Here goes Nothing..

This is my first blog of any kind and is going to be based around my photography which i am also a novice at! So if you are looking for sage advice then you are as lost as i am. I welcome comments, advice and questions but please keep them relevant and any criticisms constructive please :) Anyone who is interested i am using a Nikkon D5100 or a Coolpix L120 and any post production work is done with Adobe Lightroom 4 (Novice at that too!)

[richiefazz]

60 mins easy Run this evening through the urban trail 🤣🤣☡🚫⛍ with Trina lovely run totally zoned out and totally relaxed 😊😊 #sundaylongrun #sundayrun #lovetorun #loverunning #runningcouple #igrunners #runnersofig #runnersonig #runningman #ukrunner #runnersoninstagram #runnersofinstagram #xtremerunnerslife #runnersworld #halfmarathontraining #easyrun (at Bury St Edmunds)

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Marsh Harrier

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I know we still owe our RSPB Minsmere PtII post but I thought I would change the focus from just wildlife to some of our countryside as well! Also as new members to the UK Ramblers we wanted to start getting some more serious distances done and get the chance to see some of our Wildlife outside the reserves so to speak,  So without further ado….

We dug through our guide (Pathfinder Guide 48 – Suffolk Walks) and came up with an 8 mile walk around the Gipping Valley area of Suffolk.. Starting off at the Gipping Valley Centre near Great Blakenham according to our book.. however after a bit of frustration we found out the centre no longer exists… Shame but the walks are still thriving..

Here is a link to the walk on Strava, the app we used to track it.

The walk took us around Baylham, Barham and Coddenham. We set off down an embankment and straight off came to a lovely lake with a lone Great Crested Grebe fishing, they can swim for a seriously long time lol we kept losing him whenever he went under!

We got to witness plenty of amazing scenery and our pictures do not do them justice, also very jealous of some incredible gardens backing on to the river Gipping…

Cool tree on top of a hill near Hemingstone Hall

Also I would like to state this disclaimer now… yes i mess with some pictures regarding contrast, saturation, etc.. I hope you still like them although I would still like to hear feedback please as i am always ready to learn :)

        I will warn you the walk was quite uneven ground in some places and also the path leading to the A14 near the Rare Breeds Farm (Baylham House Farm) looks unused and very overgrown with nettles… a good supply of dock leaves was in order :)

One of the Rare Breeds at the Baylham House Farm

We managed to spot some wildlife too, even though not too many pictures of them as we agreed that if we were concentrating on photography we would never make it around the walk by dark lol.

  Beautiful landscape.. just can’t remember whereabouts :)

This looked to be the remains of a building or wall in the stream… wonder what?

Lake at the beginning of our bimble

One of the locks along the River Gipping

Coddenham Church impressive looking structure.. sorry about the monochrome :)

Mill door, love the gargoylesk heads :) Yes i made the word up!

Magpie chilling on our route

Atop Buzzard Hill overlooking Coddenham

Red-Veined Darter

Another beautiful view of the Gipping

Bindweed yes they are weeds but i like them although they get Everywhere!

No idea what this was about but was cool

Rope Swing across the river brought back some memories!

Autumn is on the way… conkers time again.. sorry another flashback!

Old lamp on the edge of an old Mill nr the Rare Breeds Farm

Nature has decided to reclaim this unused path…Dock Leaves at the ready!

This lock was in a beautiful area backing onto some incredible gardens

So the first third of the walk was along the River Gipping and had all the amazing riverside scenery you would expect including the amazing gardens backing on to it. The path was in pretty good condition although the theme for the day was nettles :)

Old Mill nr Rare Breeds Farm

The rest of the walk was a great mix of open fields, hilltops, woods and some quiet lanes too, although the there was a sprint across the A14 which was a little hairy…..

Very Lord of The Rings :)

Burrow of unknown wildlife

Shrubbery Hall captured from one of the Gipping Locks

This evil looking dude took a shine to Trina any ideas what it is?

Very Social Cat!

Amazing view from Buzzard Hill

Berries in full bloom… do Berries actually bloom or is there another word for it?

Steps at the beginning of the bimble

Alternative route indeed….

Another view of the beautiful lake at the start of the walk

Damson tree i think hanging over the river

Anyhow it was a great walk and we finished off at The Sorrell Horse pub in Barham for a nice pint of Speckled Hen, which was just the perfect finish to a lovely day…

We have another bimble planned this week, around 9 miles i believe it is… although my next post may be about the last visit to RSPB Minsmere as promised!

  As always please feel free to let me have feedback and correct any errors or omissions!

Cheers

Rich & Trina

Gipping Valley Bimble I know we still owe our RSPB Minsmere PtII post but I thought I would change the focus from just wildlife to some of our countryside as well!

[richiefazz]

So finally got to go to RSPB Minsmere last week! For those of you who don’t know it, it is the Nature Reserve run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). It was founded as the Plumage League in 1889 by Emily Williamson.

For further information on the Organisation and to get details on how to support them, go to the RSPB Website and also follow them on Twitter on Natures Voice or RSPBMinsmere. Go sign up to support them now! I will wait……

OK hopefully you have signed up and remembered to come back here! So RSPB Minsmere has three walks and whilst it has opening hours for the Visitors centre you can still gain access to the reserve out hours!

We decided to hit the coastal path firstly, although we were greeted by the site of plenty of avian activity at one of the bird feeders with finches having a feeding frenzy, and having a wander around. Although I am not sure whether the little guy on the right has deformed feet or has been wading in his food again!

Once we started on our trail we came to a small sandstone cliff which was full of holes where the Sand Martins were swooping and diving (Very inconvenient for my photography!)Although I did manage to get a grainy image of what i believe was two young, as one of the adults made several trips to the hole to feed them.

  After staring at the Sand Martins for a while and getting a crick neck and frustrated trying to capture a piccie.. we decided to head off up the trial.. A little way along we were greeted with a sign warning of Bee Wolves, apparently they are the largest solitary wasps in the UK and they hunt Honey Bees to feed their larvae when it is born. You can find out more here Bee Wolves 

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The chap above took less than a minute to make his hole then came out to see if we were still there :) Trina was lucky enough to get a piccie of one with a victim

Once we had dragged ourselves away from the wolves we headed onto the coastal trail proper, which was about 2 miles although it took us around 4 hours as there was so much to see, thanks to about 5 hides, which although quite busy at times had plenty of room for all :)

Once we had hit beach so to speak we were greeted with a cool sculpture although sad to say it was made with bits of plastic found on our beaches….

        This is only a small portion of the pics taken….

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Well we still haven’t covered the woodland walk… but that can be in our next post as this has gone on far too long :)

As always we do not claim to be experts so please, feel free to correct any IDs that you feel are wrong and fill in the missing parts. We are learning as we go along so any free lessons are very welcome!

Cheers

Rich & Trina

  RSPB Minsmere So finally got to go to RSPB Minsmere last week! For those of you who don't know it, it is the Nature Reserve run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). 

[richiefazz]

Had ourselves an Adventurous nights camping last week, at Wicken Fen Wild Camping run by the National Trust. It is located near the village of Lode, Cambridgeshire. You can find out all the details here at the Community Blog or at the Wicken Fen Nature Reserve Facebook Page

Basically you drive up to a barn situated about 1/2 mile from the camp site and dump all the gear that’s either too heavy or you just don’t want to carry, in our case we dumped kindling, logs, cooking gear etc…. Into a secure container.

You then drive back to Anglesey Abbey and park there at no charge (Also National Trust) but I recommend you let the visitor centre have your reg # and stick something in your window screen.The walk of about 2 1/2 miles from Anglesey Abbey to the camp-site was along country lanes. The lanes were pretty quiet so made for a very nice walk although it was very hot at that time!

We got to the camp-site, dumped our kit and walked back to the barn to grab the rest using a wheelbarrow provided in the barn… just in time for the heavens to open so to speak :)

The site was laid out great, it was made up of a fenced off area, containing 4 log shelters and a big fire pit with log seating.The shelters are open on one side and from floor (raised) to ceiling about 3 foot in height. As the floors are raised the torrential rain we experienced had no effect on us and all ran underneath :)

The toilet is a natural toilet and I recommend you don’t look in lol. But situated far enough away from the shelters that it was fine.

  Once the initial downpour stopped we ventured out and took a look at our surroundings, there was a little wood a few hundred yards across the other side of a field, which contained an energetic herd of cows who kept doing laps of their field and a couple of rabbits who kept an eye on us whilst foraging! The other side had a nice tree-line giving plenty of privacy.

One great thing about this was you get the whole site to yourself! So ideal for a family or a group of friends / scouts etc…

Stormy Weather although this didn’t dampen our spirits!

A flock of barn swallows ( I believe) entertained us by diving bombing the cattle catching insects.

Although the highlight of the evening was watching 2 or 3 owls hunting between the tree-line and the woods, amazing to watch, we believed two were little owls and a third we didn’t get a good look at although size-wise looked like a barn owl.

We cooked up a Texan Chicken Chilli for dinner which was very nice and settled down to watch the storm. The brief flash of lightening left us blinded for a few seconds though lol.

Once the weather dried for a while I managed to get a good fire going and of course had to toast some marshmallows! Although my daughters attempt at it left mine “Enthusiastically Crisp” as she described it…..

We then settled down with the intention of staying awake all night and being intrepid adventurers, however once snuggled into sleeping bags, it was a different matter, we made it past midnight just…. Oops. Then woke again properly around 6 when there was a raptor of some sort hunting in the field, but gone before any decent pics could be taken :(

Wild Flowers left by previous occupants

Wild Flowers still in situ :)

Couldn’t resist messing with this picture sorry, the rain drops on the Poppies caught my eye but the greenary drowned them out so to speak.

So after a breakfast of “Cooked Breakfast in a tin” (love them!) we broke camp and headed back down to the barn to drop our gear off for the return trip! Again a very nice walk, alongside some dykes swollen by the rainfall, although slightly longer, as we took a different route.

We got back to the car, very hot and ready for ice cream which was provided by the Lode post office! Then returned to the barn and collected our gear.

So all in all, baring in mind we only had one night, it was great fun and a real experience! Well worth a try for all :) We would love to hear of anyone else’s experience too,

Cheers

Rich and Trina

Wicken Fen Wild Camping Had ourselves an Adventurous nights camping last week, at Wicken Fen Wild Camping run by the National Trust.

[richiefazz]

DIY Wildlife Reserve Pt III -Water Feature

DIY Wildlife Reserve Pt III -Water Feature

Soooo a Pond / Water-Feature is now my goal :) inspired by the RSPB Campaign Give Nature A Home also promoted on their Twitter stream @natures_voice It is a worthwhile message please take a look at their site and see what you can do to help our wildlife.

So first I need to get some materials together, a hard plastic storage container, some grit suitable for aquatic plants, a handful of plants and…

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[richiefazz]

Beautiful Colours

Beautiful Colours on this visitor to our garden. The starling, unusually, was on his own, normally our garden gets swamped by about a dozen of the buggers when we put out meal-worms :)

Beautiful colours on this visitor to our garden

Anyway just a quick post but i thought he was worth sharing!

Cheers

Rich & Trina

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[richiefazz]

DIY Wildlife Reserve Pt II - Hog House

DIY Wildlife Reserve Pt II – Hog House

Finally I got to finish my Hog House project this week! Inspired by the Wildlife Gadgetman and following his guide I put together a Hog House for our private Nature reserve known as our garden :)

Starting with a plastic container, I cut out an entranceway approx 110mm by 110mm then covered the rough edges with insulation tape. If you make one of these then be careful as the plastic can split…

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Drying out! Whilst having one of our bimbles around West Stow, in Suffolk we saw this grasshopper sunning himself on a fence post after a big downpour.

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So yesterday we went on a lovely bimble called the Sailor’s Walk with an extra bit as we went through the Snape Warren (Plus a bit more because we went the wrong way :))

It was traditionally used by local sailors who moored at Snape Maltings to unload their goods and after finding boats stuck at low tide, were forced to walk back home to their cottages in Aldeburgh. Also it was used on a regular basis by smugglers moving goods to avoid customs. Find out more here

Starting from Snape Malting, in Suffolk, we crossed the road bridge and then set on the path along the wetlands and estuary

  On the path we encountered a Pied Wagtail and also a couple of birds we haven’t been able to confirm their identity as yet.

  The first we believe maybe a Red-back Shrike…

    The second we have no idea any thoughts?

      Also caught an Oyster Catcher in flight, he was being chased by Herring Gulls :( 

    We had a well deserved picnic sat in the woods around Snape Warren, sat there for about 30 minutes just listening the the wildlife going on around us and safeguarding our butties from passing dog-walkers (Well their dogs not the owners :))

The rest of the walk took us through heathland and then it seemed to continually change with every bend, woodland, wetlands, open then back to wetlands etc.. it made for an interesting walk, with plenty of butterflies, including Peacocks, Gatekeepers, Ringlets,

Mating Gatekeepers

Red Admiral sunning on the path

Ringlet

Gatekeeper

Peacock #1

Peacock #2

We trekked the trail for some 6 miles in total all the way to Aldeburgh, where we rewarded ourselves with Ice-Cream and lots more water :) Lovely little town with a great pebble beach, the pebbles were smooth so we crashed out very comfortably on the beach for a little while :)

Were treated to some agile Barn Swallows flying in and out of the rafters on some sheltered seating areas on the seafront

  Overall it was a beautiful walk and the only downside was the heat, seriously sticky :) We then jumped on a local bus and headed back to Snape Maltings for a coffee before heading back home!

See our trip mapped out by our App Every Trail see here

Cheers

Rich & Trina

  Sailors Walk So yesterday we went on a lovely bimble called the Sailor's Walk with an extra bit as we went through the Snape Warren (Plus a bit more because we went the wrong way :))

[richiefazz]

DIY Wildlife Reserve Part I

DIY Wildlife Reserve Part I

So I finally decided to have a go at doing more than just providing some seed and water for our feathered friends that live in and visit our garden! Oh and if you are interested our resident Blackbird Fledgling is doing well, his flying technique is definitely getting there! So happy!

Sorry I digress :) where was I… Yes DIY so I have been continually inspired by the Wildlife Gadgetman! So I…

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[richiefazz]

Busy Weekend in the Garden

Busy Weekend in the Garden

Well we had a busy weekend! Firstly we had a mass launch of flying ants! Here is one of the poor chaps who never made it past the spiders web under our window! Menacing spider in the background….

Those lucky ones that did make it,  then had to fly a gauntlet of Herring Gulls circling above…

Also we were treated to our our resident blackbird mother feeding her fledgling.. beautiful

The…

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A serious bill on this Curlew

Egret moving down one of the many streams

Harbour Area at Blakeney, showing the Blakeney Hotel

RSPB’s very own symbol the Avocet

Oyster Catcher fighting against the wind

Beautiful Landscape!

Redshank feeding

Seems like the boat is in the sea of purple

Ringed Plover almost hidden amongst the mud

Those waves do not do justice to the winds that were present!

Heron patrolling his domain

Stunning scenery in my humble opinion and full of life from the amount of bird calls.

Had a really cool (but Windy!) walk from Morsten Quey to Cley Beach on Wednesday along the Norfolk coast, some 6 miles or so. We were originally going to walk to Blakeney Point to take a look at the seals but due to a navigation error.. not pointing any fingers Trina.. we ended up some way away from our desired starting point :) by the time we got to Cley beach the wind was 30mph+ so we decided to leave it for another day as we couldn’t hear ourselves speak let along slog through the shingle!

We were lucky enough to see some of the local occupants and capture some of the beautiful scenery as you can see!

Next time however we will get to Blakeney Point, trying not to cheat and take a boat trip :)

Cheers

Rich & Trina

Norfolk Coastal Bimble Had a really cool (but Windy!) walk from Morsten Quey to Cley Beach on Wednesday along the Norfolk coast, some 6 miles or so.

[richiefazz]

Can someone Identify this little Fellow please?

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Nice little entrance-way

Lovely pathways

Skipper Moth feeding

Hover Fly doing his thing

Can someone enlighten me as to what this is? Big bugger I know that!

Another of the Skipper Moth love the wing structure

Comma Butterfly on display

Cabbage Whites are still cool looking even if common

Another of the big dude with the Skipper photo-bombing!

Had our first visit to Bradfield Woods on Sunday. It is a working wood owned by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust, just outside Bury St Edmunds, with its own visitor centre which was manned by a very helpful / friendly lady who’s name i didn’t catch sorry.

It was a beautiful day for walking through woods, although the heat from the sun managed to penetrate the canopy it was still shaded enough to be very pleasant!

We saw plenty of Butterflies, Moths and Insect activity around the woods as you can see from our pictures, although we missed getting any good photos of the White Admirals we saw!

There are 3 walks you can do, with the longest only being around 2.5 miles but when you are both camera nuts that can take a while :) Here is a link to the PDF showing the Bradfield Woods Trails

All-in-all a lovely afternoon out and would recommend it!

Cheers

Rich & Trina

Bimble Around Bradfield Woods Had our first visit to Bradfield Woods on Sunday. It is a working wood owned by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust, just outside Bury St Edmunds, with its own visitor centre which was manned by a very helpful / friendly lady who's name i didn't catch sorry.

[richiefazz]

Well my trip to Lackford Lakes yesterday was pretty eventful! As well as the Young Kingfisher I blogged about yesterday, I witnessed a long altercation between a pair of seagulls and a Heron, I am guessing the Heron was a little too close to their nest.. as they have a bad rep concerning the killing of other birds young apparently, they won over in the end the Heron gave up and left, but it took around 40 mins to do it!

Cheers Rich & Trina

Show-down between Seagull and Heron

Oops Head down time!

Aggression in the Lakes! Well my trip to Lackford Lakes yesterday was pretty eventful! As well as the Young Kingfisher…

[richiefazz]

Kind of lost in the background but you can just make him out!

Hits the water at a fair old pace, i wonder what speed it is?

Bursts out with nothing to show this time..

Back to the perch

Nice pic against the rain even if not the sharpest.

Leaves the water like a rocket

Finally the reward was worth the effort!

Great morning to be at Lackford Lakes today, so quiet with next to no-one around!

Time to relax and let the weekly stresses drain away. This young kingfisher made it perfect for me. Picture quality was not the greatest but it was a joy to watch him anyway!

Cheers

Rich

Great morning to be at Lackford Lakes today, so quiet with next to no-one around! Time to relax and… Great morning to be at Lackford Lakes today, so quiet with next to no-one around! Time to relax and let the weekly stresses drain away.