Saturday, Sunday, Monday Monday 31st March, 2014. After feeling slightly stir-crazy last week, we enjoyed a flurry of short outings over the weekend. On Saturday morning we drove out to the Ayres again. Instead of going to the Ballaghennie entrance we drove north through Andreas and down the Smeale road. This road. which ends at Rue Point, was also under water at the end of winter but much of the water has drained away now. There were just a few small puddles on the road and some pools of water remained in the lower lying areas. I was hoping to get some bird photos so we headed towards a small thicket of gorse and brambles which is a favourite spot of the stonechats. They are small birds with an distinctive call and the males have bright chestnut breasts during the breeding season. They like to perch on the top of bushes - and they were there waiting for us.
The light wasn't ideal. Hazy but too much glare to get an accurate impression of the colour of the birds. I was using near maximum zoom because the birds were quite nervous. I managed to lighten the next picture on the computer - just to prove that it was a male stonechat.
I am almost certain that this is a female stonechat but I may be wrong. I am surprised that her breast looks so streaky - almost like a juvenile. But it must be too early for the first brood to have fledged.
There were more "little brown birds" having a good splash around in the puddles on the track to the shore - possibly more females. I read that a male stonechat may have more than one "partner", which may explain the large number of females.
We wandered through the marram grass down to the shore. There was the usual sprinkling of oystercatchers and a row of brownish birds - too far away to identify without binoculars. I thought I would take a zoom photo to look at on the computer and aimed the camera in the general direction of the birds. After taking the shot I could no longer see the birds and thought I might have been mistaken. Perhaps I had just photographed a few lumps of seaweed. So I was surprised when I saw the photos on the screen. I had accidentally taken an action shot of four golden plover taking to the air!
On the way home I couldn't resist another photo of the Milntown cottage magnolias because the gate was open! Unfortunately they had stacked two containers in front of the trees - so I just aimed the camera at the upper branches.
In the afternoon we drove to Ballure Reservoir. I was on a wood anemone hunt after being disappointed not to find any by the Auldyn river on Thursday and I knew there were a lot growing near the dam.
There is a very pleasant path around the dam. Very pleasant apart from the slippery, squelchy mud in places. But it was worth braving the mud because there were masses of wood anemones. At first I thought I would have to be content with more zoom photos because they all seemed to be growing on the far side of the ditch carrying water into the reservoir - like these growing with a patch of golden saxifrage.
But further on I found some patches growing on the bank near the path and got my close-up shot.
On Sunday morning we walked up through Skyhill plantation to the "top corner" which has a view up the glen towards Snaefell. The air was still very hazy and the scene was not very colourful.
I walked down to have a closer look at the bare branches of the larch on the left of the previous photo. I wanted to get a close-up of the new needles emerging. I tried to photograph some leaf buds on a larch near the waterfall on Thursday but was disappointed to find that the camera had focused on the background instead of the needles. I love the true green colour of the new larch needles and was lucky to find a branch with some baby cones (female above the twigs and male below - getting ready to drop pollen) as well as last year's cones and a bit of grey lichen.
After that I got a bit carried away with greenery - mainly moss. First, moss growing with some wall pennywort (navelwort) on a rocky outcrop near the top of the path.
And then this feathery moss which I haven't been able to identity. It was growing on damp ground under some ash trees near a stream.
Tim felt like going out again in the afternoon. So we headed to the parking area near the Grand Island. After nearly twenty five years on the Island we are getting into the local habit of using obsolete names to describe areas on the Island. The Grand Island Hotel stood just beyond the north end of the Mooragh promenade for over a hundred years. It closed in 2009 and has since been demolished - but the name remains. "The Grand Island to Dog Mills" used to be a favourite stretch of beach for short walks in the past. There were a couple of hooded crows, "hoodies", checking for anything edible in the car park.
The tide was well out and there were pools of shallow water trapped behind sand banks. A young herring gull was looking for food amongst the pebbles.
It found something interesting . . .
. . . but dropped it in the water and flew off.
Most of the birds that we saw were adult or juvenile herring gulls but there were a few black headed gulls in groups out near the sea.
And of course the usual oystercatcher.
This morning we headed out to North Ramsey again. We had decided on a short walk around the boating lake in the Mooragh Park - with the added incentive of hoping to get a photo of the house where T.E. Brown, the Manx poet, lived. We knew more or less where his house stood but had never positively identified it - so we took a book with an old photo of the area that showed the house.
We parked near the playground and were immediately able to identify the house - standing above the brooghs in the centre of this photo.
We were frustrated by footpath closed signs at the bottom of the first two paths up the steep bank but finally found a path which wasn't closed and which led almost directly to the house Glan-y-Don.
I took a photo of the plaque on the wall before we walked down another footpath back into the park.
And finally, I took one last photo . . . of the house from across the boating lake.
While we were getting into the car. I heard some raucous shrieks from above. Two herring gulls were perched on a flood light shouting at something or someone - or just having a very loud conversation. I couldn't resist a second "final" photograph and even hoped to get another with their beaks open in full shriek - but they flew away.
I really thought that was the last of the photos - but while I was checking my photos on the computer Tim said that a heron had flown past and landed on the roof of a house across the road. I grabbed the memory card and shot off to the bedroom to get a better view of him.
Then I waited and waited. Hoping to get an action shot of him taking off from the roof but he didn't oblige and I got tired of waiting before he got tired of sitting on the roof.
House Arrest! Friday 28th March, 2014 Another week has passed without a long hike. Tim's back hasn't responded to rest - so a more drastic remedy was needed. He saw the doctor on Tuesday, has been prescribed anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxant tablets, and should be starting physiotherapy next week. On Wednesday morning we walked up the glen to see how far we could get before Tim's back started to bother him. We climbed over the stile by the little waterfall and I took the usual photo and felt a bit sad about the lack of canine company. There are so many dog memories on these walks. I even miss panicking about them slipping on the wet rocks below the waterfall!
We carried on up the grassy path until we were about half way between the waterfall and the pool at the old quarry, and then we turned back. There wasn't much to photograph but there was still evidence of the winter gales. I don't think this branch had come down across the path last time we walked this way. It must have taken a very strong gust to rip the trunk apart and splinter it like a matchstick.
I had hoped to find some early wood anemone flowers by the river but there was nothing except some garden escape daffodils. We didn't even find a primrose. The only early flowers were patches of golden saxifrage on a bank above the path.
We planned to walk again but have been frustrated. Tim's new recliner chair was due to be delivered on Thursday morning and we thought we would go out as soon as it had arrived. But it didn't arrive until just after midday - so we were stuck in the house all morning. It was a bit like being under house arrest in the bad old "good old days" in South Africa. By the time the chair was positioned in front of the TV, the effect of Tim's morning tablets was wearing off and he felt a bit stiff so we put off the walk. There was an icy wind this morning. We went to the library and the shops but it wasn't pleasant walking around in Ramsey so we don't feel like going out again. Perhaps there will be more scope for photography next week. I do have a couple of photos which I took in the garden this week. Tim called me on Tuesday to see three goldfinches on the bird feeder. The kitchen window was too grubby to take a successful photo of them and I couldn't open it without scaring them so I went into the dining room and opened that window. Two of the goldfinches flew away but one greedy one continued eating sunflower seeds alongside a male chaffinch.
And there are plenty of wild primroses in the garden. Some have hybridised with garden primulas but these look genuine.
Not hiking . . . yet. Friday 21st March, 2014. Tim isn't feeling ready for a longer walk yet - so it has been another week without a hike. I have been doing some boring chores in the garden - mainly cutting back dead stems of Japanese anemones, weeding and cleaning old leaves out of the ditch. I wanted to get the ditch completely clear before the overhanging ferns unfurl their new fronds but my timing wasn't very good. I was only able to admire my good work for two days before the gales on Wednesday night ripped more leafy twigs off the holly trees and blew them into the ditch. Now I will have to don wellies and do the whole thing again. The ducks have been back a few times. On Thursday morning I woke early and went through to the kitchen at about five thirty. It was just starting to get light - early morning twilight - and I saw the shape of a large bird on the grass. It was the male mallard. The girl friend was pecking around in the flower bed under the bird feeder. I wasn't suitably dressed to go outside so I threw her a slice of bread. The faithful overwintering small birds have been joined by some siskins and this morning we saw a gold finch in the tree near the bird feeder. The great tits have been checking out the nest box, too. So spring is really starting in earnest. It was a lovely sunny morning - but cold because of the strong wind - and we decided to drive out to the Ayres to see how much the water had subsided since our last visit on Tuesday 4th March. We have enjoyed a dry spell recently. Yesterday was the only day of heavy rain since our last hike. The road through the nature reserve to the visitor centre was dotted with large puddles this morning which was an improvement because two weeks ago it was under a knee-deep lake. I climbed up the steps to the observation platform. The edge of the sea was still discoloured. It was more likely to be clay and soil from the crumbling cliffs, churned up by the waves, than silt washed down from the rivers.
On the inland side of the low dunes, there was no sign of the shallow lakes that covered large areas during our last visit.
We stopped on the way back from the visitor centre, so that I could take a some "comparison photos". 21st March
4th March
Then I asked Tim to stop again so that I could photograph a remaining "lake" near the road. When I got home, I realised that I was reflected in the wing mirror and had inadvertently taken my first "selfie"!
The small car park near the entrance to the Ballaghennie Ayres was still under water.
We walked along to check the condition of the top path. It looked too slushy for comfortable walking.
But we did see a rabbit.
On the way home we stopped so that I could photograph one of my favourite sights of early spring - the magnolia blossom near the cottages at Milntown. The big wooden gates into the yard were closed but there is quite a good view over the high stone wall. There is another magnolia tree in a garden further up the glen road but it flowers later, after the leaves have emerged. It is the early flowers on the bare branches that make this tree so special.
A very short walk, some gardening . . . and the ducks! Friday 14th March, 2014. The weather has been absolutely perfect for walking all week - no rain and almost no wind. But unfortunately a niggly pain in Tim's back, which has been worrying him most of the winter, got worse. So he is having an enforced rest to see whether that helps.
The plan is that we will go on shorter walks for a few weeks until Tim is ready to join Trevor and Dorothy on the weekly hikes again. So far we have only managed a few very short strolls up the glen to the top of the tarred road and I have taken advantage of the good weather to do some work in the garden. The most urgent jobs were giving the lawns their first cut of the season. The grass wasn't very long but it looked rather shaggy. The other urgent job was to deal with an old dead holly which blew over during the last gale. I was sad to lose the dead holly because it provided support for a delicate pink clematis (a self-seeded throwback from the Clematis montana rubens by the front steps) and a wild honeysuckle. I took this photo of the casualty after I had cut one "muck bucket" of the creepers off of the tree. I filled another six buckets before it had all been chopped up.
After I had manoeuvred the holly trunk off the wall and over the ditch, I trimmed the ivy on the wall and tied up the surviving stems of the creeper. It looks neater now but rather boring. I hope the clematis and honeysuckle will spread and sprawl over the wall in a year or two.
On Sunday Tim called from the kitchen and told me to look outside the window. There was a female mallard duck in the pheasant trap! The flap was open so she wasn't trapped inside. She was eating bits of fat ball that I had left there to tempt a female pheasant that has been coming into the garden rather too frequently. Her male friend was watching fondly. Tim took her some more crumbled fat ball and she gobbled most of it down with the male just standing by guarding her. He appeared to be a perfect gentleman! Then she waddled off to our little stream for a drink and they settled down on the grass to preen themselves and have a nap! Our ducks!
The male is rather handsome.
We think the ducks just wandered in from the road because we haven't been keeping the gates shut all the time. There have been a lot of mallards down by the river in recent years. I was told that they were released by the pheasant shooting syndicate. I rather like them but worry that they will become as destructive as the pheasants if we encourage them to spend time in the garden. I went out to take some photos and shoo them out of the garden before shutting the gate but they took off and flew strongly over the roof in the direction of the river.
They didn't return on Monday and I thought the visit might not be repeated. But at teatime on Tuesday the female returned on her own, and yesterday afternoon there were three ducks waiting outside the kitchen demanding to be fed. One was nervous and flew off when Tim took some food out for them. The other two repeated the behaviour that we observed during the first visit. The female ate while the male kept guard.
It would be wiser to stop feeding them - but they are very persuasive. I just hope they don't start coming in the numbers that we saw on the river last autumn!
This morning was foggy, unlike the beginning of the week when we had warm sunshine. But it felt quite warm because there was hardly a breath of wind. There were perfect reflections of the trees in the big puddle in the "donkey field". The donkeys left years ago and were replaced for a year or two by a few sheep but the field is uninhabited now.
Further along the road there was a froth of white blossom on the thicket of blackthorn across the river.
There is very little traffic on the road now the pheasant shooting season is over but we were passed by a solitary rider.
I stopped to take a photo of these daffodils in a garden. They look exactly like the true wild daffodils - less sturdy than the garden daffs, with pale outer petals and yellow trumpets. They are obviously planted but I am sure they were obtained from a supplier of native bulbs.
We have a variety of daffs in our garden. Apart from a few miniatures that I bought, they are all ones which were already in the garden when we moved here. It appears that a previous owner bought a bag of assorted daffodil bulbs - probably a supermarket special offer selection - and planted a few in the front garden and the rest in the back lawn. After trying to mow around them for a few years, Tim dug them all out and planted them in three beds - under the hawthorns, behind the kitchen, under the rowan, and in front of the fence on the south side of the garden. The most common are the bright yellow flowers - similar to those which have been planted on many road verges around the Island.
We turned back when we reached the entrance to the pheasant shooting estate. There is a public right of way from this point up to the pool at the old quarry but we will wait until Tim's back has improved a bit more before trying a longer walk.
