Nature – aspiblog

Arisaig 2026 4: Wildlife Feature

A look at some of the creatures I have been privileged to see here in the wild west of Scotland.

There is some amazing wildlife to be seen in the wild west of Scotland, and this post shows of some of my favourites so far. Most are from today’s Canna Puffin Cruise including the Minke whale that has already had its own post.

WILDLIFE PHOTOS

I will again display one by one:

I displayed this one as part of my gallery for the Mingary Castle post – it shows four alpacas and two sheep.

I saw this splendid wading bird while out walking in the vicinity of our cottage yesterday.

I also saw these two splendid equines while on a local walk.

These two pictures, one cropped but not edited, and the other edited show a large deer that was near our kitchen window.

Four sea birds flying nearly in parallel

Close focus on the three birds flying closest together.

Four puffins in the sea – the leftmost bird shows the characteristic bright coloured bill.

Two puffins in the sea. The colouring of the birds is very obvious in this picture.

Four guillemots make their presence felt.

Four guillemots, one with wings outspread.

Closer focus on the guillemot with spread wings.

The Minke whale showing itself – the people who run these cruises recognize this as a great photograph (I have emailed them).

Four guillemots

A huge corvid, tentatively identified courtesy of Mastodon as a hooded crow perches on a fence post on Canna.

A pair of ducks of some species or other that like the far north – the one on te left with the elaborate colours and markings is clearly the male.

Two black and white (with a hint of gold) beauties, taken just before leaving Canna.

Arisaig 2026 3: Minke Whale Lights up Canna Cruise

A post dedicated to a Minke Whale sighting during today’s ‘Canna Puffin Cruise’, where I was doubly lucky: 1) to be on it at all and 2) to manage to get photographs of the whale.

Earlier today I had the good fortune to go on today’s “Canna Puffin Cruise” during the course of which a Minke whale appeared above the waves on a few occasions, and I captured the evidence on camera. What follows is a short series of pictures…

The first, less good picture:

In the front of this shot part of the rump of Minke whale can be seen just above the surface of the water. Nearby two tiny puffins look on. This was somewhere between Mallaig and Canna.

Close up extracted from the first picture showing the whale rump and the two puffins looking on.

The mid-portion of a Minke whale including the dorsal fin appears above the sea somewhere between Mallaig and the Isle of Canna. Unedited original.

A closer crop showing the whale and a cliff in the distance.

Another crop

An edited version of the final crop.

I will be producing more posts about this day, including a ‘wildlife highlights package’, but just to get things started I have opted to give the Minke whale a post all to itself.

Watatunga Revisited

An account of a visit to Watatunga yesterday with my parents.

17 days ago I visited Watatunga Wildlife Reserve as part of a West Norfolk Autism Group delegation for what should have been assemblage of mental health related charities, and blogged about it the following day. My mother was impressed enough by my account of the day to decide that when she and my father visited me this weekend before they head to Australia for several months we would visit the place ourselves. This post looks back at that visit.

AGE DOTH NOT WITHER NOR CUSTOM STALE…

There were several important differences between my two trips – the first time I travelled round in a trailer, this time round we were in a buggy (I commented while we were on our way there that these buggies looked a little like they had been built using Quadro, which was an exaggeration, but not massively much of one. They have no sides, and the roofs do not provide full coverage either. They bounce like crazy whenever the surface underneath is rough, which is quite often. The weather was inclement, and although my seat was wiped down before I sat on it, and I was given a poncho to shelter my legs I still ended up with slightly damp trousers. Also with the clocks having just gone back it was darkening by the time we finished our trip, and pitch black by the time our taxi arrived to take us to King’s Lynn station, from where I walked home while my parents travelled south. However, for all the issues with our mode of transportation, the weather and the encroaching darkness I enjoyed this visit as much as I had enjoyed the previous one, even though they were so close together.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the pictures I took that came out well enough to keep…

Some of the buggies – note that as we were a group of three ours was smaller than most of these.

Surrey in Control at Taunton

A look at developments between Somerset and Surrey in the current round of championship fixtures, a revisit to and modest revision of the all time XI of players whose surnames begin with H and a large photo gallery.

Another round of county championship fixtures got underway yesterday, and in so far as circumstances allow (yesterday and tomorrow are work days) I am following Somerset v Surrey.

YESTERDAY

While I was at work yesterday Somerset were all out for 170 in the first innings. Surrey last four wickets in response, before Latham and Jacks steadied the ship. Surrey were still in arrears by the close, but had every chance of a substantial lead given their great batting depth (any side with Gus Atkinson at number nine have a lot of batting depth).

TODAY

Latham and Jacks continued to bat well, though each just missed out on a ton, both falling for 99. Gus Atkinson showed that he is better than a regular number nine, and Daniel Worrall played a classic tail enders cameo, swinging hard at pretty much everything and connecting a few times. Matt Henry took 6-80, while Craig Overton, with 0-106 had the misfortune of registering the only individual three figure tally of the innings. Surrey were all out for 368, a lead on first innings of 198. At present that is how it remains, rain preventing the start of the Somerset second innings. However, it is still only day two, meaning that it would be asking a lot for the rain to save Somerset.

ONE FROM THE ARCHIVES AND PHOTOGRAPHS

On this day last year I created my all time XI of players who have surnames beginning with H. I have concluded since creating that XI that I have to bolster the bowling, even though it means dropping an ATG batter to do so. I regard Hutton, Hobbs, George Headley, Hammond and the left handed Hussey as indispensable, so Patsy Hendren, the third leading scorer of FC runs and second leading scorer of FC centuries in history misses out, having to settle for an honourable mention, and the number six slot goes instead to George Hirst, a right handed batter, left arm fast medium bowler and brilliant fielder. This means that the frontline attack now comprises Holding, Hadlee and Hirst to bowl pace/ seam/ swing and Harmer and Herath to bowl spin, with Hammond now more realistically positioned as fourth seamer should such be required. The revised XI in full: JB Hobbs, *L Hutton, GA Headley, WR Hammond, MEK Hussey, GH Hirst, +IA Healy, RJ Hadlee, SR Harmer, MA Holding, R Herath. Now it is time for my usual sign off…

From Old Computer to New Computer via Even Older Computer

An account of changing computers by way of explaining a few days of not blogging.

I am finally able to blog again after a few days without a computer on which I could do so. This post describes the trials and tribulations of the last few days.

RIP OLD COMPUTER

My old computer gave warning signs of trouble on Sunday, and on Monday morning it became very obvious that it was no longer usable. As a temporary measure to maintain some degree of connectivity I dug my even older computer out, and fortunately it proved still just about usable, although I could not do much on it. On Wednesday morning I went to PC World to check out new computers and find one that would do what I needed and was not too extortionately priced (my mother was willing to cover the cost, for which I am very grateful. My local PC World is on an industrial estate just to the south of King’s Lynn proper, while I live just to the north of King Lynn’s proper. This gave me, as a non-driver, two options: two buses, into and then out of town, or a longish walk. It being spring, and the weather actually being springlike I opted without hesitation for the latter. I found a suitable machine at a not extortionate price and made the necessary arrangements, and left it with the store for them to set it up for me, which they said would take a couple of days. Today, wanting the machine in my possession for my upcoming trip to the lake district I went back to PC World to collect, and eventually was able to do so.

NEW COMPUTER SETUP

I connected to my new computer, while keeping the very old one connected as well for a few moments in case I needed to check emails on it to access my email account from the new device. Once I was sure I would not need to use it further I returned to it is old resting place in case of emergency. The photo editing software on the new machine is somewhat different from that on the old machine and I am still coming to terms with it.

PHOTOGRAPHS

The photographs in this section were edited on three different machines – my very old laptop, a computer at King’s Lynn library and my new laptop…

The above were edited on my very old laptop…

Some of the images I have edited on my new laptop…

The third section of the gallery are the pictures I edited at the library on Monday.

Pensthorpe 2023: Ducks and Geese

Continuing my mini-series about my visit to Pensthorpe with a look at the ducks and geese that I saw there, which include some exotic species as well as some commonplace ones.

This is the second post in my mini-series (the first is here) about my visit to Pensthorpe yesterday as part of a West Norfolk Autism Group excursion.

MIXING THE MAGNIFICENT AND THE MUNDANE

A huge variety of duck and goose species were on show all around Pensthorpe. The Barnacle Geese (black and white coloured and smaller than any other variety of goose at Pensthorpe) were notably aggressive. There were goose families of one sort or another on or around virtually every pathway. Ducks of varying species were using pretty much every available body of water.

PHOTOGRAPHS

We start with the ducks…

Now for the geese:

Pensthorpe: Introduction

Introducing what will be a mini-series about the West Norfolk Autism Group visit to Pensthorpe Natural Park.

Yesterday saw a West Norfolk Autism Group excursion to Pensthorpe, a nature reserve combined with a working farm a few miles from Fakenham in Norfolk took place. This post introduces what will be a mini-series about the day as I experienced it. I will be doing specific posts about the varieties of ducks and geese on show, the flamingos and cranes, the discovery centre, the sculptures (probably these last two will share one post) and the Explorer trip. The gallery for this post will feature some introductory and general pictures.

OVERVIEW OF PENSTHORPE

Pensthorpe, which was a village until the 14th century when the black death accounted for so many of its inhabitants that the survivors had no option but to up sticks and move down the road to Fakenham, which was originally the smaller of the two places is now home to a nature reserve which is involved in a number of very important conservation efforts. There is also a working farm, and a lot of the electricity the site needs is generated by solar panels on the roofs of the farm buildings – for so big a site it has a tiny carbon footprint. I was booked on the 12:00 Explorer ride (and could also have had a place on the second ride an hour later, but the weather cool, though at least it stayed dry, so I settled for one trip. Otherwise between our arrival just before 10:30, and our departure, scheduled for 3:30PM it was entirely up to me how I spent the time.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here to complete this introductory post are some photographs…

Scotland 2022: Exploring Eigg

Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with a look at the beautiful and interesting island of Eigg.

I continue my account of my Scottish holiday with a look at our explorations of the island of Eigg, the third of four posts devoted to Friday (see here and here).

THE EXPLORATION

There are a cafe and a shop right where the boat drops one on the island of Eigg. Having noted the existence of these establishments we began our explorations. The first point of interest was some information about the island itself:

We then came to a memorial…

Then it was walk uphill, until we came to a footpath that we took. Conscious of time constraints we did not go massively far along the path, though what we saw was very scenic…

There were some more information boards before we got back to the cafe, which we were now ready to patronise. First this, about the geology of the inner Hebrides:

Then this about electricity and green issues:

The cafe proved to be excellent. I ate a bacon bap and drank a reasonably local beer that proved to be of splendid quality.

POST LUNCH

We did a little more exploring after lunch, before heading back to the boat, which we boarded in good time for the journey back to Arisaig. Eigg was very interesting as well as very scenic, and I enjoyed my visit there.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my remaining pictures from Eigg…

Pensthorpe 3: The Pensthorpe Explorer

The final installment in my account of the West Norfolk Autism Group’s trip to Pensthorpe.

Welcome to the final post in my mini-series about the West Norfolk Autism Group‘s visit to Pensthorpe Natural Park (click here and here to visit the other posts in this series).

AN ENJOYABLE AND INFORMATIVE JOURNEY

The journey on the Pensthorpe Explorer was very scenic, and the guide provided excellent commentary. There was stuff about the area’s wildlife and things Pensthorpe do to encourage said wildlife, some local history and an explanation of the significance of the River Wensum which flows through Pensthorpe.

There were a couple of parts of the route that made use of an old railway line (aeons go part of the Midland & Great Northern, colloquially referred to as the Muddle & Go Nowhere – East Anglia was home at one time to a vast number of railway companies, with in addition to this one the five companies who ultimately amalgamated to form the Great Eastern Railway) which added to the interest of the experience.

The Wensum is of special significance because it is a chalk river, of which there only about 200 on the planet (although about 170 of those are right here in the UK, including another significant Norfolk river, The Gaywood). Unfortunately the bunch of clowns who are collectively known as Norfolk County Council are hellbent on building a new road through the Wensum valley which among other things will damage two important bat colonies (we are talking rare species of bat here). Also, as to the notion that building a new road will ease congestion, I give you one letter an two numbers appropriately arranged: M25. There is a campaign group doing their best to prevent this ghastly project from going ahead, and you can view their twitter page and also sign a petition they are running. The biggest problem that Norfolk has is not with its roads, but with the frankly scandalous state of public transport in the county, which causes people to feel compelled to drive, which in turn feeds into the county council’s ‘cars are everything’ agenda. Green Party representation is increasing in Norfolk, which provides grounds for hope that eventually the county council’s make up will change and it will move into the 21st century.

The trip on the Pensthorpe Explorer was a splendid end to a splendid day.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the pictures from this section of the day:

If you look closely at this oak tree you will see a silver tube protruding from the trunk – this is for Little Owls to nest in.

A Long Weekend 5: Lime Kilns and Walled Garden

Continuing my account of my recent long weekend away, with a look at Lindisfarne Lime Kilns and the Gertrude Jekyll walled garden.

My previous post in this somewhat syncopated series which deals with the period 14-17 August inclusive started my coverage of Holy Island/ Lindisfarne. This post continues the story, taking us right up to the entrance to the castle itself.

THE LIME KILNS

The top of the lime kilns are not accessible on safety grounds, being open shafts, but one can explore them at ground level, and I found doing so incredibly rewarding. This is basically an interconnecting network of high ceilinged tunnels, with brickwork still in fine condition. There are some fine sea views as well, and some interesting information about the history and use of the kilns.

THE JEKYLL GARDEN

The walled garden, designed and laid out by Gertrude Jekyll (pronounced Jee-kull, not as Stephenson’s doctor is Jeck-ill) is very much in keeping with her original design which was an act of rebellion against formal Victorian gardens. There are some very interesting plants in there, and like the kilns it well repays a bit of exploring.

PHOTOGRAPHS

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