

A Canary Song’s Complexity

Past puberty, all birds—even if they one know just one song—do have some amount of freedom, but some have more than others. The Bengalese finch, which has a vocal ability that’s a bit more complex than the zebra finch, is a good example: it can loop back to preceding syllables at various stages of its song, like a DJ replaying a part of a tune. It’s an added an element of complexity that zebra finches can’t match, one that could be a glimmer of creativity. But it could also just be a product of chance.

“Generating complexity might turn out to be a less elaborate process than we think,” Markowitz says. In fact, researchers are discovering that it’s surprisingly simple to develop algorithms that can produce the same sort of complex patterns that we see in some bird’s songs.

The songs of other species, though, don’t boil down to an algorithm so easily. There may be unexpected breaks or surprising structures. Some birds may even actively compose their songs. For example, nightingales can pause mid-song for a few seconds and then pick up exactly where they left off rather than starting over again—a sign that they are considering their past chirps when deciding what to tweet next. And by statistically analyzing the songs of western meadowlarks and American redstarts, researchers have found evidence that after a bird has sung in a certain style, it’s less likely to repeat that until it takes a break. It’s as though the bird remembers its past performances and is trying to change things up.

Canaries, whose complex songs contain extremely flexible phrases, have traces of this second, more nuanced kind of memory. Markowitz and his team wanted to test the Belgian waterslager canary’s “memory” by statistically analyzing their songs. They looked at 34,000 phrases and over 100 songs to see how likely birds were to tweet each sequence and discovered that what a canary had sung for the previous 10 seconds seemed to influence what it was singing at the present moment.

Other studies in recent years only found evidence of bird song memories that stretch back just a tenth of a second. For you and me, that would be like remembering only the last word we said. But canaries have more of their song in mind at any given moment. It’s similar to thinking in paragraphs rather than individual words. And while the high-probability sequences Markowitz teased out could be rote, everyday singing, the low-probability sequences—the rare ones that don’t get sung a lot—could be evidence of creativity. The birds could be riffing on what they already know and violating musical expectations to come up with something new.

It’s a compelling idea, but it’s hard to pin down as true creativity without knowing what’s going on inside the canary’s brain. Until we can match birdsong probabilities with actual bird brain patterns, we won’t know if what we’re seeing is artistic or accidental.

“We don’t know if the canary is making a decision and then, in some sense, remembering that decision and having it impact their song 10 seconds later,” Markowitz says. “We want to know how these models actually match the reality of songbird neurobiology—and that we simply don’t know.”

Creativity or Mere Chemistry?

In an attempt to find out, Markowitz is proposing a mashup, a side-by-side blending of birdsong statistical models and active brain patterns. That should help determine whether these birds are actually being creative or whether they’re just obeying a complex set of biologically-enforced rules. Doing so could help scientists understand the underlying biology of birdsong.

For example, his mashup could build on a theory known as “sexy syllables,” first proposed 15 years ago. Then, animal behavior specialists discovered that when male canaries sang a brief, two-note syllable, female canaries perked up their tails and ruffled their feathers in solicitous displays.

Perhaps these syllables, Markowitz says, leads to a dopamine rush in the male’s brain. That rush could then prompt him to select a different syllable or flourish 10 seconds later that’s designed to surprise the female yet again. What looks like conscious decision-making on the outside may just be the bird responding to some basic physiological rules. Until we can see into the bird’s brain while it’s singing in a social environment—how the female responds at a given time, how other competing birds’ songs factor into the probabilities—we can’t actually know.

Scientists may also find unnecessary components of canary song—ornaments that don’t help or perhaps even hinder a male bird in his quest to find a mate. By removing parts of the song that researchers suspect aren’t important, they could see how the females behave in response. If females react the same to a simplified song as they do to a full song, it’s possible that the additional notes are the male canary just playing around. “I think with the right tools, you can start to look at birds like the nightingale, the brown thrasher, and other wild, complex singers,” says Markowitz. “We may find that all of this complexity serves absolutely no purpose.”

So if birds can strip a song down to a few naked notes and still achieve the same result, why would these embellishments have evolved in the first place? “It might be arbitrary,” Regan explains. “Maybe the females just want something new and different—they want something fancy,” Regan says. Or maybe they have been selected as a signal of fitness, she adds. “You can’t have a terrific brain unless you’re in good health, had a good upbringing, and have a good genome.”

Channeling Our Inner Bird

Even if songbirds’ flourishes ultimately have no discernable purpose, they are still helping scientists to pin down the role of variability in the learning process. “To learn something very robustly, you have to explore,” Markowitz says. That means walking through different possibilities, learning new sounds, singing duets with other birds like wrens do.

These discoveries are also highlighting other similarities between the way humans and birds learn. Tchernichovski and his team discovered, for example, that finches go through a sort of recovery period when they first wake up. The quality of their song isn’t as good at first, but after a short time, it returns to normal. If the bird doesn’t get a good night’s sleep, though, that recovery period is longer and their performances suffer. But if they do get a good night’s sleep, their songs can be even more elaborate at the end of the recovery period.

“What the bird is doing each morning is going back to a more plastic state,” Tchernichovski says. After sleep, their brains are more elastic, allowing for more experimentation. Then as the day wears on, the screws in their brains tighten up and their songs snap into place. The next morning, though, those structures have loosened again and the brain has returned to its more flexible state. “We found that the birds who oscillate in this way—more structure, less structure, more structure—learn better.”

Given the complexity of birdsong and how birds go about it, some scientists conclude that it’s a mistake to think that songbirds sing for purely sexual reasons. Tchernichovski is one. He recalls gazing upon the dying robin at the train station with a mix of sadness and sanguine curiosity. At that moment, it certainly wasn’t looking for a mate—and yet it was still singing. “This almost makes me feel better,” Tchernichovski says. “It’s as if the bird is somehow comforting itself. It seems to be more encouraged, even in sickness, by singing.”

Like humans, birds seem to put a bit of personality into each performance. And that, scientists are discovering, requires some intelligence. “Seeing that kind of complicated behavior acted out by such a simple species definitely makes me think that, from one perspective, what they’re doing is not human,” Markowitz says. “But from another perspective, what we do is a little more like what birds do than we might think.”

[clementstonehave-blog]

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Exploring Lisbon, the Algarve and Andalusia

Nov 18-28, 2017

Portugal and the Andalusia region of Spain had always been on my bucket list, so here I was getting away from the US, over the Thanksgiving period as usual, by splitting my time between two nights in Lisbon, three nights in Seville, and four nights in Albufeira. As well as experiencing the different cultures and architecture, I also wanted to get a feel for whether I might like to live there one day. Although I'm in no rush to leave New York, the job that took me there, along with it's social circle, has now gone, and many of the good friends I'd built up over eleven years have now moved away, so I'd had a loose plan for some scouting trips in different  parts of southern Europe over the next couple of years.

After a winding, steep uphill climb over narrow cobbled streets towards Sao Jorge Castle in the chill morning, the taxi driver from Lisbon airport finally dropped me just outside the old town wall around 6am in the chill darkness, seemingly refusing, in Portuguese, to take me the last few hundred meters to my small hotel, the Solar Do Castelo. As I entered the old town on foot through the arch of Largo do Chao da Feira, the source of my driver's reluctance became clear – all the old buildings on these narrow, winding street corners, were covered in scrapes and grooves from car bumpers. I tried to minimize the clanking of my wheely bag moving over the cobbles at such a god-awful hour as I struggled to locate my accommodation in the darkness of the old town maze – yet when Google Maps finally came to the rescue I felt a pang of guilt, as though I'd cheated somehow; made it too easy by borrowing a high tech solution from the future in this historical location.

A stroll in the dazzling early morning sunshine around Lisbon's main plaza, the Praca do Comercio, where so much of Portugal's political history evolved, including the assassination of Carlos I in 1908, and the military coop of 1974, was a great way to walk off the fuzzy head from my sleepless overnight flight. This was followed by fleeting visits to the impressive cathedral and Santo Antonio Church, where I visited the crypt of St Anthony birth of 1195. I have to say that although I consider myself non-religious, I do have an eye for appealing architecture, and houses of God do seem to have some of the very best – it never ceases to amaze me how the power of religion throughout history lead to so many of these enormous, quality structures, where money seems to have been no object.

I headed back up the hill towards Sao Jorge Castle and strolled around the medieval ramparts. From Lisbon's pinnacle I had a panoramic view of red tiled Romanesque roofs in every direction and as far as the eye could see. Lisbon, along with much of Portugal, had been rebuilt following the major earthquake of 1755, and I tried to imagine the devastation that must have been evident from this elevated position.

Over the following 48 hours I would discover the beauty of traveling by tram in Lisbon – number 28, a traditional 1930's model for the city tour, and then number 15, a modern version going east to Belem to view Jeronimos Monastery, which survived the earthquake as it sits on sand, Belem Tower, the Monument to the Discoveries, and the Tropical  Botanical Garden. I should say that I'm always on the look out for a botanical garden when visiting international cities – the serenity within the urban chaos seems to give me another angle on the place.

My overriding feeling as I left Lisbon behind in my rear view mirror, on my way to the Spanish border and Seville, was of a cosmopolitan city of culture, full of ancient architecture, great restaurants and friendly people with a strange 'Russian sounding' twang, a very different accent to my Brazilian friends – and on top of all that it's very affordable, and has a certain buzz and edge about it that I found very appealing to my creative spirit.

I finally arrived in Seville after a 4.5 hour drive from Lisbon, quickly checked into my accommodation, the Hotel Becquer, and then headed out for dinner. Taberna Colonial looked like a traditional tapas and wine establishment, so I headed in. The place seemed strangely subdued though, and the owner eyed me suspiciously when he heard my accent, seemingly reluctant to serve me – red rags and bulls sprung to mind as I struggled to get an order in. It was only later that I got an inkling of what might have been going on here. It seemed I'd coincidentally arrived in the city center just as thousands of rowdy, and probably slightly inebriated, Liverpool soccer fans had only just left for the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium for an important European Championship game against Sevilla. It seems they had left this owner shell shocked and the sound of my accent probably left him thinking I was a straggler up for some more drunken revelry.

The highlights of Seville for me were the Real Alcazar de Sevilla, or royal palace, the cathedral, the maze of beautiful old cobbled streets lined with laden orange trees and, of course, the world famous flamenco. The absolutely stunning Unesco listed Alcazar in the center of Seville is a magnificent marriage of Christian and Mudejar architecture dating back to the 10th century. As I strolled through its maze of hallowed halls, it was as though I was in a time machine, every room exuding a different period, culture and architectural style, accompanied by their magnificent, ever-present, Islamic-inspired tiling. And as for the gardens – secluded 'rooms' full of blooms and laden orange tree clipped hedges, which could be overlooked from the spectacular Galeria de Grutescos which almost encloses them.

The largest Gothic cathedral in the world (3rd largest cathedral) was constructed of giant blocks of weathered grey/yellow sandstone through the 1400's, on the foundations of the grand mosque from the 1100's, and is located close to the Alcazar. The builders preserved many of the elements of that earlier mosque, including the minaret which was converted into a bell tower known as La Giralda – a brisk hike up the 343ft of elevation via a spiral stone staircase brought me to the top with panoramic views over Seville. After scanning the cavernous space of the central nave, questioning my ability to fully appreciate even a tiny part of this cathedral's grandeur in just a few hours of strolling around, I paused by Christopher Columbus's tomb and felt privileged to stand in the presence of such an eminent fellow explorer – the sheer immenseness, craftsmanship and quality of materials is overpowering and hints at it's iconic importance to the catholic church and Spain all those years ago.

I couldn't leave Seville without experiencing the world famous flamenco, so headed out to an evening show at the Museo Del Baile Flamenco. There was hushed silence in the audience until the suspense was almost imperceptibly broken by the forlorn notes of a lone Spanish guitar emanating from the darkened stage – as the melody slowly built into a crescendo, a female dancer appeared, her beautiful, tight fitting dress, emphasizing her lithe, leggy, athletic body. I became transfixed at the intensity of passion and humor communicated solely by her foot stamps, facial expressions and hand movements, all perfectly attuned to the fast hand clapping and guitar from the sidelines. I was utterly captivated. It was as if she were striving with every ounce of her being to give this intense and complicated story, of love and loss, some kind of tangible shape and meaning. Then a male dancer appeared with moves that told a simpler, more masculine story – of tolling the fields to feed his family, of hard drinking. I was briefly taken back to an earlier stage of my life, to my own flamenco guitar lessons, provided by an accomplished musician who looked the part -- tall, dark and swarve, the word on the street was that he pursued an artists bohemian lifestyle. So it wasn't a complete surprise when I turned up for my scheduled weekly lesson only to find his house completely empty and vacant – he'd clearly done a runner after someones husband, or wife, had discovered his finagling. Well, that was the end of my woefully unlikely flamenco career and, as far as I know, my teacher.

I decided to drive back to Portugal and it's southern Algarve region via a slight detour through Ronda, to see the impressive bridge, Puente Nuevo, built in the 1700's to span the 400 ft chasm located in the middle of this small city. As I took in the breathtaking panorama from the bridge, I felt an urge to experience the spectacle at closer quarters so that I could truly appreciate the magnificence of this engineering feat. But my attempt to hike into the bottom of the chasm was thwarted when the footpath seemingly fizzled out half way down – I'm sure if I'd had more time to explore I would have found a route. But Portugal beckoned, so maybe next time.

When I finally arrived in the southern Algarve, I made a quick visit to the beautiful old town of Tavira before carrying on to pick up my 26 year old son, Alex, from Faro airport, and we then headed on to our hotel, the Aqua Pedra dos Bicos in Albufeira. He'd taken a 2.5 hour flight down from London for a long weekend. Straight away we couldn't help noticing the preponderance of retired boozy Brits in soccer shirts, and sports bars. I was definitely not feeling it for this place -- Albufeira would NOT be a potential place for me to live! Other parts of the Algarve that we drove to felt much more cultural. A drive west along small coastal roads took us to the pretty town of Lagos and then onto the defensive fort near Sagres at the very south west tip of Portugal – as we strolled around the fort perimeter, a little black redstart, dark with it's flicking rust red tail, flitted here and there amongst the cliff side rocks, and reminded me that it's these little sprinklings of magic that elevates an experience from just mediocre to something special and remembered. As the fisherman lined the cliffs edge all around this promontory, I half hoped to see someone catch a largish specimen as I was curious to observe how they could possibly haul it up the 100's of feet of sheer cliff face. 

Another drive, inland this time, took us to Silves, with it's beautiful red sandstone castle, and then onto Monchique with it's medieval, derelict convent which was overrun by a local farmer and his chickens.

As we started our drive back to Faro Airport from Monchique we started laughing so hard at the most bizarre spectacle – it was a muster of storks. I should say here that my sense of humor, along with my sense of the bizarre, is perfectly aligned with that of both my sons. Within a half mile stretch of road there must have been fifty families of these strange, prehistoric looking creatures perched on their large, ragged nests, occupying the pinnacle of every single telegraph pole and tree in sight. And strangely enough, just after we'd left the storks behind, and just as it was turning dark, a gigantic domestic pig nonchalantly strolled in front of our path, briefly reminding me of that bizarre scene from the Lobster movie when the two-humped camel wanders through the woodland in the background. I managed to swerve around it just in time, the pig non-the wiser for it's lucky escape, and luckily for us, and the pig, nothing coming the other way on this narrow road. This had been a strange drive indeed, and a feeling of anxiety slowly started to descend on me as the thought that we'd almost wrote off a pig, a car, and possibly ourselves, started to sink in – what if we'd been at that point in the road two seconds earlier?

After dropping Alex off at Faro airport for his return flight to London, I headed back to my hotel in Albufeira for one final night, then drove back to Lisbon airport the following morning for my flight back to New York. As my plane taxied on the runway, I decided Lisbon and Seville were definitely contenders as places to live, and that the wider Andalusia region certainly deserved more scouting out, maybe around Granada and Cardoba, but parts of the Algarve were probably not for me; I'm not really looking to find a bit of England in a foreign land.

[dansnaturepictures]

11th July 2020-Whitefield Moor in the New Forest and Large White, buddleia and sunset at home 

Before we left today it was nice to see a Large White butterfly on the buddleia in the garden I took the first picture in this photoset of this. In a weekend that was shaping up to be quite nice we’re doing butterfly targeted trips for ones we need to see this year usual July targets there are not many species left to see which we usually do I’ve got to say! As we walked across the heath here today I did another count that I submitted to the ‘Big Butterfly count’ website as I saw a lot of the target species for that especially Large White with 10 seen, whilst not a target for that survey there were 6 Silver-studded Blues about in the time I counted I enjoyed seeing so many on the heath throughout the mostly hot and sunny walk today I am having such a good year for these New Forest specialty butterflies I have seen so many and so well this year. 3 Peacocks, 2 Brimstones, 2 Meadow Browns and a Red Admiral and Ringlet completed the ones I counted. I took the the second, third and sixth pictures in this photoset of really beautiful views here on a really fine day, and the fifth and eighth in this photoset of a male and female Silver-studded Blue. 

Just before this on the walk I saw a dragonfly species I had hoped to when a Common Darter flew by us my first of the year a key July and August species so it was nice to see it a great species for this habitat too. It turned into quite the walk for dragonflies as we got a splendid view of an Emperor dragonfly flying over a bit of water it really did come right past us to be able to make out it’s stunning colours and markings a large dragonfly that I am also having a great year for. There were also so many Keeled Skimmers flying about the heath today especially females with their succulent golden glow. It was a female day today a bit with more female than male Silver-studded Blues really whilst there were good numbers of both. I took the fourth picture in this photoset of a lovely Keeled Skimmer. One of my favourite dragonfly pictures this year I think a rare macro one as I just happened to have that lens on for this time its preferable just like butterflies to be able to get nice and close up for the picture I suppose but dragonflies are usually so much harder to get close to and so much less still so I usually use my big or normal lens to have that extra bit of distance but I managed it with the macro today which was nice. 

The butterfly I had come to mostly look for today was the Common Grayling another July priority and one of my favourite butterflies. It had looked like I’d seen one fly low over the path and into a rush type area and land. But I could not be sure looking in the binoculars and as soon as I lifted them away from my eyes I could not find it again with the camera. It always surprises me in a year how similar they can look to Meadow Browns. We then completed a nice little circuit to the Holmhill Bog area a strong place for us this winter just gone for birdwatching and back. As the sun came out after a little bit of time behind clouds and temperatures started to feel a little more like July and we walked back I just had a feeling we might see a Common Grayling what I had come for late on. 

And we did. My Mum spotted one I was a little further away from her and the butterfly flew towards me. I could easily see it was a beautiful little camouflage expert the Common Grayling. It looked so beautiful and special to see in this context and environment. I took the seventh picture in this photoset of it I was so elated to see it again and satisfied, it was great to watch it land a couple more times then fly off into the distance. This was a year tick for me to take my butterfly year list to 39, levelling the amount I saw in all of 2014 to make my year list my joint third highest ever which I am so thrilled with it feels so early to be saying that. It just beats 2019 and 2018 to 39 in terms of dates I did it on. It’s a relief to be saying it too as there was the obvious challenge of the impacts of coronavirus for us being able to go to places to see butterflies. Obviously the health of everyone has to come first. I am so happy to be where I am with butterflies in 2020 what a year it has been. 

It’s a very fitting butterfly to see today as, detailed in my last post and tweet earlier ten years ago today I saw a Silver-washed Fritillary at Bolderwood in the New Forest near to here and as a butterfly novice wanted to know what it was which is really what I regard as how my butterfly interest started. In my fledgling interest in them aged 13 that summer one of the first species I ever noticed, photographed and used my butterfly book to study and successfully identify was a Common Grayling. As I have mentioned here before this is a key part of my connection with this species and it was an absolutely crucial moment in my early butterfly days because I was interested to know what it was but to actually work it out all by myself was a priceless feeling. So what a way to celebrate this quite important anniversary for me with a special species for me. 

On the way home we saw a Spotted Flycatcher beside the Football Green car park on the edge of the forest as well as some nice Song Thrush views. When home I took the ninth and tenth pictures in this photoset of some lovely buddleia in our garden and a sunset tonight. A super Saturday for me. 

Wildlife Sightings Summary at Whitefield Moor: My first of one of my favourite butterflies the Common Grayling and Common Darter of the year, two more of my favourite butterflies the Silver-studded Blue and Red Admiral, one of my favourite dragonflies the Keeled Skimmer, one of my favourite damselflies the Large Red Damselfly, two of my favourite birds the Buzzard in numbers and Jay, many Redstarts, Stonechat, Robin, a decent flock of Linnets, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Carrion Crow, some Black-headed Gulls in the car park which was interesting to see, Large White, Brimstone, Peacock, Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Emperor dragonfly, bee and yet another common red soldier beetle.